Below are some of the popular momentum indicators technical analysts follow. For trending analysis, momentum is a useful indicator of strength or weakness in the issue’s price. History has shown that momentum is far more useful during rising markets than falling markets because markets rise more often than they fall.

Trading Strategies with Momentum Scanners

There is no single momentum technical indicator that fits all occasions. That’s why it’s essential to know different indicators and how to use them in different trading strategies. Finding the best momentum stocks can sometimes pay off for nimble investors. Momentum bucks traditional investing principles, yet research supports its merit. Reversal trading is a strategy that involves identifying potential turning points in the market and entering trades in the opposite direction of the prevailing trend. This approach can be more challenging, requiring you to accurately predict when a trend is about to reverse.

What are the top momentum stocks?

In a similar respect, some high-flying momentum stocks are pricey for good reason and are likely to be in store for continued and sustained gains. There’s an old saying about investing that the best way to make money is to buy low and sell high. However, there’s also a less popular way to cash in on Wall Street via finding the best momentum stocks. Momentum indicators can help identify potential reversals, as they can give you insight into whether the market is overbought or oversold. For example, if the RSI is above 70, it’s a sign that the market may be overbought and due for a pullback.

How to Master the Andrew’s Pitchfork Trading Strategy

The idea of this strategy is simple – Momentum trading capitalizes on the continuation of existing market trends, leveraging the inertia that drives financial markets. This approach is particularly attractive because it doesn’t require pinpoint predictions about market tops and bottoms. Instead, it focuses on catching the wave of market movements, riding the momentum already established by prevailing trends.

Carnival Cruise Earnings

• Momentum is used by investors to trade stocks in an uptrend by going long (or buying shares) and going short (or selling shares) in a downtrend.
• One of the advantages of momentum trading is that it focuses your investing efforts on stocks showing significant price movement.
• Examples of these momentum indicators include the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and the Rate of Change (ROC).
• Alternatively, short-sellers look to capitalize on a stock that’s on a downward trend.
• Momentum in the stock market refers to the sustained increase or decrease in the price of a stock.
• Market momentum refers to the aggregate rate of acceleration for the broader market as a whole.
• Momentum is the rate of acceleration of a security’s price—that is, the speed at which the price is changing.
• By understanding the fundamentals of the KST oscillator and incorporating it into their trading systems, traders can make more informed decisions and improve their overall trading performance.
• Year to date, Meta Platforms has been one of the best-performing mega-cap stocks, gaining 35% in less than four months.

However, even though it’s sound nice, riding the momentum is not that easy. It’s a skill that you might naturally have or one that you need to master. I mean, we pretty much know that some of the best traders in the world are those who know how to catch the wave and ride the momentum.

How to find the best momentum stocks

With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Momentum and VGM Style Scores, AKAM should be on investors’ short list. Momentum investors should take note of this Computer and Technology stock. AKAM has a Momentum Style Score of B, and shares are up 0.7% over the past four weeks.

What is the squeeze momentum indicator?

• You can use all the indicators mentioned above on Tickertape Stock Screener to filter momentum stocks.
• This strategy requires good timing and an understanding of market momentum.
• You may or may not end up with a profitable trade, but you can at least be pretty well assured that you won’t have your investment capital tied up in a stock that’s going nowhere.
• Carnival’s advanced booked position for 2025 is already ahead of 2024’s record, with higher prices than last year.
• This means watching all the updates to see if there is any negative news that will spook investors.
• You want to make sure you’re buying stocks with the highest likelihood of success, and to do that, you’ll need to pick stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B.
• It has a gaming platform (Garena), an e-commerce platform (Shopee), and a digital payments platform (SeaMoney).

A few momentum investors prefer to use even longer-term MAs for signaling purposes. Using a free version of a stock screener can be beneficial for new traders to test the tools and understand their functionality before committing to a paid plan. Many traders consider the MACD indicator to be one of the most reliable momentum indicators. Especially at times when its movement diverges from the movement of price (moves in the opposite direction).

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An asset falling in price may find support at the 50 value and bounce off this level again to continue an upward rise in price action. There are many charting software programs and investing websites that can measure momentum for a stock so that investors don’t have to calculate it anymore. However, it’s important to understand what goes into those calculations to better understand what variables are used in determining a stock’s momentum or trend. Like a boat trying to sail on the crests of waves, a momentum investor is always at risk of timing a buy incorrectly and ending up sunk. Most momentum investors accept this risk as the price for the possibility of higher returns. The same risk-return trade-off that exists with other investing strategies also plays a hand in momentum investing.

MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence)

To identify overbought and oversold conditions, traders often use the relative strength index (RSI) or the stochastic oscillator. These indicators range from 0 to 100, with readings above 70 indicating overbought conditions and below 30 indicating oversold conditions. Momentum in the stock market refers to the sustained increase or decrease in the price of a stock. In technical terms, momentum in a stock is a measure of the velocity at which the price of stock changes. The moving average is an average of a security’s price over a specified period of time.

Tesla exemplifies momentum stock investing

This indicator, often overlooked due to its simplicity, is another essential tool. It compares the last closing price with a previous one, typically from 14 periods ago (although some traders use 30 periods for smoother signals). The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is one of the top momentum indicators for trend continuation. It works by comparing a longer exponential moving average (EMA) to a shorter-term EMA to produce the MACD line. That histogram then has a simple moving average calculated on top of it, called the ‘signal line’.

Robo-Advisors with Momentum Tilts

These indicators help traders identify the strength and direction of a stock’s price movement. They can help you identify trends and potential buying or selling opportunities. By analyzing price and volume data, you can gain insight into a stock’s price movement’s strength or weakness. For example, if you only look at your momentum indicator and do not pay attention to price action or volume, you might miss important signals that could impact your trades.

However, the company has done an excellent job of moving forward, and investors were the beneficiaries of a 32% gain through mid-April 2024. Market Momentum highlights major market indices and market rates, and also displays a market momentum summary box. It is calculated as the difference between the MACD indicator and the signal line. A positive MACD line 2 value indicated that the MACD line 1 value is greater than the signal line value. There can be different interpretations of this value depending upon the absolute value of the MACD line 1.

In addition, traders use price crossing over the zero line for bullish or bearish signals. The potential payday from momentum stocks is clear, particularly if you’re looking at historic success stories like Tesla. But pointing to an old winner is much harder than getting in on the ground floor of tomorrow’s next momentum stock standouts.

Other indicators can be used along with RSI to strengthen this conclusion. To reach the best evaluation, experts generally chart the RSI on a daily time frame rather than hourly. However, sometimes shorter hourly periods are charted to indicate whether it is a good idea to make a short-term asset purchase.

Five momentum stocks

Generally, they look for stocks that are trading above their moving averages as a sign that they will continue moving higher. Alternatively, short-sellers look to capitalize on a stock that’s on a downward trend. Momentum investing can also be a popular strategy among professional investors such as hedge funds. Welles Wilder Jr. in the late 1970s; his “New Concepts in Trading Systems” (1978) is now an investment-lit classic. Once these numbers are charted, they can be compared to thresholds to see if the stock is oversold or overbought.

How to Become a Good Momentum Trader?

Since it emphasizes quarterly and annual earnings per share (EPS), some may argue it’s not a momentum strategy, per se. However, the system generally seeks stocks with both earnings and sales momentum and tends to point to stocks with price momentum, as well. It’s simple to use short-term and long-term moving averages to spot trending stocks. You can specify that your stock scanner screen for stocks where, for example, a 10-period moving average is above the 50-period moving average. Of course, to screen for downtrending stocks, you specify the shorter period moving average as below the longer-term MA.

Yes, momentum indicators can help traders identify potential trends, but they are not usually more than 60% accurate, according to our indicator research. As such, traders should always use caution when using momentum indicators and should factor in other indicators and market conditions to help them make the best decisions. Momentum indicators can also generate false signals, especially during market volatility. Traders should be cautious when relying solely on momentum indicators for their trading decisions.

Trading based on trend strength, rather than just on trend direction, increases your chances of being able to maximize potential trend trading profits. Momentum scanners can help you get into a new trend near the beginning and also warn you to take profits and get out before a market reversal occurs. Using a momentum scanner will give you an edge in the market and help you make better and more timely trades. There are various volatility based indicators available in most stock trading tools and brokerage platforms. We define momentum as the past 12-month return, skipping the most recent month’s return (to avoid microstructure and liquidity biases).

Gordon Scott has been an active investor and technical analyst or 20+ years.

By combining four timeframes, the KST effectively highlights the market’s prevailing directional bias. Volatility profiles based on trailing-three-year calculations of the standard deviation of service investment returns. The surge in AI investment has trickled down to businesses in all industries and of all sizes, and Nvidia is a clear beneficiary. The percentage of stocks in $BCMM above their individual Moving Average per period. In terms of value, RSI exponential above 80 indicates that the stock has run up too much, whereas a reading below 20 indicates an oversold position. Momentum is analogous to a train whereby the train slowly accelerates when it starts moving, but during the ride, the train stops accelerating.

The RS line, the blue line in the chart provided, tracks a stock’s performance vs. the S&P 500. The firm upgraded Norwegian Cruise Line to buy from neutral and raised its price target to 30, up from 20, citing its recent strategy shift. Carnival stock broke out as cruise lines rallied on strong momentum, with most set to report Q3 earnings this month. Investors can count on the Zacks Rank’s success, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +25.41% average annual return since 1988, more than double the S&P 500’s performance. But the model rates a large number of stocks, and there are over 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, plus another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day. Momentum traders benefit from herd mentality, greed, and fear of missing out.

Momentum indicators help traders understand the strength of a price trend – they measure the rate of the rise or a fall in stock prices. They are called “momentum” indicators as the principles behind price movements are similar to the ones used to calculate speed, momentum, and acceleration. In conclusion, while momentum indicators can be useful tools for traders, they should be used with other indicators and tools to confirm signals. Traders should also be aware of their limitations, including their lagging nature, potential for false signals, and limited application in certain market conditions. Using indicators of this type, traders can identify leading momentum trading signals. They seek to understand if the market is overbought or oversold at close and if it could be about to change direction.

In short, momentum trading strategies help you to recognize and follow the trend. So, in this article, we will cover everything you need to get started trading these strategies. We will also show you three different momentum strategies to take Stock Momentum your trading skills to the next level. They are lagging indicators that compare the current price to averages over a previous period. Traders can observe if the price moves faster or slower relative to its average behaviour in the past.

Moreover, momentum traders interpret a certain MACD condition as an indicator of a strong market trend. When the MACD line is above or below the signal line, and the histogram bar shows a strong market trend., traders can interpret that as a signal for a trend continuation. As seen in the chart above, the trend is likely to continue when the blue line crosses above the orange line and the bars are above the zero level of the histogram, and vice versa in a downtrend. Different momentum indicators indicate different things – for example, when the RSI scores above 50, that signifies positive momentum, which can be indicative of an uptrend in the market.

In this case, the market volatility is like waves in the ocean, and a momentum investor is sailing up the crest of one, only to jump to the next wave before the first wave crashes down again. One of the advantages of momentum trading is that it focuses your investing efforts on stocks showing significant price movement. You may or may not end up with a profitable trade, but you can at least be pretty well assured that you won’t have your investment capital tied up in a stock that’s going nowhere. The ADX is a technical indicator that the renowned technical analyst Welles Wilder created. Wilder designed the ADX to, first of all, indicate whether a stock is trending at all – or merely ranging back and forth within a limited trading range. Thus, one of the main advantages offered by the ADX is that it can help investors avoid burning up their investment capital by being drawn into trying to trade a trendless market.

It often requires frequent trading, sophisticated analysis, and the ability to closely monitor market trends—tasks that can be time-consuming and potentially costly for the average investor. This momentum strategy uses the Average Directional Index (ADX) along with a 200-period moving average on a daily chart. The key here is to look for a rising ADX, which indicates strengthening momentum. A trade is initiated when the ADX starts trending upwards, and the asset’s price breaks through the 200-day moving average.

A nine-day EMA of the MACD called the “signal line,” is then plotted on top of the MACD. Traders use the MACD to generate buy and sell signals and to confirm trend reversals. It’s important to note that momentum indicators are not foolproof and should be used with other technical and fundamental analysis tools. They can also be subject to false signals, especially in choppy or volatile markets.

The firm lifted its price target on Carnival Cruise stock to 28 from 25 and kept a buy rating on the shares. Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better. Trade Ideas also comes with charting, backtesting, automated trading and more. We’ve already analyzed tens of thousands of financial research papers and identified more than 700 attractive trading systems together with hundreds of related academic papers. Generally, CCI is used to find indications of a new trend when ranges break.

Adam received his master’s in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Of course, once the revenue and earnings are realized, the market usually adjusts its expectations and the price retraces or comes back down to reflect the financial performance of the company.