RMA (Wilder's Moving Average)¶
What it shows: the average closing price over the last few candles, drawn as a line on the price chart. It is Wilder's smoother, the one used inside RSI and ATR. It moves slower than an EMA of the same length.
How people use it: when price is above the line the recent trend is up; below it, down. Trend strategies buy when price crosses above the average and sell when it crosses back below. Two averages of different lengths can also be crossed with each other (a short one crossing above a long one is the classic "golden cross").
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 | 20 | How many candles are averaged. Shorter hugs the price and crosses it often (more, earlier signals, more false ones); longer is smoother and crosses less often (fewer, later signals). |
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 RMA | the one candle price moves from below the RMA line to above it |
| Buy | Price above RMA | every candle price is above the RMA line |
| Sell | Price crosses below RMA | the one candle price moves from above the RMA line to below it |
| Sell | Price below RMA | every candle price is below the RMA 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.
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 short timeframes (1m, 5m) price crosses the line very often; the same length on 1h or 1d gives far fewer, slower signals.
- It needs some history before its value settles: 6 × the length candles (120 at length 20). Apathia loads that history for you.