The best indicator for USD/BRL
We backtested 366 indicators across daily, weekly and hourly charts on real USD/BRL history. Here's what actually worked — risk-adjusted, out-of-sample, with costs.
Fisher Transform
On the daily chart, this is the strongest risk-adjusted edge we found for USD/BRL over ~21.5 years — beating buy-and-hold by 8.1% CAGR.
Best multi-indicator combo
Going long only when all 2 agree was the strongest confluence setup we found for USD/BRL — beating buy-and-hold by 7.0% CAGR, out-of-sample. Fewer, higher-conviction trades than any single indicator.
The winner on each chart
Every indicator, ranked
Ranked by Sharpe (risk-adjusted return). Hypothetical, fees included.
| # | Indicator | TF | CAGR | Sharpe | Max DD | Win | Trades | vs B&H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fisher Transform ✓ | Daily | 10.8% | 0.86 | -43.2% | 37.8% | 572 | 8.1% |
| 2 | Parabolic SAR (fast) ✓ | Daily | 10.0% | 0.81 | -46.9% | 40.2% | 428 | 7.3% |
| 3 | DMI Direction ✓ | Daily | 10.2% | 0.76 | -43.6% | 31.5% | 260 | 7.6% |
| 4 | Random Walk Index ✓ | Daily | 8.9% | 0.69 | -29.9% | 36.3% | 292 | 6.2% |
| 5 | Random Walk Index ✓ | Daily | 8.9% | 0.69 | -29.9% | 36.3% | 292 | 6.2% |
| 6 | Vortex ✓ | Daily | 8.7% | 0.68 | -30.3% | 35.8% | 296 | 6.0% |
| 7 | DeMarker (14) ✓ | Daily | 8.6% | 0.67 | -41.0% | 37.2% | 266 | 5.9% |
| 8 | ADX Strong Trend ✓ | Daily | 6.3% | 0.64 | -16.5% | 44.3% | 70 | 3.6% |
| 9 | Aroon ✓ | Daily | 7.8% | 0.62 | -23.3% | 35.5% | 186 | 5.1% |
| 10 | Aroon Oscillator ✓ | Daily | 7.8% | 0.62 | -23.3% | 35.5% | 186 | 5.1% |
| 11 | DeMarker (7) ✓ | Daily | 7.9% | 0.62 | -46.8% | 35.4% | 396 | 5.2% |
| 12 | Impulse MACD ✓ | Daily | 5.7% | 0.59 | -27.1% | 34.4% | 276 | 3.0% |
| 13 | ADXR ✓ | Daily | 6.2% | 0.57 | -29.1% | 36.9% | 122 | 3.5% |
| 14 | Pivot Points (Standard) | Daily | 5.2% | 0.57 | -26.3% | 44.2% | 810 | 2.5% |
✓ = held up out-of-sample. Hypothetical, costs included. See methodology.
For USD/BRL, Fisher Transform on the daily timeframe gave the best balance of return and risk in our test. It beat buy-and-hold — but remember: this is a hypothetical backtest of a standard rule, not a recommendation. Markets change. See the methodology and disclaimer.
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