Price Change
Price Change
What is Price Change?
Price Change is a simple yet powerful indicator that measures the difference between the current closing price and the closing price N bars ago. It quantifies momentum by showing how much price has moved over a specific lookback period, both in absolute terms and as a percentage.
How it works
Price Change compares the current close to a historical close:
Change = Close - Close[N]
Change_pct = (Close - Close[N]) / Close[N] * 100
Where N is the lookback period (number of bars).
- Positive value — price has increased over the period
- Negative value — price has decreased over the period
- Zero — price is unchanged
Parameters
| Parameter | Default | Description | |-----------|---------|-------------| | Period | 1 | Number of bars to look back for comparison |
Common period settings
| Period | Use case | |--------|----------| | 1 | Bar-to-bar change (momentum) | | 5 | Weekly change (on daily charts) | | 10 | Two-week change | | 20 | Monthly change (on daily charts) | | 60 | Quarterly change | | 252 | Annual change (on daily charts) |
Example conditions
| Condition | Meaning |
|-----------|---------|
| PRICE_CHANGE(1) > 0 | Current bar closed higher than previous bar |
| PRICE_CHANGE(1) < 0 | Current bar closed lower than previous bar |
| PRICE_CHANGE(5) > 100 | Price increased by more than $100 over last 5 bars |
| PRICE_CHANGE(20) < -500 | Price dropped more than $500 over last 20 bars |
| PRICE_CHANGE_PCT(1) > 2 | Price increased by more than 2% in one bar |
| PRICE_CHANGE_PCT(5) < -5 | Price dropped more than 5% over 5 bars |
Tips
- PRICE_CHANGE(1) is the simplest momentum filter — positive means bullish bar, negative means bearish
- Use percentage-based changes (PRICE_CHANGE_PCT) for comparing across different instruments and prices
- Large price changes often signal the start of trends or breakouts
- Combine with volume indicators to distinguish between genuine moves and low-volume noise
- Use multi-period price change to create momentum-based strategies: e.g., buy when PRICE_CHANGE(20) > 0 AND PRICE_CHANGE(5) > 0 (both short and medium-term momentum positive)
- Price change can serve as a volatility filter: avoid entries when PRICE_CHANGE is too extreme (mean reversion risk)