ASX Charting Course

Chapter 11

Chart Indicators

Technical indicators are probably the most widely used tools available to commodity traders. They provide signals for traders to buy and sell the market, as well as reflecting degrees of strength, weakness, continuation or change.

Indicators are derived from historical price information, most commonly open, high, low and close over varying time periods. They are computed according to a specific mathematical formula often with variable parameters.

Indicators are displayed graphically, either below the price chart or overlayed on the price chart, according to the best representation of the signal being monitored.

Accumulation and Distribution

A_D = Σ [(close - low) – (high - close) * volume]

(high - low)

The accumulation and distribution indicator is a momentum indicator that is a function of volume and the closing price relative to the range of the current bar. It works on two assumptions:

• A rising market closes higher within the range.

• The more volume associated with a move the more likely it is to keep going.

Typically the close factor will be a much slighter variant than the volume, except of course whether it’s positive or negative. The volume is the driving component of the calculation. At the end of each price bar a portion of the period’s volume is added to the value of the previous periods A_D indicator, as a running total. If the market is up, it adds part of the volume, if the market is down it subtracts a portion of the volume.

As its name implies this indicator is a gross filter for accumulation and or distribution. An accumulating market is thought to be dominated by buyers, as reflected by rising prices with increasing volume. Conversely the A_D indicator can also be referred to as a distribution indicator. A distributing market is one dominated by sellers.

This A_D indicator is basically a composite indicator, made up of other simpler, one-dimensional indicators, the stochastic indicator, the momentum indicator and volume. The A_D indicator is also closely related to another similar indicator called Granville’s On-Balance Volume indicator.

How to Use It

The A_D indicator can be used in a number of ways depending on current market conditions.

The simplest use is, when the indicator is going up then price should also go up. Conversely if the indicator is heading down then price should also go down.

If the indicator has been moving within a constant range and price has also been trading in a fixed vertical range, then the indicator may and often does break out of its range ahead of price. In which case the indicator will not only signal that price is about to break its range, but also in which direction it’s likely to break it.

Finally it can be used as a divergence indicator. That is, if the indicator makes a lower low than the previous low and price has failed to make a new low, then it should do so shortly.

The chart above demonstrates the use of the accumulation distribution indicator as a divergence indicator. The A_D has made a lower low while price has failed to make a lower low but made a low peak all the same. It’s then a matter of time, before price will eventually fall away as ultimately occurred in the example above.

It’s not obvious, until pointed out, but the A_D indicator actually turned up on the day the market made a low. The close was higher and therefore the volume or a portion of the volume would have had to be added to the indicator in that period and that would have turned the indicator up for the first time in 9 periods. The following period resulted in an unusually large move higher.