Rate of Change (ROC)

How much the price has changed, in percent, over the last few bars.

What it measures

ROC compares the close with the close periods bars ago. It is positive when the price is higher than it was, and its size shows how fast it has moved.

How traders read it

Traders use a cross of zero as a change of direction, and extreme readings, judged against the instrument’s own history, as a stretched move.

Formula

ROC = (close − close periods bars ago) / close periods bars ago × 100

Settings and output

Call: roc(periods)

Setting	Chart default
`periods`: Periods	12

What you get: a number.

Warm-up: with roc(12), it asks for 13 bars of history and a run-up of 1, and its first value came on bar 14 of the example data.

Chart

Rate of Change (ROC) drawn by its own code on example prices

The prices are made up, hourly, and the same on every page, so the chart shows how the indicator behaves, not how a market behaved.

In an algorithm

function onIntervalClose() {
  if (OPEN_POSITIONS_COUNT === 0 && roc(12) > 0.2 && CLOSE > sma(50)) {
    openPosition("BUY", { quantity: 10000, stopLossPips: 25, takeProfitPips: 50 });
  }
}