Oscillators

Relative Strength Index

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is a well versed momentum based oscillator which is used to measure the speed (velocity) as well as the change (magnitude) of directional price movements. Essentially the RSI, when graphed, provides a visual mean to monitor both the current, as well as historical, strength and weakness of a particular market. The strength or weakness is based on closing prices over the duration of a specified trading period creating a reliable metric of price and momentum changes. Given the popularity of cash settled instruments (stock indexes) and leveraged financial products (the entire field of derivatives); RSI has proven to be a viable indicator of price movements.

Moving Averagess

Exponential Moving Average (EMA)

Moving averages visualize the average price of a financial instrument over a specified period of time. However, there are a few different types of moving averages. They typically differ in the way that different data points are weighted or given significance. An Exponential Moving Average (EMA) is very similar to (and is a type of) a weighted moving average. The major difference with the EMA is that old data points never leave the average. To clarify, old data points retain a multiplier (albeit declining to almost nothing) even if they are outside of the selected data series length.