The Empirical Mode Decomposition Indicator (EMD) helps identify
whether a market is in a cycle or trend mode. This indicator is
discussed in the article titled "Empirical Mode Decomposition" in the
March 2010 Issue of Stocks and Commodities magazine, by John F. Ehlers
and Ric Way. According to the article, when the Trend Component
rises above the Average Peaks, the market is in an uptrend, when it is
below the Average Valleys, the market is in a downtrend, and when it's
between the two, the market is in cycle mode.
The EMD indicator has 4 optional components: the Bandpass Filter (or
cycle component), the Trend Component, the Average Peaks, and the
Average Valleys. The inputs include price, period, delta, and
fraction. The price defaults to High + Low / 2. The period
should reflect the cycle period (or frequency) of the market being
studied and defaults to 20 bars. The delta should be set to half
the bandwidth with common values of 0.1 to 0.5. The fraction is
the fraction of the average peaks and valleys used to display the
upper and lower limits for the trend component. This value is
subjective and can be adjusted to fit your trading style. For
swing trades that prefer to trade in cycle mode, a larger fraction
might be used such as 0.25.
For more information on this indicator, please
refer to the March 2010 Issue of Stocks and Commodities magazine, by
John F. Ehlers and Ric Way. You may also import a chart
definition involving the EMD from our shared charts section by
clicking here. |