Control 3 of 6 · against randomly drawn dates

Dynamic Momentum Index (14/5/10, 30/70)

A fixed-period oscillator always measures the same number of days, whether the market is still or convulsing — and so it arrives late when volatility spikes and fidgets for nothing when volatility falls. Swinging the number of calculation days around a pivot period, according to how current volatility compares with its own recent average, means the overbought and oversold reading is taken over the horizon the moment calls for. And the same mechanism serves to change the period of any technique.

Parabolic Time/Price (0.02–0.2)

Time is the trade's enemy: once in, it must keep making money or it is liquidated. Making the liquidation point accelerate towards price as the profit grows cuts the lag intrinsic to any trend system without giving back what has already been earned — in short, consistent trends the level converges on price and extracts excellent profits. And the starting point is not a computer-generated number: it is the real extreme of the previous move.

Bollinger Bands (10/2σ)

Price spends 95% of the time inside the bands, so touching them means being statistically cheap or dear. The band adjusts itself to volatility — widening in an agitated market and narrowing in a calm one — which avoids the false signal a fixed threshold gives when volatility changes.

Bollinger Bands (20/2σ)

Bollinger Bands (20/2σ)

Bollinger Bands (50/2σ)

Moon phases (15-day window around the new moon)

Returns in the 15 days around the new moon are about double those in the 15 days around the full moon (Dichev & Janes, 2003), a difference on the order of 9.44% a year, present across all major US indices over roughly 100 years and in almost every index of 24 other countries.

RSI oversold/overbought (14/30/70)

What has fallen too far tends to come back and what has risen too far tends to correct: entering as price leaves each extreme captures the reversal from the start. It works above all in a sideways market, where price spends most of its time.

Regular divergence (rsi 14, by peaks)

When price makes a new extreme and the indicator does not follow, the strength behind the move is spent and the reversal is near.

Stochastic 14/3 (20/80)

A close at the extreme of the range shows exhaustion, and the crossing of the two lines confirms the turn — which avoids the RSI's mistake of signalling too early.

Resistance at the 34th-day price (13% filter)

The numbers in the series mark not only a move's duration but its prices. In a long advance, the price on the 34th day stops being just another point along the way and becomes the level where the correction stops — and buying there is buying at the support the move itself built.

Broadening bottom

The same volatility expansion, resolved upwards.

Broadening wedge, ascending

The two lines rise while spreading apart: an unstable advance that ends in a decline.

Broadening wedge, descending

The two lines fall while spreading apart: an unstable decline that ends in an advance.

Cup with handle

The wide bowl shows accumulation, and the handle is the last test before the advance.

Descending scallop

The cup-and-handle in a downtrend is a pause, not a reversal.

Diamond bottom

The same expansion and compression at the bottom, resolving upwards.

Double bottom, both bottoms wide

Two bowls at the same level: slow, drawn-out accumulation.

Falling wedge

A decline that loses range is a decline without conviction: it breaks upwards.

INCONCLUSIVE

Head and shoulders (and inverted)

Three peaks with the middle one highest mark the exhaustion of the trend; breaking the neckline confirms the reversal.

Inverted ascending scallop

The mirrored variant of the cup-and-handle in an uptrend.

Rectangle bottom

The consolidation after the decline is accumulation: the breakout is upwards.

Rising wedge

An advance that loses range is an advance without conviction: it breaks downwards.

Rounding bottom

A slow turn without panic is institutional accumulation, and it sustains the advance.

INCONCLUSIVE

Triple top / Triple bottom

Three failures at the same level are proof that the dominant side has run out of strength.

2-day RSI (14/10/90)

A very short-period oscillator captures the shortest-term excess: when price stretches to an extreme over two days, it snaps back. Entering on the close after the extreme and leaving one day later captures the give-back without staying exposed to whatever follows it — and the quick exit is the protection, because the indicator can sit at an extreme for a long time.

A/D Oscillator (0.30/30/70, tied to the previous close)

Where the market opens and where it closes, within the day's range, reveals the implied direction of that session's trading: opening at the low and closing at the high is buying; the reverse is selling. Because each day is measured against its own range, the index needs no recalibration when price or volatility shift levels — it solves on its own the problem that defeats fixed-scale indicators.

Cambridge Hook (14/60/40)

When the trend is mature, the oscillator is stretched and volume is rising, a day that extends the high and closes below the previous day is not an ordinary day: it is the mark of the buyers having stopped buying. The three conditions coinciding in one session point to an imminent reversal, with risk defined just above that day's high.

Chande Momentum Oscillator (14/-40/40)

The smoothing that makes the RSI stable also swallows part of the move and leaves the indicator rarely reaching the extremes. Summing raw gains and losses, without smoothing, gives that move back: the oscillator shows more extremes, and so marks more clearly the points where price has stretched far enough to snap back.

Divergence Index (10/40/1.0, simple deviation)

The distance between two moving averages measures how far price has strayed from its own equilibrium, but that distance means different things in calm and in agitated markets. Dividing it by volatility and comparing it against bands that also adjust yields a departure that is comparable over time — and an extreme departure against the trend is a chance to enter with the trend, not a reversal signal.

Divergence Index (10/40/1.0, simple deviation)

Divergence Index (10/40/1.0, squared deviation)

Divergence Index (10/40/1.0, squared deviation)

Double-smoothed stochastic (14/3/3, 20/80)

Smoothing the numerator and the denominator separately, before dividing, produces a far cleaner oscillator than the plain stochastic without losing the information about where the close sits in the range. The noise that makes the raw stochastic jump between extremes on every price turn disappears, and what remains is the move that matters.

Double-smoothed stochastic (14/3/3, 20/80)

Momentum divergence (12/26/9, by slope of the lines)

Momentum is a leading indicator: when price makes a new high but momentum does not follow, the advance is losing strength, and price tends to follow momentum's direction rather than its own. The wider the divergence, the likelier the turn — and the longer the period over which it forms, the larger the reversal it announces.

Momentum divergence (12/26/9, by slope of the lines)

Money Flow Index (14/30/70)

The RSI treats every day as equal, and they are not: an advance with a lot of money behind it is worth more than an advance in a vacuum. Weighting each day by the money that flowed through it — typical price times volume — makes the same overbought and oversold reading reflect where money actually came in and went out, and not merely which way price moved.

Oscillator with ADX filter (10/50, ADX<30)

A two-average oscillator times price swings well when the market goes nowhere, and takes a beating when a trend exists, because it then keeps selling the rally and buying the dip. Measuring trend strength with an index that ignores direction lets you trade the oscillator only in the periods where it works and stand aside in the others — without ever having to predict which way the trend will go.

RSI on the moving-average spread (5/50/200, 30/70)

The distance between a short and a long moving average is already what decides the trend, but it is read as a signal only when it changes sides — which happens late. Measuring the momentum of that distance with an oscillator shows it losing strength before the crossover, and the entry happens while price is still favourable, not after.

Relative Vigor Index (10)

The relation between the close and the open, within the day's range, carries the vigour of the move — but raw, it is dominated by the two-bar oscillation, which is pure noise. Filtering out exactly that frequency, with a weighting designed for it, leaves a very smooth oscillator that still responds to what matters, and whose change of direction is itself a signal.

Relative Vigor Index (10)

Speed and acceleration (10)

The first difference removes the level and leaves speed; the second removes speed and leaves acceleration — each step reveals a more sensitive component of the move. A price that rises is one thing; a price that rises ever faster is another, and it is the second that confirms the strength of the move under way.

StochRSI (14/14/20/80)

Any indicator can be turned into a stochastic without adding lag, simply by putting its own value where price would go. Applied to the RSI, this fixes the RSI spending long stretches without touching the classic thresholds: instead of asking whether it is high in absolute terms, you ask whether it is high relative to where it has itself been.

True Strength Index (20/20/3)

Using the price change as a proxy for price advances the move before it is smoothed. That allows heavy smoothing — enough to remove the noise that makes an ordinary momentum indicator give the wrong signal — while keeping much of the sensitivity, because the lag the smoothing introduces was paid for in advance by the differencing.

2-period RSI below 25 with exit at the high of the last 2 candles

A very short-term RSI falling to an extreme marks the exhaustion of selling, and the bounce that follows returns price to its recent high — short trades, with a target that comes closer on its own while price fails to react.

9-period EMA turn (ride the average)

The average's slope says when the move began and when it ended, delivering the ride of the entire upward leg with initial risk capped at the low of the candle that started it.

Return inside the Bollinger Bands (20/2) — lower band

A close outside the lower band followed by a close back inside marks the exhaustion of the decline, and price returns to the middle average — capturing that return with risk capped at the low of the turning candle.

Colby's 2-day rules (literal exit, with precedence)

Shortening the directional movement calculation to two days, and accepting as a buy signal both a positive directional reading and a rising average index, turns a filter indicator into a complete system — one that stays profitable for decades and returns more than buying and holding.

BOS/CHoCH cascade with fair value gap entry (at the gap edge)

The false breakout is where big money collects liquidity by taking out retail stops; the change of character confirms the turn; and the fair value gap is the price the market has to come back to. Entering there gives precision entries with a high reward-to-risk ratio.

Harmonic Gartley (no ratios — zigzag only)

Harmonic patterns have a higher win rate than the classic patterns, they give very precise entry conditions and a high reward-to-risk ratio. They work because Fibonacci retracements are used by many traders, and that visibility makes the reactions likelier.

Harmonic Gartley (ratios, 15% tolerance)

Dragonfly doji

The decline rejected outright inside the candle: a bottom is in.

Engulfing

One side took control of the fight in a single stroke — the most reliable reversal pattern in price action.

Gravestone doji

The advance rejected outright inside the candle: a top is in.

Hammer / Hanging man

The long lower shadow shows sellers pushed the price down and were rejected: the reversal has begun.

Harami

The small candle inside the previous one shows the move has run out of breath and is about to turn.

Harami

The small candle inside the previous one shows the move has run out of breath and is about to turn.

Inverted hammer / Shooting star

The long upper shadow shows buying rejected at the top — the move is exhausted.

Morning / Evening doji star

The star with a doji in the middle is the stronger version of the three-candle reversal.

Morning / Evening star

Large body, pause, reversal: the three acts of a trend turn.

Morning / Evening star

Large body, pause, reversal: the three acts of a trend turn.

On neck

A bounce that dies at the previous low shows the decline continues.

Piercing line / Dark cloud cover

Closing beyond the midpoint of the previous body shows strength really has changed sides.

Stick sandwich

Two identical closes bracketing an advance mark a support bottom.

Three inside up/down

A harami confirmed by the third candle removes the false signal.

Three outside up/down

An engulfing confirmed by the third candle removes the false signal.

Three white soldiers / Three black crows

Three candles in a row the same way confirm the trend has turned.

Tweezer top/bottom

Two extremes at the same price mark support or resistance tested and honoured.

On-Balance True Range (9)

Accumulating the true range with the sign of the close shows which side the market's agitation is gathering on, and not merely how much it has grown. The peaks and troughs of that running total arrive alongside those of other oscillators, but they separate high- and low-volatility conditions that the others do not distinguish.