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Hull Moving Average (HMA)

What the Hull Moving Average is, why it is fast and smooth at once, its settings on MillionChart and a worked example on gold.

The Hull Moving Average (HMA) is a moving average built to be both smooth and quick: it follows turns in price almost at once, yet draws a clean curve. It is one line over the candles, in price units. Alan Hull published it in 2005.

HMA (9, close) over gold, daily candles
HMA (9, close) over gold, daily candles

What it shows#

  • HMA — one curved line over the candles; the legend chip reads HMA 9 close and the current value.
  • The line's direction is its main message: it turns up and down close to where price does, with little of the delay of a simple or exponential average.
  • Price is often on the line rather than clearly above or below it, so the slope is read more than the side.

How it is calculated#

Three weighted moving averages are combined: a WMA over half the Length and a WMA over the full length; double the short one and subtract the long one, which removes most of the lag and adds some noise; then smooth the result with a WMA over the square root of the length, which takes the noise back out. With the default length of 9 the three windows are 4, 9 and 3 candles (the half length rounded down, the square root to the nearest whole number). The Source is the price used, the close by default.

How traders use it#

  • Slope: a turn of the HMA from falling to rising is read as a short-term bottom, the reverse as a top. Many traders colour the line by slope and act on the colour change.
  • As a fast trailing line: in a trend, price rides the HMA with the line pointing the same way; a close across it against the slope is the warning.
  • Longer settings (20 to 55) make a calm trend line that still turns weeks before a simple average of the same length.
  • Watch out for: overshoot. The lag correction pushes the line past price after a sharp move, so the HMA can sit above the high of a spike. And like every average it turns late in a slow, grinding reversal.

Settings#

SettingDefaultWhat it changes
Length9The window of the long WMA, 1 to 5000; the other two windows are half of it and its square root.
SourceCloseThe price smoothed: Open, High, Low, Close, Mid (HL2), Typical (HLC3) or Average (OHLC4).
Colours and style—The colour, width and dash of the HMA line.

Example on gold#

Picture gold falling from $4,400 to $4,250 on the daily chart over three weeks, with the HMA 9 running down above the candles. For example, two days of higher closes bend the line flat and then up at about $4,265; a trader who uses the slope as the signal buys the next close above the line, with the invalidation a close back under a falling HMA. If gold closes at $4,240 three days later with the HMA pointing down again, the signal was a whipsaw, and the small loss is the only consolation. On a longer length, 21 for instance, the same bounce might not have turned the line at all.

Add it to your chart#

  1. Click Indicators in the top strip.
  2. Type hma and click the indicator, or press Enter for the first result.
  3. Click its chip in the legend to open the Inspector and change the settings; drag the chip to reorder; the dot hides it; × removes it.