KAMA (Kaufman Adaptive Moving Average)¶
What it shows: a moving average that changes speed by itself. When price moves cleanly in one direction it follows closely; when price is noisy and sideways it nearly stops moving.
How people use it: like other averages: price above KAMA suggests an uptrend, below it a downtrend. Because it flattens in choppy markets, price crosses it less often there, which cuts some false signals.
Pairs well with: RSI or MACD to judge momentum, and ADX to check that there is a trend at all (averages give many false crosses in a sideways market).
Settings¶
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 10 | How many candles are used to judge whether price is trending cleanly or just noisy (the "efficiency"). Shorter judges on less history and changes speed more often. |
| Fast | 2 | The fastest speed it can move at, during clean trends. Smaller is faster. |
| Slow | 30 | The slowest speed, in noisy markets. Larger makes it flatter in chop (fewer crosses there). |
You set the defaults on the Indicators page. A condition can use its own settings, which override the defaults for that condition only.
Ready-made conditions¶
| For | Condition | Fires when |
|---|---|---|
| Buy | Price crosses above KAMA | the one candle price moves from below the KAMA line to above it |
| Buy | Price above KAMA | every candle price is above the KAMA line |
| Sell | Price crosses below KAMA | the one candle price moves from above the KAMA line to below it |
| Sell | Price below KAMA | every candle price is below the KAMA line |
"Above", "below", "is" and "rising" / "falling" stay true on every candle the state lasts, so they can fire many candles in a row. "Crosses" and "flips" fire once, on the candle it happens, so you get one signal per move.
Warnings you may see¶
- "It compares a line with itself (same indicator, same settings), so it can never fire. Give the two lines different settings.": for example a cross of SMA 200 with SMA 200. Give one side a different length. (With "at or above", "at or below", "equals" or "touches" the text says it is always true instead.)
- "The first line should be the faster one (the shorter length), but … is not shorter than …, so the signal works the other way round. Use a shorter length for the first line." (or the "slower one" version): only for a strategy from the library, when you swapped which length comes first. That turns a golden cross into a death cross. You can still save it.
- "It can never be true: a cross happens on one candle, so it cannot happen on N candles in a row. Use 'within the last N candles' instead.": a "crosses" condition with a "… in a row" lookback of 2 or more. Switch the lookback to Within the last.
- "Length must be between 1 and 1000" / "Length must be a whole number": shown in the condition editor when a condition's own value is out of range. Fix the number; the condition can't be saved until then.
- "Fast must be between 1 and 1000" / "Fast must be a whole number": shown in the condition editor when a condition's own value is out of range. Fix the number; the condition can't be saved until then.
- "Slow must be between 1 and 1000" / "Slow must be a whole number": shown in the condition editor when a condition's own value is out of range. Fix the number; the condition can't be saved until then.
- "Fast must be smaller than Slow": in a condition, Fast has to stay below Slow.
Where they show: on the Strategies page, open Create entry conditions / Edit entry conditions (or the exit ones). Each condition's messages appear right under it. The setting messages ("must be between", "whole number", "must be one of", "must be smaller than") start with the indicator's short name, for example "MACD: Fast must be between 1 and 1000", and keep the conditions from being saved until fixed. The other warnings never block saving and are repeated in the strategy's Entry or Exit section, starting with the condition's name.
Good to know¶
- It is worked out from closing prices only (not volume).
- On very short timeframes most moves look noisy, so KAMA tends to stay flat and cross rarely.
- It needs some history before its value settles: the length plus the candles its smoothing needs to settle at a typical speed (186 at 10 / 2 / 30). Apathia loads that history for you.