Indicator catalogue
What each built-in indicator measures, how traders read it, and exactly how Cloud9Trader computes it.
Every page has the indicator’s formula as the code computes it, its settings and what an algorithm gets back, a chart drawn by running the indicator’s own source over example prices, and a short algorithm that uses it. Where the code differs from the standard formula, the page says so and links the bug.
No indicator predicts the price. Each one describes what the price has already done, in a form that is easier to test. Indicators explained covers what they can and cannot tell you. For the call forms in one table, see the Indicator SDK.
Smooth the price, or show which way it has been going and how strongly.
- Aroon: How recently the window’s highest high and lowest low happened, as two lines from 0 to 100.
aroon - Aroon Oscillator: Aroon Up minus Aroon Down: one line from −100 to 100 for the strength of a trend.
aroonOscillator - Average Directional Index: Wilder’s measure of how strongly the market is trending, with +DI and −DI for which way.
adx - Camarilla Pivot Points: Four support and four resistance levels set close around the previous day’s close, for trading the day’s range.
camarillaPivot - Daily Pivot Points: Support and resistance levels for the day, worked out from the previous day’s high, low and close.
dailyPivot - Detrended Price Oscillator (DPO): The close from half a window ago minus the moving average, to show cycles with the trend taken out.
dpo - Double Exponential Moving Average (DEMA): Twice an EMA minus the EMA of that EMA: a moving average with much of the EMA’s lag taken out.
dema - EMA Envelope: Bands a fixed percentage above and below an exponential moving average.
emaEnvelope - Exponential Moving Average (EMA): A moving average that weights recent closes more, so it turns sooner than a simple average of the same length.
ema - Fibonacci Pivot Points: Support and resistance for the day at Fibonacci fractions of the previous day’s range around the pivot.
fibonacciPivot - Hull Moving Average (HMA): A smooth, quick moving average built from weighted moving averages over half, all and the square root of its period.
hullMa - Ichimoku Cloud: Five lines and a shaded cloud that together show trend, momentum and support at a glance.
ichimokuCloud - Linear Regression: The end point of the straight line that best fits the recent closes: a moving average with no lag in a steady trend.
linearRegression - Parabolic SAR: Wilder’s stop-and-reverse: a trailing stop that speeds up as a trend extends and flips sides when price reaches it.
parabolicSar - Simple Moving Average (SMA): The average close over a number of bars: the plainest way to smooth the price and see its direction.
sma - SMA Envelope: Bands a fixed percentage above and below a simple moving average.
smaEnvelope - Smoothed Moving Average (SMMA): Wilder’s moving average: an exponential average that gives the newest close a weight of one over the period.
smma - Supertrend: A trailing band a multiple of the Average True Range from the bar’s midpoint, which flips sides when price closes through it.
supertrend - Triple Exponential Moving Average (TEMA): A moving average built from three nested EMAs so that it keeps up with a steady trend.
tema - Volume Weighted Moving Average (VWMA): A moving average of closes in which each bar counts in proportion to its volume.
vwma - Vortex Indicator: Two lines comparing upward and downward movement between bars, to spot the start of a trend.
vtx - Weighted Moving Average (WMA): A moving average with linearly falling weights: the newest bar counts most.
wma - Woodie’s Pivot Points: A pivot that counts the previous day’s close twice, with two support and two resistance levels.
woodiePivot
Momentum
Section titled “Momentum”How fast the price is moving, and whether that pace is building or fading.
- Awesome Oscillator (AO): Bill Williams’ momentum measure: a fast average of each bar’s midpoint less a slow one, in pips, drawn as columns.
awesomeOscillator - Center of Gravity Oscillator (COG): A weighted sum of recent closes, meant to turn early at swing points, with an optional signal line.
cog - Chande Momentum Oscillator (CMO): The balance of up and down moves over a window, from −100 to +100, with an optional signal line.
cmo - Commodity Channel Index (CCI): How far the typical price is from its average, in units of its usual deviation, with lines at +100 and −100.
cci - Coppock Curve: A weighted moving average of rates of change, built to spot the turn after a long fall.
coppock - Elder Bull/Bear Power: How far the high and the low are from an exponential moving average: the strength of buyers and sellers, as two sets of columns.
elderBBPower - Fisher Transform: The midpoint’s place in its recent range, stretched so turning points stand out, with the previous value as a signal line.
fisherTransform - Know Sure Thing (KST): A weighted sum of four smoothed rates of change over increasing windows, with an optional signal line.
kst - MACD: The gap between a fast and a slow exponential moving average, in pips, with a signal line and histogram.
macd - MACD Histogram: The MACD histogram on its own: MACD minus its signal line, in pips, drawn as columns.
macdHistogram - Momentum: How far the close has moved over a number of bars, in pips.
momentum - Percentage Price Oscillator (PPO): MACD as a percentage of the slow average, so it compares across instruments and prices, with a signal line and histogram.
ppo - Pretty Good Oscillator (PGO): How far the close is from its average, measured in average true ranges.
pgo - Price Momentum Oscillator (PMO): A double-smoothed one-bar rate of change, with an optional signal line.
pmo - QStick: The average size of the bars’ bodies, close minus open, in pips: whether recent bars have mostly closed up or down.
qStick - Rate of Change (ROC): The percentage change in the close over a number of bars.
roc - Relative Strength Index (RSI): Average gains against average losses over a window, as a number from 0 to 100: the best-known overbought and oversold gauge.
rsi - Stochastic Oscillator: Where the close sits within the recent range, from 0 to 100, with a moving average of it as a signal line.
stochasticOscillator - StochRSI: The Stochastic Oscillator applied to RSI: where RSI sits within its own recent range, from 0 to 1.
stochRsi - TRIX: The percentage change of a triple-smoothed exponential moving average, with an optional signal line.
trix - True Strength Index (TSI): Double-smoothed price change against double-smoothed absolute change, from −100 to +100, with an optional signal line.
tsi - Ultimate Oscillator: Buying pressure against true range over three windows, weighted 4:2:1, from 0 to 100.
uo - Williams %R: Where the close sits within the recent range, from −100 at the bottom to 0 at the top.
williamsR
Volatility
Section titled “Volatility”How far the price is moving, and the bands and stops built from that range.
- Average True Range (ATR): The average size of a bar, including gaps from the previous close: the standard measure of how much a market moves.
atr - Bollinger %B: Where the close sits within the Bollinger Bands, as a number.
bollingerB - Bollinger Bands: A moving average with bands a number of standard deviations either side, which widen and narrow with volatility.
bollinger - Bollinger Bandwidth: The width of the Bollinger Bands as a percentage of the moving average.
bollingerBandwidth - Chandelier Exit: Trailing stop levels hung a multiple of the Average True Range from the recent high or low.
chandelierExit - Gopalakrishnan Range Index (GAPO): The logarithm of the range of a window, scaled by its length, as a measure of how erratic a market is.
gapo - Historical Volatility (HV): The annualised standard deviation of returns, in percent: how much the price has actually been moving.
historicalVolatility - Keltner Channels: An exponential moving average with bands set a multiple of the Average True Range either side.
keltnerChannels - Mass Index: A measure of how much bar ranges are widening, used to spot reversals.
massIndex - Price Channels: The highest high and lowest low over a window, with the midpoint between them.
priceChannels - Standard Deviation (Volatility): How spread out the recent closes are, in pips.
standardDeviation
Volume
Section titled “Volume”How much is trading, and whether volume is with or against the move.
- Accumulation/Distribution Line (ADL): A running total of volume, weighted by where each bar closes within its range.
adl - Chaikin Money Flow (CMF): Accumulation and distribution over a window: money flow volume against total volume.
cmf - Chaikin Oscillator: A fast EMA of the Accumulation Distribution Line less a slow one: whether buying or selling pressure is building.
chaikinOscillator - Ease of Movement (EMV): How far the price moves for each unit of volume, averaged over a window.
emv - Force Index: The price change times the volume, smoothed with an exponential moving average.
forceIndex - Money Flow Index (MFI): An RSI weighted by volume: the share of recent money flow on up bars, from 0 to 100.
mfi - On Balance Volume (OBV): A running total that adds the volume of up closes and subtracts the volume of down closes.
obv - Percentage Volume Oscillator (PVO): The Percentage Price Oscillator applied to volume: a fast average of volume against a slow one.
pvo - Volume: The volume of each bar, drawn as columns below the price.
volume - VWAP: The volume-weighted average price of the day so far, reset at 00:00 UTC.
vwap
How to read the pages
Section titled “How to read the pages”- Settings and output come from the indicator’s code: the chart dialogue’s defaults, the order of the values an algorithm gets, and how much history it asks for.
- Charts use made-up hourly prices, the same on every page, so you can compare indicators with one another.
- Warm-up is how many bars an indicator needs before it has a value. Cloud9Trader loads them before your start date, so in a backtest the indicator has a value from the first bar.