What is AO?
The Awesome Oscillator takes the midpoint of each bar, halfway between its high and low, and subtracts a 34-bar simple average of it from a 5-bar simple average. The result is drawn as columns in its own pane. A column is green when it is higher than the one before and red when it is not, so the colour shows whether short-term momentum is building or fading, on either side of zero.
AO shows recent momentum relative to a longer baseline, in price units. It has no settings, it cannot be compared across markets, and it does not predict future prices.
How to use AO
- Above or below zero. Above zero, the recent midpoints are higher than the longer average of them, read as upward momentum. Below zero, the reverse.
- Column colour. Green means AO rose on this bar and red means it fell or stayed level. A green column below zero means downward momentum is easing, which is the main thing the colours are for.
- Crossing zero. AO crossing zero means the 5-bar average of midpoints has crossed the 34-bar average.
- Colour change alerts. The indicator provides two alerts, AO color changed to green and AO color changed to red, which fire on the bar the colour flips.
These are ways to read the columns, not entry signals on their own.
Settings
The Awesome Oscillator has no inputs. The 5 and 34 bar lengths and the bar midpoint as source are fixed.
Calculation
AO compares a short and a long simple average of the bar midpoint, and the colour compares each value with the previous one:
midpoint = (high + low) / 2
AO = SMA(midpoint, 5) - SMA(midpoint, 34)
colour = green if AO > previous AO, otherwise redThe colour follows the change in AO, not its sign, so a rising column is green below zero too. A column exactly level with the previous one counts as red.
The alerts fire when that change crosses zero, which is the bar the colour flips. They are only checked when a bar closes, so a candle that is still forming cannot fire the same alert over and over.
The 34-bar average sets the warm-up: the first value appears on bar 33 counting from 0.
Limitations
- It lags. Both averages are built from past bars, and the 34-bar one in particular changes slowly.
- The colour is sensitive. Any single bar's rise or fall flips the colour, so colours can alternate in a choppy market.
- It cannot be tuned. The lengths and the source are fixed, so it cannot be adapted to a different pace of market.
- The live candle moves. The current column's height and colour change until that bar closes.
- It is not a strategy. On its own it carries no risk management, sizing or exit.
Frequently asked questions
The Awesome Oscillator, or AO, is the difference between a 5-bar and a 34-bar simple average of each bar's midpoint. It is drawn as columns in a separate pane, green when AO rose on that bar and red when it did not.
Above zero means recent midpoints are higher than their longer average; below zero means lower. The colour shows whether that gap is growing or shrinking, so green columns below zero mean downward momentum is easing and red columns above zero mean upward momentum is fading. Treat these as context and confirm them with price.
No. The built-in Awesome Oscillator declares no inputs. It always uses the 5 and 34 bar simple averages of the bar midpoint on the chart's current timeframe.
No. Each value is built from simple averages over fixed windows, and closed bars do not change. The current column moves and can change colour while that candle is live, and settles when it closes. The colour change alerts are only checked on closed bars.
Yes. It provides two alert conditions, AO color changed to green and AO color changed to red. Each fires once on the closed bar where the column colour flips.
Use the Add to chart button at the top of this page. It opens BTC/USDT on Binance in the Altrady Charts terminal with the built-in Awesome Oscillator already applied. On any other market, open the indicator picker on the chart and choose Awesome Oscillator from the Momentum group.