What is ADX (Average Directional Index)?
ADX (Average Directional Index) measures trend strength on a 0–100 scale — not direction. Readings below ~20 suggest a choppy, directionless market; above ~25 suggests a real trend is underway.
ADX answers the one question every breakout trader needs answered before entering: is this market actually going somewhere, or just flailing? A breakout with ADX at 12 is statistically a coin-flip fake-out; the same breakout with ADX at 30 has a trend behind it.
That's why trend-following scanners use ADX as a gate: no trend strength, no trade, regardless of how clean the breakout looks. It's the filter that keeps a breakout strategy out of the sideways chop that would otherwise bleed it dry.
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