The Swinging Momentum Indicator

The Swinging Momentum indicator is a custom trading indicator that looks at price momentum to identify potential buy and sell signals. It uses the rate of change in closing price over the last few bars to determine if momentum is increasing or decreasing. It also looks at the relationship of the close price to recent highs and lows, volume, and short term moving averages to confirm the strength of the momentum signal.

The indicator has two main components - identifying initial buy and sell signals, and then rating the strength of those signals. For buys, it looks for an increase in closing price momentum along with a close above recent highs and highest volume. For sells, it looks for a decrease in momentum and close below recent lows and highest volume. This identifies the initial signal without too many false signals.

It then looks at multiple factors to grade the strength of the signal, on a scale of 0 to 3. For buys it looks at how the close compares to the open, high and low of the last 4 bars, if the current low is above the recent low, and if there are more gaining days than losing days recently. For sells it looks at the close versus the open/high/low, if the current high is below the recent high, and if there are more losing than gaining days.

Each condition met adds 1 point to the strength rating. A rating above 2 is considered a strong momentum signal. This filters out weaker signals and reduces whipsaws.

The end result is plotted on the chart. Buy signals are triangles pointing up below the bars, sells are triangles pointing down above the bars. The colors help visualize the strength - strong signals are green for buys and red for sells, while weaker signals are yellow.

Trading with the Swinging Momentum indicator is straightforward. Strong buy signals identify upside momentum, so traders would look to enter long positions on a retest of the buy signal bar high. Strong sell signals identify downside momentum, so short positions can be entered on a retest of the bar low. Stops are placed beyond recent swing points in the opposite direction of the trade.

Since momentum can quickly change, risk management is key. Traders should look for other confirming indicators to strengthen the probability of a momentum trade working out. Good additional indicators to use with momentum include volume, trends, support/resistance and volatility measures.

The advantage of the Swinging Momentum indicator is that isolating the strongest momentum moves helps traders focus on higher probability trade setups. Monitoring both the initial signal and the strength rating gives an added level of confidence compared to standard momentum indicators. This custom indicator combines multiple momentum strategies into one, allowing traders to quickly identify and evaluate momentum opportunities on the chart.

Used appropriately with sound risk management, the Swinging Momentum indicator can be a valuable addition to a trading system. It visualizes both the direction and strength of momentum, key factors when trading trends and breakouts. While no indicator is perfect, understanding and utilizing momentum is a key concept for traders to master. This indicator provides a graphical representation to improve the way momentum is incorporated into trading decisions.