MACD Technical Indicator Oscillator Technical Analysis Fast Line and Signal Line

MACD indicator is used in various ways to give technical analysis information.

1. MACD center line crosses indicate bullish or bearish markets: below zero is bearish, above zero is bullish.
2. MACD Crossovers indicate a buy or sell signal.
3. Oscillations can be used to indicate oversold & overbought regions
4. Used to look for divergence between crude price and indicator.

Construction of MACD Technical Indicator

The MACD indicator is constructed using two exponential moving averages and this crude technical indicator plots two lines. The two default exponential moving averages used are 12 and 26. Then a smoothing factor of 9 is also applied when drawing the MACD indicator.

Summary of how MACD indicator is drawn

MACD uses 2 EMAs + a smoothing factor (12, 26 Exponential Moving Averages and 9 smoothing periods)

MACD technical indicator only plots two lines - the MACD fast line and the MACD signal line

MACD Lines - MACD Fast Line and MACD SignalLines Trading Signals

• The Fast-Line is the difference between the 26 EMA & 12 EMA
• The Signal-line is the 9 period moving average of the MACD fast line.

Implementation of MACD Technical Indicator

MACD indicator implements the MACD line as a continuous line while the signal line is implemented as a histogram. These 2 MACD LINES are then used to generate signals using the crossover strategy method.

There is also the MACD center-line which is also known as zero mark & it is a neutral point between buyers and sellers trading the crude market.

Values above the center-mark are considered bullish signals while those below are bearish signals.

The MACD indicator being an oscillator indicator, oscillates above and below this center-line.