Technical Indicators

Technical indicators are computed from the daily closing price history of the last ~504 trading days (approximately 2 years). All prices are adjusted closes provided by Alpaca.

RSI — Relative Strength Index (14-period)

Measures the speed and magnitude of recent price changes to identify overbought or oversold conditions.

Formula (Wilder's smoothing method):

RS = Average gains over 14 days / Average losses over 14 days
RSI = 100 − (100 / (1 + RS))

After the initial 14-period seed, each subsequent value is smoothed:

Avg Gain = (Previous Avg Gain × 13 + Today's Gain) / 14

Reading the RSI:

• Below 30 → Oversold (potential buying opportunity)
• 30–70 → Neutral range
• Above 70 → Overbought (potential selling signal)

Returns 50.0 (neutral) when fewer than 15 price observations are available, to avoid a false buy or sell signal on newly-listed assets.

📖 Investopedia — RSI

SMA 50 — 50-Day Simple Moving Average

The average closing price over the last 50 trading days. Used to identify short-term trend direction.

Formula: SMA 50 = Average of the last 50 closing prices

When the current price is above the SMA 50, the asset is in a short-term uptrend. When below, it is in a downtrend.

Returns not available when fewer than 50 price observations exist.

📖 Investopedia — SMA

SMA 200 — 200-Day Simple Moving Average

The average closing price over the last 200 trading days. The most widely-followed long-term trend indicator.

Formula: SMA 200 = Average of the last 200 closing prices

Price above the SMA 200 is generally considered a bullish (uptrend) signal; price below is bearish (downtrend).

Returns not available when fewer than 200 price observations exist.

📖 Investopedia — 200-Day Moving Average

Annualised Volatility

Measures how much the price has fluctuated over the past year. Higher volatility means larger price swings and greater risk.

Formula:

Daily log returns = ln(Price today / Price yesterday)
Daily volatility  = Standard deviation of log returns
Annual volatility = Daily volatility × √252

The √252 factor converts daily volatility to annualised, based on the standard 252 trading days per year.

Returns not available when fewer than 10 price observations exist.

📖 Investopedia — Volatility

MACD — Moving Average Convergence/Divergence

A momentum indicator that shows the relationship between two exponential moving averages of price.

Formula:

EMA 12  = Exponential moving average of the last 12 days
EMA 26  = Exponential moving average of the last 26 days
MACD Line   = EMA 12 − EMA 26
Signal Line = 9-day EMA of the MACD Line
Histogram   = MACD Line − Signal Line

What Aportia shows:

• Signal: bullish (MACD Line > Signal Line), bearish (MACD Line < Signal Line), or neutral
• Crossover: bullish_cross (upward crossover on the latest bar), bearish_cross (downward crossover), or none
• Histogram: The MACD Line minus Signal Line value — positive means bullish momentum

Returns neutral/none when fewer than 35 price observations are available.

📖 Investopedia — MACD