Indicator directory

Every indicator on this list is a transformation of price, volume or both. It contains no information that was not already in the data — it reorganises that data so a pattern becomes easier to see. That means indicators cannot lead price; they describe what has already happened, in a smoothed or normalised form.

Trend indicators such as moving averages are lagging by construction, because averaging requires past data. Oscillators such as RSI are bounded and often described as leading, but they simply measure recent momentum relative to a window. Changing a setting changes the output: a 9-period average and a 200-period average of the same series will disagree constantly, and neither is more correct than the other.

Oscillators generate repeated overbought readings in a strong trend, and moving-average crossovers whipsaw in ranging markets. Testing more indicators until one appears to confirm a view is a well-known way to fool yourself. On AlgoInsight each indicator can be plotted on its own scale so oscillators do not distort the price axis, and the backtester lets you check a rule against past data instead of relying on impressions.