Price Bands/Moving Averages Terms

PRICE BANDS

Bollinger Band - plots a Bollinger Band with a width of 2 using a simple moving average of 20 periods

Donchian Channel - plots the highest high and lowest low over the past 20 periods

Envel (SMA 20 +/- 10) - plots an upper and lower band that are shifted 10% away from a simple moving average of 20 periods

MOVING AVERAGES

None - no moving average displayed

SMA - (simple moving average) A moving average that takes the average of closing prices over a certain period.

EMA - (exponential moving average) Applies percentage of today's closing price to yesterday's moving average value. This lends more weight to be placed on recent prices.

TMA - (triangular moving average) A moving average in which the middle values of the price series are weighted more than the early and late values to enhance smoothing.

WMA - (weighted moving average) a moving average that is designed to put more weight on recent data and less weight on past data.

INDICATORS

Accum/Dist - (Accumulation/Distribution) A momentum indicator that tries to gauge supply and demand by discovering if investors are buying (accumulating) or selling (distributing). This is accomplished by identifying divergences between stock price and volume flow.

Aroon Oscillator - Trend following indicator that uses values from the Aroon Up/Down indicator. Calculated by subtracting the Aroon Down from the Aroon Up. Readings above 0 indicate and uptrend movement while readings below 0 indicate a downtrend. Plotted with a period of 14.

Aroon Up/Down - Identifies trends in an underlying security and the likelihood that the trend will reverse. When the Aroon Up crosses upward through the Aroon Down, an upward trend is indicated. When the Aroon Up passes below the Aroon Down, a downward trend is indicated.

ADX - (Average Directional Index) Indicator used to determine the strengh and direction of a prevailing trend. ADX readings below 20 indicate a weak trend, while reading above 40 indicate a strong trend. Direction of trend is determined by comparing the +DI and -DI lines. When +DI is above -DI, an upward trend is present. When -DI is above +DI, a downward trend is present. Plotted with a period of 14.

ATR - (Average True Range) Measure of volatility introduced by Welles Wilder. The higher the ATR, the higher the volatility present in the underlying security. Plotted with a period of 14.

Bollinger Band Width - Indicator which takes the values from Bollinger Bands. Calculated as the difference between the upper and lower Bollinger Bands divided by the middle band. Higher band width values indicator higher volatility while lower values indicate consolidation before price movements. Plotted with a period of 20 and width of 2.

Chaikin Money Flow - A trend indicator that is calculated from the readings of the Accumulation/Distribution line. Values above 0 indicate an uptrend while values below 0 indicate a downtrend. Plotted with a period of 21.

Chaikin Oscillator - An oscillator that is created by subtracting a 10-day exponential moving average from a 3-day exponential moving average of the Accumulation/Distribution line.

Chaikin Volatility - A measure of volatility that is measured from the trading range between the highs and lows for each period. This indicator does not take trading gaps into consideration as the ATR does. Sharp spikes in volatility occur prior to market tops and bottoms. Plotted with a period of 10.

Close Location Value - Oscillator that tries to spot the tendency in the price move of the underlying security. Uses the location of the Closing price in relation to the Low and High for the same period.

CCI - (Commodity Channel Index) Overbought/Oversold indicator. Quantifies the relationship between the underlying securities price, a moving average of the price, and the normal deviations from that average. Values below -100 indicate an oversold condition while values above 100 indicate an overbought condition. Plotted with a period of 20.

DPO - (Detrended Price Oscillator) Trend indicator that compares the closing price to a prior moving average, eliminating cycles longer than the moving average. Plotted with a period of 20.

Donchian Channel Width - Indicator which displays the width of the Donchian Channels. Plotted with a period of 20.

Ease of Movement - Indicator used to illustrate the relationship between the rate of the underlying's price change and its volume. Attempts to identify the amount of volume required to move prices. Greater than zero values indicate accumulation and values less zero indicate selling pressure. High positive values appear when prices move upward on low volume. Low negative values appear when prices move downward on low volume. Plotted with an exponential moving average period of 9.

Fast Stochastic - Momentum indicator that shows the location of the current close relative to the high/low range over a set number of periods. %D is a moving average of the %K line. Values where %K is greater than %D indicate an upward movement. Values where %K is less than %D indicate a downward movement. Plotted with a %K period of 14 and %D period of 3.

MACD - (Moving Average Convergence/Divergence) Oscillator based on two exponential moving averages of the underlying's price. The MACD line is calculated as the difference between the two moving averages. The signal line is a smoothed average of the standard MACD line. Plotted with a MACD moving average periods of 26 and 10 with a signal period of 9.

Mass Index - Indicator that attempts to predict reversals by comparing the high minus low trading range for each period. Reversals are signaled by a bulge in the index line.

Momentum - An oscillator that measures the rate of price change. Calculated by taking the price differences for a specified period. Plotted with a period of 12.

Money Flow Index - A momentum indicator that measures the strength of money in and out of an underlying security. Combines positive and negative volume with the RSI calculation. MFI is the percentage of the total money flow that is up.

Negative Volume Index - Indicator that makes the assumption that smart money dominates trading on quiet days and that the uninformed crowd dominates trading on active days. Focuses on days where the volume has significantly decreased from the previous day's trading. Plotted with a simple moving average period of 255.

On Balance Volume - Used to detect momentum by performing a calculation which relates volume to price change. Provides a running total of volume and shows whether this volume is running in or out of the underlying security. Attempts to detect when a security is being accumulated by a large number of buyers or sold by many sellers.

% Price Oscillator - *See MACD definition. The main difference between the PPO and the MACD is that the MACD reports the simple difference between the exponential moving averages, whereas the PPO calculates this difference as a percentage. This allows comparisons to more easily be performed between securities with different prices. Plotted with a MACD moving average periods of 26 and 10 with a signal period of 9.

% Volume Oscillator - Similar to MACD and PPO except instead of the values being calculated off of the share price, they are calculated off two moving averages of an underlying's volume. Rising values generally indicate increasing volume while declining values generally indicate declining volume. Plotted with a MACD moving average periods of 26 and 10 with a signal period of 9.

Price Volume Trend - Variation of the On Balance Volume indicator. Used to determine the strength of trends and warn of reversals. Consists of a cumulative volume line that adds or subtracts a multiple of percentage change in share price trend and current volume.

ROC - (Rate of Change) Momentum indicator that measures the percentage change between the most recent price and the price "n" periods in the past. Plotted with a period of 12.

RSI - (Relative Strength Index) Measures the shares price relative to itself and recent history. Calculated as the average of the prices for days where the price rose divided by the average of the prices for the days where the price fell. Used to determine overbought and oversold conditions. Plotted with a period of 14.

Slow Stochastic - Momentum indicator that shows the location of the current close relative to the high/low range over a set number of periods. %D is a moving average of the %K line. Values where %K is greater than %D indicate an upward movement. Values where %K is less than %D indicate a downward movement. Plotted with a %K period of 14 and %D period of 3.

StochRSI - Oscillator used to identify overbought and oversold readings in the RSI. Because RSI can go for extended periods without becoming overbought (above 70) or oversold (below 30), StochRSI provides another method for identifying these extremes. Plotted with a period of 14.

TRIX - Momentum indicator that shows the percent rate of change of a triple exponentially smoothed moving average. Plotted with a period of 12.

Ultimate Oscillator - Oscillator that attempts to combine information from several different time periods into one number. Uses a weighted average of the three time periods to reduce volatility and false signals that are associated with other indicators that only use one single time period. Plotted with the periods of 7, 14, and 28.

William's %R - Momentum indicator that measures overbought and oversold conditions. Compares an underlying securities closing price to the high-low range over a certain period of time.