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2017issue C1210-15

Weekly and daily MACD as a stacked momentum filter

Weekly MACD and relative daily MACD can be plotted together on a daily chart. The slower line tracks weekly momentum, the faster line moves around it, and price-indicator divergence is read as a warning rather than a standalone entry.

  • Weekly MACD is the 60-day EMA minus the 130-day EMA and serves as the weekly momentum centerline on a daily chart.
  • Relative daily MACD adds the 12-26 daily MACD to the weekly line, so daily momentum fluctuates around the weekly line rather than only around zero.
  • A relative daily crossover is a 12-day EMA crossing a 26-day EMA and can last a few days or a few weeks depending on move strength.
  • Daily price-indicator divergences can appear inside strong trends because they mark fading impulse, not an immediate reversal.
Entries in this reading3 entries
Current trackMACD115 readingsPrice-indicator divergence142 readingsMoving average449 readings

How the two MACD lines are built

Weekly MACD on a daily chart is defined as the 60-day EMA minus the 130-day EMA after scaling the standard 12- and 26-day EMA lengths by five trading days. That slow line is used as the weekly momentum centerline on the daily chart.

Relative daily MACD is the weekly MACD line plus the 12-26 daily MACD line. It fluctuates around the weekly line rather than only around zero.

How relative daily crossovers are read

A bullish relative daily crossover occurs when the 12-day EMA moves above the 26-day EMA. A bearish crossover is the opposite. Those crossings can last a few days or a few weeks depending on move strength.

A centerline crossover is a weekly or daily MACD crossing its zero line and is treated as a change in the sign of the corresponding EMA spread. A relative daily crossover is the relative daily MACD crossing the weekly MACD line, which is equivalent to that 12-day and 26-day EMA cross.

What the illustrated charts show

On one illustrated NYA chart, a bullish relative daily crossover in early September 2010 stayed in force until a bearish crossover in mid-March 2011, about seven months, while weekly MACD was rising for most of that span.

On one illustrated FTSE 100 chart, four relative daily crossovers occurred in seven months while weekly MACD stayed negative and mostly declining, matching a strong downtrend.

On one illustrated SPX comparison, eight daily MACD centerline crossovers in eight months produced repeated whipsaws, while weekly centerline signals were treated as the more important filter.

When divergence is only a warning

Price-indicator divergence is price making a new high or low while MACD fails to confirm. Daily MACD bearish divergences can appear inside strong uptrends, and daily bullish divergences can appear inside strong downtrends, because they mark fading impulse rather than an immediate reversal.

On one illustrated DJIA bear-market chart, price made a lower low from November 2008 to March 2009 while weekly W&D MACD made a higher low, then a weekly centerline crossover and a resistance break followed in late July 2009.

Editorial reading of the stack

Editorial: treat the slower weekly MACD line as trend permission and the relative daily line as the timing overlay for continuation or fade. Treat price-indicator divergence as a warning only when it agrees with that weekly and daily stack. This is a TradersWeek interpretation of the historical workflow and is not attributed to the archive.

Educational research material, not investment advice. Historical source context does not establish present-day performance.
76 of 80 in the MACD track
201739-41 pp.Next on MACDNested weekly and daily MACD from paired EMA spreadsA weekly-daily-macd is assembled by adding a long-horizon ema-spread to a short-horizon ema-spread so weekly and daily MACD information sit in one series.
All readings on this track · 80 readings
  1. 1988Rebuild MACD-Mo and MACD-H before treating them as signals
  2. 1989Four-span MACD lookbacks as perishable parameters
  3. 1989Weekly then daily MACD confirmation on individual stocks
  4. 1991Regime-gated MACD and stochastic rules inside a checklist
  5. 1991Constructing MACD signal lines and divergence tests
  6. 1991MACD parameter order and cycle phase lag
  7. 1992Lengthened bond MACD as an equity regime filter
  8. 1992Long-horizon MACD construction from paired exponential averages
  9. 1993Constructing a signed ten-point trend filter
  10. 1994Constructing lag-reduced double exponential averages for MACD
  11. 1994Seeding DEMA2 filters to build a MACD signal
  12. 1994Constructing MACD from lag-reduced exponential averages
  13. 1994TEMA1 from nested exponential averages, then a two-horizon MACD
  14. 1994Constructing entry and exit on a relative-strength MACD
  15. 1994Constructing a relative-strength MACD crossover spreadsheet
  16. 1995Consensus presignal filters for Relative Strength Index, MACD and the Stochastic oscillator
  17. 1997Confirm the MACD turn with price, then exit on the histogram
  18. 1997Reconstructing a stochastic oscillator, MACD, and a triple-smoothed oscillator
  19. 1997Moving-average windows before crossovers and MACD
  20. 1999Second-stage MACD on relative-strength inputs
  21. 1999Constructing MACD from exponential-average spreads for crossover and divergence
  22. 1999Coding candlesticks into numeric indicators
  23. 2001Second-low confirmation with a percentage oscillator and money-flow filter
  24. 2001Constructing MACD from exponential average spreads and a signal line
  25. 2002Separate bounded and trend-following oscillator rules
  26. 2002Sort the regime before assigning MACD and stochastic jobs
  27. 2002Building classic divergence filters from RSI and MACD
  28. 2002Weekly highs and lows as trend gates
  29. 2002Constructing channel-normalized Fisher reversal signals
  30. 2002Affine-price and the Fisher transform as a constructed companion to MACD
  31. 2003Regularized EMA construction with a MACD line and a thrust oscillator
  32. 2003Curvature-penalized exponential averages versus MACD
  33. 2003MACD, moving averages, and a trend filter as one timing system
  34. 2003Fractional MACD and linear-regression reversal construction
  35. 2004Weekly MACD-histogram timing of bear-market rallies
  36. 2004Candlestick triggers filtered by MACD divergence
  37. 2004Staging energy-complex tops with trendline, breakout, and MACD
  38. 2005Selling climax holds versus fails
  39. 2006Treat a sideways Wave as permission before a breakout
  40. 2007MACD with a Stochastic oscillator for spotting trend reversals
  41. 2007Rebuilding an S&P 500 fifth-wave count after a broken target
  42. 2007Constructing MACD, RSI, and stochastic confirmation for futures
  43. 2007MACD histogram divergence needs a confirming close
  44. 2007Write the plan as a stack: ratio, boundary, then oscillators
  45. 2008MACD divergence and Stochastic oscillator confirmation on lumber futures
  46. 2008Assign confirmation, timing, and a stop before a currency pair is tested
  47. 2008Confirm the ten-bagger launch path before the MACD exit
  48. 2008Reading the offloaded evidence file
  49. 2008A Leader companion for MACD direction warnings
  50. 2008Relative strength exits with MACD averages and RSI
  51. 2008Assign one job per indicator in a three-screens rule set
  52. 2008Sequencing RSI, MACD, and average crossovers
  53. 2010Constructing the Schaff Trend Cycle from MACD and a dominant-cycle window
  54. 2010Schaff Trend Cycle as a MACD and Stochastic oscillator combination
  55. 2010Combining Relative Strength Index, the stochastic oscillator, and MACD as slope filters
  56. 2010Short-term wave and ratio clues without direction calls
  57. 2010A precise pullback entry and an unplanned profit-protection exit
  58. 2010Filtering MACD false signals with trendline breaks
  59. 2011Vendor feeds as an input variable in a MACD evaluation
  60. 2012Out-of-the-money versus in-the-money option sensitivity to implied volatility
  61. 2012MACD window tuning as hold-time control
  62. 2012Combining a moving-average crossover with MACD and support-resistance
  63. 2012Testing a published MACD entry with a histogram and signal-line agreement filter
  64. 2012Treat sample systems as a lab before live rules
  65. 2013Constructing moving averages and MACD from one price series
  66. 2013The next-bar price that forces a MACD signal-line cross
  67. 2013Constructing next-bar MACD reversal prices
  68. 2013Constructing inverted MACD reversal prices
  69. 2014Shared-filter combinations of the stochastic oscillator, MACD, and RSI
  70. 2014Square-root lookbacks for combined MACD and RSI
  71. 2015Audit open interest and trend before trusting oscillator crossovers
  72. 2016MACD without a signal line, confirmed by moving-average trend filters
  73. 2016Use RSI, MACD, and a moving average as a market-health consensus
  74. 2016MACD line versus histogram is a display problem first
  75. 2017Weekly and daily MACD on a single daily chart
  76. 2017Weekly and daily MACD as a stacked momentum filter
  77. 2017Nested weekly and daily MACD from paired EMA spreads
  78. 2018Weekly and daily PPO scale versus MACD, with bounded RSI and stochastic readings
  79. 2018Constructing a weekly and daily percentage price oscillator
  80. 2020Constructing Wyckoff tape reading with MACD, moving-average, and RSI filters
By fieldIndicators and filters682 readingsBy year2017100 readings
All 115 readings tagged MACD
Also on MACD5 readings
1989Weekly then daily MACD confirmation on individual stocks1997Confirm the MACD turn with price, then exit on the histogram2001Constructing MACD from exponential average spreads and a signal line2008A Leader companion for MACD direction warnings2017Nested weekly and daily MACD from paired EMA spreads