FTB-C000030 / Indicator

Traditional McClellan Oscillator

A breadth oscillator equal to the 10% Trend minus the 5% Trend of daily advancing issues minus declining issues.

Also known asUnadjusted McClellan OscillatorRaw-count McClellan Oscillator

Advanced Formula defined 6 linked topicsPublished

Definitions

In plain terms

The traditional oscillator compares a faster and a slower exponential trend of net advances. Positive values mean the faster trend is above the slower trend at that observation.

Technical

For raw issue-count input X_t = A_t - D_t, compute the 10% and 5% recursive trends under one declared initialization policy and return MO_t = T10_t - T5_t whenever both states are ready.

Scope

Traditional means the input is an unnormalized issue-count difference; universe, eligibility, initialization, missing sessions, revisions, rounding, and signals remain explicit package policies.

Formula

MO_t = T10_t(A_t - D_t) - T5_t(A_t - D_t)
LaTeX: MO_t=T^{10}_t(A_t-D_t)-T^{5}_t(A_t-D_t)
SymbolMeaningUnit
A_tAdvancing issue count at tissues
D_tDeclining issue count at tissues
T10_tReady 10 percent trendissues
T5_tReady 5 percent trendissues
MO_tTraditional McClellan Oscillatorissues

Output unit: issues

Examples

  • If the ready 10% Trend is 32 issues and the 5% Trend is 27 issues, the oscillator is positive 5 issues.

Common misconceptions

  • The traditional oscillator is not ratio-adjusted and therefore can change scale when the eligible universe changes.

Concept relationships

Prerequisites

Broader concepts

Contrasts with

Derived from

Feeds into

Required by

Where this concept is used

Tutorials planned

These catalogued topics use this concept, but their complete build has not shipped yet.

  • D04-F02-A01 Primary
  • D04-F02-A02 Prerequisite
  • D04-F02-A03 Prerequisite
  • D04-F02-A05 Prerequisite
  • D04-F02-A06 Prerequisite
  • D07-F01-A02 Mentioned

Evidence and governance

  1. Calculating the McClellan Oscillator McClellan Financial Publications · first party methodology

    Supports: preferred label, short definition, technical definition, formula, units, historical attribution

    Limits: Does not prescribe one universal initialization, missing-session, revision-resolution, rounding, or software interface policy.

  2. McClellan Oscillator StockCharts ChartSchool · secondary methodology

    Supports: variant distinction

    Limits: Platform symbols, displayed thresholds, universe choices, and implementation details are vendor-specific rather than universal methodology requirements.

Reviewed by
Last reviewed
2026-07-26
Next review
2027-07-26
Record status
published
Written by

Fintech engineer building market-data and financial systems, and the author of every article, glossary record, and reference implementation on The Fintech Builder.