There are so many indicators available in technical charting that it is often difficult to know which to use. But there’s little to stop a day trader from simply fixing the period of time to fit with the fifteen minute, five minute or maybe the one minute chart. The stochastic indicator is then just as helpful for a stock trader as it might be for a trader following long-term trends.

Stochastics measure the difference between the last final price and the price movement over a certain prior number of time periods. You can adjust the amount of time periods in your technical charting according to your system, but fourteen is the number typically used.