|  NOV 1991

True Strength Index by William Blau

True Stength Index by William Blau Price momentum oscillators are popular tools for traders because the nature of these technical tools is to signal trend changes, something every trader wants to know. The ideal indicator would alert the trader to a change in the trend from a down market, at the low of the trend to an up market, correctly indicate that the up trend was in force until the absolute high and then signal the new trend. While this indicator may or may not exist, my own work has led me to the use of applying various smoothing techniques to changes in price. Many changes in price from one level to the next are properly considered to be random or noise. However, if the noise can be filtered or smoothed out, then the trend should be recognizable. Before discussing the smoothing of price changes, let's start with some basics. MOMENTUM Figure 1 depicts a section of a price a chart showing the daily close (open, high and low of the price bar are omitted). Momentum is defined as the close minus the close at an earlier time. The daily momentum is today's close minus yesterday's close— for example, the one-day momentum = Mtm = close - close[1]. On November 3, the value of the close is C. On the preceding day the value of the close is C[1]. The one day momentum for the November 2nd to November 3rd interval is a positive number as shown: the close has increased in value in one day. The slope of the close curve is positive, a rising price. Momentum is increasing from one day to the next.

by William Blau