Stochastic Momentum (SMI)
Shows where the close sits relative to the midpoint of the previous candles' high-low range, in percent of that range, with automatic divergence lines.
What you see
A line in its own pane, scaled to the lowest and highest value of the visible candles. Green and red lines mark bullish and bearish divergences, as in the RSI.
How it is calculated
ChartRider's version is the unsmoothed core of the stochastic momentum index. With N = Period:
HHandLLare the highest high and the lowest low of the N candles before the current one. The current candle is not part of the range.SMI = 100 × (close − (HH + LL) / 2) / (HH − LL)
The classic SMI by William Blau also smooths the distance and the range with double EMAs and scales to ±100. This version does neither: it reacts immediately and runs from −50 (close at the previous low) to +50 (close at the previous high). Because the current candle is not part of the range, a close beyond the previous high or low gives values above +50 or below −50.
Divergences use Period as the swing window and the same rules as the RSI.
How to read it
- Above 0 the close is in the upper half of the recent range, below 0 in the lower half.
- Above +50 or below −50 the close has broken out of the range of the previous N candles.
- Zero-line crossings mark shifts in momentum. Without smoothing, the line is noisy on low timeframes.
Using it in strategies
Output: value. In the Trade Setup, "Compare" with value above 50 works as a breakout trigger and "With" at center 0 as a momentum filter. WickScript has no smi function, but you can write it with hh = highest(high, 10)[1], ll = lowest(low, 10)[1] and 100 * ((close - (hh + ll) / 2) / (hh - ll)), or load it with use indicator "SMI" with period 10 as s and read s.value.
Settings
Open the settings with the slider icon next to the indicator (Indicators, F3). Numeric settings can be swept as Step 1 / Step 2 parameters when you run a strategy.
Inputs
| Setting | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Number | 10 | Number of previous candles (N) whose highest high and lowest low form the range. Also the swing window for divergence detection. (min 1) |
| Look Back Range | Number | 2 | Candles after a swing point that are checked before the swing counts for a divergence. Higher values give fewer, later divergences. (min 1) |
| Height | Number | 70 | Height of the pane in pixels. (min 10) |
Styles
| Setting | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line Color | Color | #0f6347 |
Outputs
These values can be used in Trade Setup triggers, filters and exits (see Trade Setup) and in WickScript.
| Output | In WickScript | Description |
|---|---|---|
| value | value |
Use in WickScript
use indicator creates this indicator inside a script, with settings by their ID. Each output is a field of the name after as. See WickScript indicators.
wickscript 1
indicator "Stochastic Momentum (SMI) from the list" in pane
use indicator "SMI" with period 10 as mySmi
show mySmi.value as line "value"