Indicator Reference

UB001UNIV ships with 50+ technical indicators organized into families. This reference guide covers what each family measures, when to use it, and the parameter conventions QuanterLab uses. Use this as a lookup table when composing strategies in the Universal Builder.

Momentum Oscillators

Bounded indicators that measure recent price strength. Oscillate between fixed limits.

• RSI (Relative Strength Index). 0–100 scale. < 30 oversold, > 70 overbought. Standard period 14. Use periods 2–7 for very short-term, 14–21 for swing, > 30 for position.
• Stochastic %K and %D. 0–100 scale. Compares close to recent high-low range. Crossovers of K and D lines at extreme levels are the classic signal.
• Williams %R. -100 to 0 scale. Equivalent to inverted Stochastic. Less commonly used but identical content.
• CCI (Commodity Channel Index). Typically -100 to +100 but unbounded in extremes. Measures deviation from typical price. Useful for mean-reversion across asset classes.
• MFI (Money Flow Index). 0–100 scale. RSI weighted by volume. Catches volume-confirmed extremes.

Trend / Momentum (Unbounded)

Indicators that capture trend direction and strength without bounds.

• MACD. Fast EMA minus slow EMA, with a signal-line smoother. Crossovers of MACD and signal are the standard signal. Standard parameters 12/26/9.
• ROC (Rate of Change). Percentage change over N bars. Pure unsmoothed momentum. Useful as a regime input.
• TRIX. Triple-smoothed exponential momentum. Less noisy than MACD; slower.
• PVO (Percentage Volume Oscillator). Same construction as MACD but on volume. Captures expansion in trading interest.

Trend Strength

• ADX (Average Directional Index). 0–100 scale. Measures trend strength regardless of direction. ADX < 20: ranging. ADX 20–25: weak trend. ADX > 25: strong trend. ADX > 40: very strong (often near-exhaustion).
• +DI and -DI. Directional components used to compute ADX. +DI > -DI means up-trend dominance.
• Aroon. Measures bars since most recent high and low. Aroon Up = bars since high; Aroon Down = bars since low. Crossovers identify trend changes.

Moving Averages

• SMA (Simple). Equal weight, most lag, most stability.
• EMA (Exponential). Recent-weighted, less lag.
• WMA (Weighted). Linear weight, between SMA and EMA in responsiveness.
• HMA (Hull). Reduced-lag MA via combination of WMAs. Verify implementation doesn't use future data.
• VWAP. Volume-weighted average price. Intraday standard for institutional execution benchmarks.

Volatility

• ATR (Average True Range). N-period mean of true range. Used for stop-loss placement, position sizing, and breakout filtering.
• Bollinger Bands. SMA ± k × σ. The σ-multiplier is the volatility-adjusted band. Default k = 2.0.
• Keltner Channels. EMA ± k × ATR. Like Bollinger but ATR-based. Less sensitive to single big bars.
• Donchian Channels. Highest high and lowest low over N bars. The classical breakout reference.
• Standard Deviation. Raw rolling σ of returns. Less commonly used as a standalone indicator; usually a building block.

Volume

• OBV (On-Balance Volume). Cumulative signed volume. Divergence between OBV and price is a warning signal.
• RVOL (Relative Volume). Today's volume / average. The most-used volume filter for breakouts.
• A/D Line (Accumulation/Distribution). Volume weighted by intra-bar position. Captures buying vs selling pressure within bars.
• Volume Z-Score. (Today's volume − rolling mean) / rolling σ. Statistically grounded volume filter; adapts to changing volume regimes.

Mean-Reversion / Stationarity

• Hurst Exponent. 0–1. < 0.5 = mean-reverting; ≈ 0.5 = random walk; > 0.5 = trending. Regime filter input.
• Variance Ratio. Compares variance at two lags. < 1 = mean-reverting tendency.
• ADF p-value / KPSS p-value. Statistical tests of stationarity. Used as filters in the MR Scanner.
• Half-Life. Estimated OU half-life. Indicates speed of mean reversion in bars.

Specialty / Composite

• Ichimoku Cloud. Multi-line system: Tenkan, Kijun, Senkou A/B, Chikou. Captures multi-timescale trend and support/resistance in one view.
• Pivot Points. Computed support/resistance levels from prior bar's high/low/close.
• Fractals (Williams). Local high/low patterns. More technical-trader than statistical, but exposed for users who want them.

How to Pick

The Bottom Line

The catalog is large, but the indicators that matter for any specific strategy are usually 2–4. Start with the most-validated indicators in their respective families (RSI, MACD, ADX, ATR, Bollinger), add a confirmation, and only reach for the specialty indicators when you have a specific reason. Niche indicators added "to see if they help" are how curve-fitting hides.