RSI (Relative Strength Index)¶
What it shows: how strongly the price has been rising or falling lately, as a number from 0 to 100. Above 50 the recent rises were bigger than the falls; below 50 the falls were bigger.
How people use it: a low RSI (under 30) means the price fell a lot in a short time ("oversold"), a high RSI (over 70) means it rose a lot ("overbought"). Mean-reversion strategies buy when RSI is low and expect a bounce; trend strategies use RSI above 50 as a sign the trend is up.
Settings¶
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 14 | How many candles RSI looks at. Shorter reacts faster and reaches 30 / 70 more often (more signals, more false ones); longer is smoother and reaches them less often. |
| Oversold | 30 | The "low" line used by the ready-made conditions. Lower (20) gives fewer, deeper dips; higher (40) gives more, shallower ones. |
| Overbought | 70 | The "high" line. Higher (80) gives fewer, stronger moves; lower (60) gives more. |
You set the defaults on the Indicators page. A condition can use its own length, which overrides the default for that condition only.
Ready-made conditions¶
| For | Condition | Fires when |
|---|---|---|
| Buy | RSI below 30 | every candle RSI is under the oversold level |
| Buy | RSI crosses above 30 | the one candle RSI comes back up through it |
| Sell | RSI above 70 | every candle RSI is over the overbought level |
| Sell | RSI crosses below 70 | the one candle RSI comes back down through it |
"Below" stays true as long as RSI is low, so it can fire on many candles in a row. "Crosses above" fires once, when RSI turns back up, so you get one entry per dip instead of one on every low candle.
Warnings you may see¶
- A number outside 0 to 100 (like "RSI > 150"): RSI only moves between 0 and 100, so that condition can never be true. You can still save it.
Good to know¶
- RSI is worked out from closing prices only (not volume).
- On a short timeframe (1m, 5m) RSI swings a lot; the same levels give many more signals than on 1h or 1d.
- It needs some history first: 6 × the length + 1 candles (85 at length 14) before its value settles. Apathia loads that history for you.