Skip to content
GetProfitable
Search
Dictionary

Commodity Channel Index

An unbounded oscillator measuring how far the typical price has deviated from its moving average, scaled by mean deviation.

Donald Lambert's indicator divides the gap between the typical price and its average by a fraction of the mean absolute deviation, so readings of plus or minus 100 correspond to a meaningful stretch. It is unbounded, so extreme trends can push it to 300 or beyond.

That unboundedness is its distinguishing feature. Unlike rsi or stochastics it cannot saturate, so a very strong move keeps registering as very strong rather than pinning at 100.

It is used both as a mean-reversion tool, fading extremes, and as a breakout tool, entering when it crosses above 100. Those are opposite strategies from the same number, which should be a warning about how much interpretation the indicator requires rather than a sign of versatility.

Related: oscillator, mean-reversion, rsi, momentum-indicator, awesome-oscillator

See it drawn

Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.

A stochastic oscillator under a price chartA price line above a lower panel with a fast and a slow curve swinging between a line at 80 and a line at 20, and the point where the fast curve turns up through the slow one circled.PRICESTOCHASTIC (14, 3)80overbought20oversold%K%D%K crosses above %D
The stochastic oscillator. The stochastic shows where each close sits inside the recent high-to-low range, on a scale of 0 to 100. Readings above 80 mean closes are hugging the top of that range and below 20 the bottom; the circle marks the fast line turning up through the slow one.

Educational only, not advice. Spotted an error? Post in Site Feedback.