Description
VelocityAndAcceleration is a momentum indicator designed to evaluate trend strength. The study calculates how quickly a price is moving (velocity) and the rate at which the price’s movement is changing (acceleration).
Average velocity is calculated as:
where:
- pis the price of the current bar.
- pnis the price of the previous bar.
- iis the lookup period, which ranges from 1 to- n.
- nis the total length of the period used in the calculations.
The average velocity is then smoothed using a moving average (set with the average type parameter).
Average acceleration is calculated as:
where:
- vis the current smoothed average velocity.
- vnis the previous smoothed average velocity.
- iis the lookup period, which ranges from 1 to- n.
- nis the total length of the period used in the calculations.
Acceleration is displayed as a histogram and can be interpreted as follows:
- Positive and up. Acceleration is above zero and higher than the previous acceleration value.
- Positive and down. Acceleration is above zero and lower than the previous acceleration value.
- Negative and up. Acceleration is below zero and higher than the previous acceleration value.
- Negative and down. Acceleration is below zero and lower than the previous acceleration value.
Input Parameters
| Parameter | Description | 
|---|---|
| price | The type of price used in the calculations. | 
| length | The length of the period used in the calculations. | 
| average length | The length of the average used to smooth the calculations. | 
| average type | The type of moving average used in the calculations: simple, exponential, weighted, Wilder’s, or Hull. | 
Plots
| Plot | Description | 
|---|---|
| Velocity | The Velocity plot. | 
| Acceleration | The Acceleration plot. | 
Further Reading
1. “An Adaptive Moving Average For Swing Trading” by Scott Cong. Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, September 2023.
Example*
*For illustrative purposes only. Not a recommendation of a specific security or investment strategy.
Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.