Confluence is the term I use in trading to refer to a form of price action evidence or multiple forms of price action evidence suggesting the same trade bias. This is important for a trader to understand because when a valid trade setup has multiple confluences it can increase the probability and profitability of that setup.
Let me breakdown in this post what I consider the most important confluences in trading and optional confluences.
Important Trading Confluences:
Structure Area / Important Zone
Candlestick Pattern
Risk to Reward Evaluation
Structure Retest Pattern
Trend Evidence
Fibonacci Retracement
Trendline
Channel
Round Number
Correlation
Be aware that with above confluences that structure, candlestick patterns and risk to reward evaluation are the most important.
Optional Trading Confluences:
Stochastic
Bollinger Bands
RSI
Moving Averages
Other Indicators
If considering using an optional indicator such as a stochastic or similar as an extra confluence then what I suggest is using only one. A trader does not need to use an optional indicator at all, most of them lag which means that they can have a negative impact on a traders trading.