Indicator encyclopedia

Each page explains what a widely used indicator measures, how traders typically apply it, which families it pairs with, and the role it plays inside the AlphaPrime strategy generator.

Trend indicators

Average Directional Index (ADX)ADX answers one question: is the current move clean and persistent, regardless of whether it is up or down? It is rarely used to trigger trades on its own. Far more often it acts as a switch that tells a trader which playbook belongs on the table. This page covers how futures traders read it, how it shares work with other indicators, and how a strategy generator can check whether that switch actually helps on your market.
Moving Averages (SMA and EMA)The moving average is usually the first line a trader ever puts on a chart, and it remains one of the longest-serving trend tools in the business. It smooths a stretch of prices into a single line so the broad direction of the market becomes easy to see. This page treats the simple and the exponential moving average together: how they differ, where each one fits, and how a strategy generator can compare them on your own contracts.
Ichimoku Cloud (Ichimoku Kinko Hyo)Ichimoku Kinko Hyo, often shortened to the Ichimoku Cloud, is less a single indicator than a small chart system that describes trend, support, resistance and momentum in one glance. This page covers what each of its lines is meant to say, how futures traders read the cloud, and how a strategy generator can test which parts of it are worth keeping on your market.
Parabolic SARParabolic SAR, short for stop and reverse, draws a trail of dots that follow price from behind and flip sides whenever the trend is broken. It was built as a trailing exit that is always in the market, and that single design choice explains both its appeal and its quirks. This page covers how futures traders read the dots and how a strategy generator can test where this indicator belongs.
SupertrendSupertrend draws a single step-like line that sits under price in an uptrend and above price in a downtrend, and flips sides when the trend changes. Its distance from price comes from recent volatility, so it adapts to how restless the market is. This page covers how futures traders use it as a trend line, a stop and a filter, and how a strategy generator can test it against your own contracts.
Aroon indicatorAroon does not look at how far price has moved. It asks how long ago the latest high and the latest low happened, and turns the answer into a pair of lines. This page covers why timing is a useful way to read a trend, how futures traders put the up and down lines to work, and how a strategy generator can test the idea on your markets.
Vortex IndicatorThe Vortex Indicator draws two lines that compete with each other: one tracks upward movement from bar to bar, the other tracks downward movement. When one pulls ahead of the other, a trend is taking shape. This page covers how the two lines are meant to be read, how futures traders turn their crossings into rules, and how a strategy generator can check whether that works on your markets.
Hull Moving Average (HMA)The Hull Moving Average was designed to answer one complaint about ordinary averages: they are smooth, but they arrive late. By blending several averages of different lengths it tries to keep the line calm while letting it turn close to when price itself turns. This page covers how futures traders read it and how a strategy generator can test it against the plain averages on your own markets.
Kaufman Adaptive Moving Average (KAMA)Most moving averages follow price at a fixed pace whether the market is racing or going nowhere. KAMA breaks that habit. It measures how cleanly price has been travelling and changes its own speed accordingly, hugging a smooth trend and nearly freezing in a mess of back-and-forth moves. This page covers how futures traders read it and how a strategy generator can test it on your own contracts.
Linear Regression (line, slope and channel)A linear regression tool answers a simple geometric question: if you had to draw one straight line through the recent bars, where would it go? The line, its tilt and the channel drawn around it give futures traders a statistical picture of trend direction and of how far price usually strays from that trend. This page covers how it is read and how a strategy generator can test it on your own markets.

Momentum indicators

Relative Strength Index (RSI)RSI compares the strength of recent up moves with the strength of recent down moves, which makes it a popular way to judge whether momentum is building, fading or stretched. This page covers how futures traders typically read it and how a strategy generator can test it against your own markets.
Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)MACD is not a bounded oscillator in the usual sense. It watches two exponential moving averages that travel at different speeds and tracks the distance between them: a widening gap means a move is accelerating, a narrowing gap means the push behind it is fading. This page covers how futures traders read the main line, the signal line and the histogram, and how a strategy generator can compare those readings on your own contracts.
Stochastic Oscillator (%K and %D)The Stochastic oscillator starts from a plain observation about price: in rising markets closes tend to land near the top of the recent range, and in falling markets they tend to land near the bottom. It turns the location of the close within that range into two lines, %K and %D. This page explains how futures traders read them, how Stochastic differs from other momentum tools, and how a strategy generator can test it on your own contracts.
Commodity Channel Index (CCI)The Commodity Channel Index was designed with commodity futures in mind. It asks how far current price has moved from its own average, and then compares that distance with how far price normally strays. A deviation well beyond the usual can mark the start of a new move or an extreme that is about to snap back. This page covers how futures traders read CCI and how a strategy generator can combine it with other rules.
Williams %RWilliams %R asks how close the latest close is to the top of the recent range, then flips the answer onto a scale that counts downward from a ceiling. The result is a fast, sensitive oscillator that many futures traders use to time pullbacks and exits. This page explains what it shows, how it differs from its better-known cousins, and how a strategy generator can test it on your own contracts.
Rate of Change (ROC) and MomentumRate of Change and Momentum are the plainest momentum tools there are. Each compares today's price with the price a set number of bars ago and plots the gap around a zero line. One expresses the gap as a percentage change, the other as a raw price difference. This page covers how the two differ, how futures traders read them, and how a strategy generator can test them on your own contracts.
Awesome Oscillator (AO)The Awesome Oscillator, created by Bill Williams, takes the midpoint of each bar, compares a short average of those midpoints with a longer one, and draws the gap as a histogram around zero. Bars that grow or shrink tell you whether momentum is building or fading. This page explains what it shows, the shapes traders look for, and how a strategy generator can test it on your own contracts.
Schaff Trend Cycle (STC)The Schaff Trend Cycle, developed by Doug Schaff, starts with a trend-momentum measure and then passes it through a stochastic-style stretch to produce a bounded line that swings quickly between its two ends. The goal is to keep the trend awareness of a moving-average based tool while gaining the crisp turning points of an oscillator. This page covers how it works, how it behaves, and how a strategy generator can test it on your own contracts.
Fisher TransformThe Fisher Transform, introduced by John Ehlers, takes the position of price within its recent range and applies a mathematical reshaping that stretches the extremes. The outcome is a line with distinct peaks and troughs and a trailing companion line, so turning points are easier to spot. This page explains the idea, how the line behaves, and how a strategy generator can test it on your own contracts.

Volatility indicators

Bollinger BandsBollinger Bands wrap a moving average in two envelopes that widen and narrow with the market, so a single glance tells you how far price has strayed from its average and whether volatility is contracting or breaking out. This page covers how futures traders read them and how a strategy generator can sort out which reading suits your contract.
Average True Range (ATR)ATR tells you how far a typical bar is travelling right now, and nothing about which way it is heading. Because it deals only in distance, futures traders lean on it for stop placement, exits and volatility filters rather than for entry signals. This page covers the common uses and how a strategy generator can compare different range-based rules on your own market.
Keltner ChannelThe Keltner Channel draws a smooth band on each side of an exponential average, spaced by the average true range, to show where price normally travels. It looks a lot like Bollinger Bands but reads differently. This page covers how futures traders use it and how a strategy generator can compare it with other tools on your own contract.
Donchian ChannelThe Donchian Channel draws two lines, one at the highest high and one at the lowest low of a recent stretch. Nothing is averaged and nothing is smoothed, so the edges are real prices the market actually printed. That simplicity made it the backbone of classic breakout systems. This page covers how futures traders use it and how a strategy generator can test it on your own contracts.
Standard Deviation (volatility)Standard deviation is the statistician's measure of spread, and traders borrow it to ask how widely price has been scattered around its recent average. It is the quiet engine inside several better-known tools. This page covers what the reading means, how it differs from range-based gauges and how a strategy generator can test it on your own markets.
TTM SqueezeThe TTM Squeeze looks for the moment a market has gone so quiet that its statistical envelope shrinks inside its range-based envelope, and then asks which way the energy is released. This page covers how futures traders read the compression, what the histogram adds, and how a strategy generator can test the idea on your own contracts.
Choppiness IndexThe Choppiness Index does not tell you which way the market is going. It tells you whether the market is going anywhere at all. This page covers how futures traders use it to separate orderly trends from tangled sideways action, and how a strategy generator can use that distinction to switch rules on and off.

Volume indicators

Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP)VWAP weights every trade in the session by its volume to find the market's average transaction cost. Prices where heavy volume changed hands count for more, so the line sits much closer to where most participants actually got filled than a plain price average does. This page covers how intraday futures traders read it, how it shares work with other indicators, and how a strategy generator tests it as a price anchor within the session.
On-Balance Volume (OBV)On-Balance Volume keeps a running total of traded contracts, adding the volume of bars that close higher and subtracting the volume of bars that close lower. The shape of that running total shows whether participation is flowing with price or against it. This page covers how futures traders read it, why contract rollover matters for it, and how a strategy generator can test it.
Chaikin Money Flow (CMF)Chaikin Money Flow asks where each bar closed inside its own range and weights that answer by the contracts traded. Closes near the top on heavy volume count as accumulation, closes near the bottom as distribution. This page covers how futures traders read the resulting flow around a zero line and how a strategy generator tests it.
Elder Force IndexThe Elder Force Index multiplies how far price moved by how many contracts traded, so a big move on heavy volume registers as strong force and a big move on thin volume as weak force. This page covers how futures traders read the smoothed force around a zero line and how a strategy generator can test it.