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Martha Stokes: Price Oscillators Enhanced for the Modern Market DIS chart

Martha Stokes

Martha Stokes


Price Oscillators Enhanced for the Modern Market

How to Create and Use Center Line Price Oscillators

Most traders are very familiar with the standard Price Oscillators which have a high and low range. These Price Oscillators are common and found in nearly every charting program. There are Stochastic, Williams R, Wilder’s Relative Strength Index and many more oscillators created specifically for determining “Overbought” or “Oversold” conditions.


Stochastic however was written in the 1950s, which was an entirely different market than we have today. Nowadays Technical Traders find that Stochastic tends to give a false negative or a false positive signal, just as the stock is beginning a Momentum or Velocity run up with exponential point gain potential. This often frustrates traders who are still using only the older theory of Overbought/Oversold Trend Conditions.

Today with High Frequency Trading Firms HFTs trading stocks in massive order flow on the millisecond scale, Price often appears “Overbought” with the standard Price Oscillators when it is just starting a big run. Often times Overbought Patterns shift to the “Floating Oscillation” Pattern which is a failed signal, due to extreme momentum energy that was not present in the trading environment when these indicators were written.

Using Price Oscillators Enhanced for the Modern Market is a method that TechniTrader teaches exclusively. TechniTrader shows how to create a CENTER LINE Oscillator very similar to Volume Center Line Oscillators. Using Volume and Price Oscillators together can be a huge benefit in entering stocks earlier out of Bottoms and Tops, which are often flat or basing these days rather than Triple Bottoms or other older style Bottoming or Topping  patterns you may have been taught.

Adding a relational center line that trends with the Price Oscillator, can reveal patterns in advance of sudden big moves. See the chart example below for Walt Disney Co. (DIS: NYSE + BATS).

Wilder’s RSI with its one line for oscillation is the most adaptable and easiest patterns to learn, when incorporating this kind of Center Line Oscillation into your indicator tool set. It was written in the 1970’s and is unique for a Price Oscillator. Instead of just calculating Overbought/ Oversold, its formula analyzes current price action to prior price action similar to what many Volume Oscillators track. This helps reveal Dark Pool activity which tends to precede the sudden runs and gaps caused by HFTs. This makes it an invaluable indicator to use for Short Term Trading.

The Floating Center Line has a softer Oscillation, which provides pivotal signals in the Price Patterns. This Hybrid Indicator can be applied to many other Price and Volume based Indicators as well. This Price Oscillator Enhanced for the Modern Market provides a more three dimensional and Relational Analysis™ that is needed for the more complex Market Structure of today.

Oscillators can be far more valuable and useful when adaptations and adjustments are made to the older indicators. This gives the Technical Trader more indicator signals, more analysis scope, and further breadth of understanding of Price action. The more a Technical Trader UNDERSTANDS price behavior, the better trading decisions they can make.

Using both Center Line Price Oscillators and Volume Oscillators, enhances and improves the overall indicator analysis for all Trading Styles. Each Trading Style will require modifications to the settings and periods for each Indicator. 

The RSI/RSI Indicator is part of the TechniTrader Indicator Tool Set provided to Students with instructions on how to use it with all the Variables, Combination Indicators, Indicator Settings, and Periods. It is one of the most versatile of all the price indicators, and is a Price Oscillator Enhanced for the Modern Market.

Not yet TechniTrader Students can use this theory to design their own Indicators. The ideal Oscillators have one Oscillation Line rather than two.

Trade Wisely,
Martha Stokes CMT
www.TechniTrader.com
info@technitrader.com