What is Coppock Curve?
The Coppock Curve adds the 14-bar and 11-bar rates of change of price, the percentage change over each look-back, and smooths the sum with a 10-bar weighted moving average. It is drawn as a line in its own pane with a dashed zero line. The indicator was designed for monthly index charts, where a turn upwards from below zero was read as a sign that a long decline had ended.
On shorter timeframes the arithmetic is the same but the horizon is much shorter, so a turn from below zero means correspondingly less. It does not mark tops, and it does not predict future prices.
How to use Coppock Curve
- Turning up from below zero. The classic reading. Combined momentum is still negative but has stopped getting worse.
- Above or below zero. Above zero, price is higher than it was 11 and 14 bars ago on balance. Below zero, lower.
- The slope. A rising curve means the rates of change are improving; a falling curve means they are deteriorating.
- Timeframe matters. The curve covers about 24 bars of history. On a monthly chart that is two years, on an hourly chart one day.
These are ways to read the line, not entry signals on their own.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| WMA Length | 10 | Bars in the weighted average that smooths the summed rates of change. Higher is smoother and later. Minimum 1. |
| Long RoC Length | 14 | Look-back of the longer rate of change. Minimum 1. |
| Short RoC Length | 11 | Look-back of the shorter rate of change. Minimum 1. |
| Source | Close | Which price the rates of change are taken from. Open, high, low and the averaged sources such as hl2 and hlc3 are also available. |
Adjust the smoothing length, the two look-backs and the price source in the indicator settings.
Calculation
Each rate of change is the percentage change in price over its look-back. The two are added, then smoothed:
ROCn = 100 * (price - price n bars ago) / price n bars ago
sum = ROC14 + ROC11
Coppock = WMA(sum, 10)The two rates of change are added, not averaged, so the curve is roughly twice the size of a single rate of change.
The weighted average gives the newest bar a weight of 10, the one before 9, and so on down to 1 for the oldest, then divides by the total of the weights. It reacts sooner than a simple average of the same length.
The 14-bar rate of change starts on bar 14 counting from 0, and the 10-bar weighted average needs 10 values of the sum, so the first reading appears on bar 23.
Limitations
- It was designed for long horizons. On intraday charts the classic below-zero turn happens often and carries much less weight than on a monthly chart.
- It is a buy-side tool. The classic reading only describes turns up from below zero. There is no matching sell reading.
- It lags. Rates of change over 11 and 14 bars, smoothed over 10 more, turn well after price does.
- The live candle moves. The current bar's value changes until that bar closes.
- It is not a strategy. On its own it carries no risk management, sizing or exit.
Frequently asked questions
The Coppock Curve is a 10-bar weighted moving average of the sum of the 14-bar and 11-bar rates of change. It is drawn as a line with a zero line in a separate pane.
The classic reading is a turn upwards while the curve is below zero, which suggests a decline is losing momentum. That reading was designed for monthly charts. On shorter timeframes it is more frequent and less meaningful, so confirm it with price and a timeframe that suits your trading.
Yes. The indicator declares four inputs: WMA Length, default 10; Long RoC Length, default 14; Short RoC Length, default 11, each with a minimum of 1; and Source, default close. Open the indicator's settings on the chart to change them.
No. Each value is built from rates of change and a weighted average over fixed windows, and closed bars do not change. The current candle's value moves while that candle is live and settles when it closes.
It was built for monthly charts, where its roughly 24-bar span covers about two years. It can be applied to any timeframe, but the shorter the timeframe, the shorter the swing it describes.
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 Coppock Curve already applied. On any other market, open the indicator picker on the chart and choose Coppock Curve from the Momentum group.