Technical Indicators and Overlays

Technical Indicators are the often squiggly lines found above, below and on-top-of the price information on a technical chart. Indicators that use the same scale as prices are typically plotted on top of the price bars and are therefore referred to as “Overlays”.

If you are new to stock charting and the use of technical indicators, the following article will help you get going:

• Introduction to Technical Indicators and Oscillators – An in-depth introduction to the various kinds of technical indicators and oscillators out there. A “must read” article for StockCharts users.

• Anchored VWAP A version of the VWAP overlay where the chartist defines the starting point for overlay calculations.
• Bollinger Bands A chart overlay that shows the upper and lower limits of 'normal' price movements based on the Standard Deviation of prices.
• Chandelier Exit An indicator that can be used to set trailing stop-losses for both long and short positions.
• Double Exponential Moving Average (DEMA) A faster moving average calculation that offsets values in order to reduce the traditional lag found in moving averages.
• Hull Moving Average (HMA) - A very responsive moving average calculation that weights recent prices more heavily than those earlier in the period.
• Ichimoku Cloud A comprehensive indicator that defines support and resistance, identifies trend direction, gauges momentum and provides trading signals.
• Kaufman's Adaptive Moving Average (KAMA) A unique moving average that accounts for volatility and automatically adjusts to price behavior.
• Keltner Channels A chart overlay that shows upper and lower limits for price movements based on the Average True Range of prices.
• Moving Averages Chart overlays that show the 'average' value over time. Both Simple Moving Averages (SMAs) and Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) are explained.
• Moving Average Ribbon A quick way to plot several moving averages with different look-back periods on a chart at once.
• Moving Average Envelopes A chart overlay consisting of a channel formed from simple moving averages.
• Parabolic SAR A chart overlay that shows reversal points below prices in an uptrend and above prices in a downtrend.
• Pivot Points A chart overlay that shows reversal points below prices in an uptrend and above prices in a downtrend.
• Price Channels A chart overlay that shows a channel made from the highest high and lowest low for a given period of time.
• Triple Exponential Moving Average (TEMA) A more responsive moving average indicator which significantly reduces the lag present in traditional moving average calculations.
• Volume By Price A chart overlay with a horizontal histogram showing the amount of activity at various price levels.
• Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP) An intraday indicator based on total dollar value of all trades for the current day divided by the total trading volume for the current day.
• ZigZag A chart overlay that shows filtered price movements that are greater than a given percentage.

• Accumulation/Distribution Line Combines price and volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock.
• Aroon Uses Aroon Up and Aroon Down to determine whether a stock is trending or not.
• Aroon Oscillator Measures the difference between Aroon Up and Aroon Down.
• Average Directional Index (ADX) Shows whether a stock is trending or oscillating.
• Average True Range (ATR) and Average True Range Percent (ATRP) Measures a stock's volatility.
• Balance of Power (BOP) Measures buying and selling pressure to determine which side is in greater control and driving price action.
• Bollinger BandWidth Shows the percentage difference between the upper and lower Bollinger Band.
• %B Indicator Shows the relationship between price and standard deviation Bollinger Bands.
• Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) Combines price and volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock Alternative to Accumulation/Distribution Line.
• Chaikin Oscillator Combines price and volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock. Based on Accumulation/Distribution Line.
• Chande Trend Meter (CTM) Scores the strength of a stock's trend, based on several technical indicators over six different timeframes.
• CMB Composite Index An unbound momentum oscillator that attempts to improve on some of the shortcomings of traditional RSI.
• Commodity Channel Index (CCI) Shows a stock's variation from its “typical” price.
• ConnorsRSI A momentum oscillator created from the composite of RSI, ROC, and Up/Down Length, designed for shorter-term trades.
• Coppock Curve An oscillator that uses rate-of-change and a weighted moving average to measure momentum.
• Correlation Coefficient Shows the degree of correlation between two securities over a given timeframe.
• DecisionPoint Price Momentum Oscillator (PMO) An advanced momentum indicator that tracks a stock's rate of change.
• Detrended Price Oscillator (DPO) A price oscillator that uses a displaced moving average to identify cycles.
• Distance From Highs Shows how far a security is trading from its 3, 6, 9, or 12-month highs, expressed as a percentage.
• Distance From Lows Shows how far a security is trading from its 3, 6, 9, or 12-month lows, expressed as a percentage.
• Distance To Highs Shows the percentage move necessary for a security to reach a 3, 6, 9, or 12-month high.
• Distance To Lows Shows the percentage move necessary for a security to reach a 3, 6, 9, or 12-month low.
• Distance From Moving Average Shows the percentage difference between price and a moving average of your choice.
• Ease of Movement (EMV) An indicator that compares volume and price to identify significant moves.
• Force Index A simple price-and-volume oscillator.
• Highest High Value Shows a security's highest trading value in the span of a specific period.
• Lowest Low Value Shows a security's lowest trading value within a specific period.
• Mass Index An indicator that identifies reversals when the price range widens.
• MACD (Moving Average Convergence/Divergence Oscillator) A momentum oscillator based on the difference between two EMAs.
• MACD-Histogram A momentum oscillator that shows the difference between MACD and its signal line.
• MACD-V A volatility-normalized MACD that can analyze trends.
• MACD-V Histogram A momentum oscillator that indicates if a trend is positive or negative in absolute terms.
• Money Flow Index (MFI) A volume-weighted version of RSI that shows shifts is buying and selling pressure.
• Negative Volume Index (NVI) A cumulative volume-based indicator used to identify trend reversals.
• On Balance Volume (OBV) Combines price and volume in a very simple way to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock.
• Percentage Price Oscillator (PPO) A percentage-based version of the MACD indicator.
• Percentage Volume Oscillator (PVO) The PPO indicator applied to volume instead of price.
• Price Relative / Relative Strength Technical indicator that compares the performance of two stocks to each other by dividing their price data.
• Pring's Know Sure Thing (KST) A momentum oscillator from Martin Pring based on the smoothed rate-of-change for four different timeframes.
• Pring's Special K A momentum indicator from Martin Pring that combines short-term, intermediate and long-term velocity.
• Rate of Change (ROC) and Momentum Shows the speed at which a stock's price is changing.
• Relative Strength Index (RSI) Shows how strongly a stock is moving in its current direction.
• Relative Volume (RVOL) A set of indicators/overlays that compare current volume to the average, in order to identify conditions where unusually high or low volume is powering a price move.
• RRG Relative Strength Uses RS-Ratio to measure relative performance and RS-Momentum to measure the momentum of relative performance.
• StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR) Our relative ranking system based on a stock's technical strength.
• Slope Measures the rise-over-run for a linear regression.
• Standard Deviation (Volatility) A statistical measure of a stock's volatility.
• Stochastic Oscillator (Fast, Slow, and Full) Shows how a stock's price is doing relative to past movements. Fast, Slow and Full Stochastics are explained.
• StochRSI Combines Stochastics with the RSI indicator to help you see RSI changes more clearly.
• Traffic Light Shows bullish (green), bearish (red), and neutral (yellow) zones on a chart using parameters you set.
• TRIX A triple-smoothed moving average of price movements.
• True Strength Index An indicator that measures trend direction and identifies overbought/oversold levels.
• TTM Squeeze A volatility indicator used to identify periods of consolidation and determine the likely direction of the resulting move.
• Ulcer Index An indicator designed to measure market risk or volatility.
• Ultimate Oscillator Combines long-term, mid-term and short-term moving averages into one number.
• Vortex Indicator An indicator designed to identify the start of a new trend and define the current trend.
• Williams %R Uses Stochastics to determine overbought and oversold levels.

We also have a large collection of Market Indicators documented on this page.