SMMA (Smoothed Moving Average)

The Smoothed Moving Average (SMMA) is a variant of the exponential moving average that uses a longer effective lookback. It produces an extremely smooth line, filtering out most short-term noise while still tracking the broader trend. SMMA is equivalent to an EMA with period (2N - 1).

First bar:  SMMA = SMA(N)
Next bars:  SMMA = (SMMA_prev × (N - 1) + Close) / N

This recursive formula means SMMA gives very low weight to each new price change, resulting in high smoothness.

• Ultra-smooth — far smoother than SMA or EMA of the same period.
• High lag — the trade-off for smoothness is slower reaction to trend changes.
• Equivalent to long EMA — SMMA(14) behaves like EMA(27).
• Used in MetaTrader — SMMA is one of the four standard MA types in MT4/MT5.

Trend direction

• Price above SMMA — long-term uptrend.
• Price below SMMA — long-term downtrend.

Support / Resistance

• SMMA acts as a strong dynamic support/resistance level due to its smoothness.

| Parameter | Default | Description | |-----------|---------|-------------| | Period | 20 | Lookback length |

| Condition | Meaning | |-----------|---------| | close > SMMA(20) | Price above smoothed average | | EMA(10) cross_over SMMA(50) | Fast EMA crosses above slow SMMA — bullish | | close cross_under SMMA(50) | Price breaks below SMMA — strong bearish signal |

| Factor | SMA | EMA | SMMA | |--------|-----|-----|------| | Smoothness | Medium | Low-Medium | Very High | | Lag | Medium | Low-Medium | High | | False signals | Medium | More | Fewer | | Best timeframe | Any | Intraday-Swing | Daily-Weekly | | Common use | General purpose | Trend following | Trend identification |

Choose SMMA when you want to identify the major trend direction and filter out noise. It works best as a background filter rather than a signal generator.

A key insight: SMMA(N) is mathematically equivalent to EMA(2N - 1):

| SMMA Period | Equivalent EMA | |-------------|---------------| | SMMA(7) | EMA(13) | | SMMA(14) | EMA(27) | | SMMA(20) | EMA(39) | | SMMA(50) | EMA(99) |

This means you can replicate SMMA behavior using a longer EMA, which is useful if your charting tool doesn't support SMMA natively.

• Use SMMA for identifying the major trend on higher timeframes.
• Combine with faster indicators (EMA, RSI) for entry timing within the SMMA-defined trend.
• SMMA crossovers produce fewer signals but they tend to be more reliable.
• For scalping, SMMA is too slow — use EMA, DEMA, or TEMA instead.