Force Index

Indicators · Volume

Elder's Force Index — volume-weighted close-to-close momentum, EMA-smoothed.

Alexander Elder's Force Index combines the three things that define the power behind a price move: its direction, its size, and the volume that drove it. The logic is intuitive — a big up-move on heavy volume has real force behind it; the same move on thin volume is weak and likely to fade. It rolls all three into a single oscillator around zero, giving you a read on whether bulls or bears are genuinely in control and how strongly.

How it works

The raw force for each bar is (close − previous close) × volume — direction and size from the price change, conviction from the volume. That Raw line is jumpy, so the block also gives you a Force line that smooths it with an EMA over the EMA period (default 13). Positive readings mean bulls are pushing; negative means bears; the magnitude is the strength. The block fires Bull ↑ / Bear ↓ signals when the smoothed Force crosses zero. On forex it uses tick volume.

When to use it

Elder's own framework uses two Force Indexes. A short one (period ~2) is a sensitive entry timer — in an uptrend, a dip in the 2-period Force below zero flags a pullback to buy. A longer one (13+) reads the underlying trend's force and is best for divergence — fading force while price makes new highs warns of exhaustion. So: short Force for timing within a trend, long Force for trend strength and divergence. The zero-line cross is a momentum-shift signal.

Example

Force Index on EURUSD · H1

A pullback-in-trend entry: with bias up from a 200-EMA, wire bars into a Force Index (short EMA period) and buy when the Raw/Force dips below zero then recovers via a Crosses Above into a Buy Signal — buying the volume-confirmed pullback. Protect with a Fixed Stop-Loss and backtest in the Tester.

Tips & gotchas

• Two periods, two jobs. Short (~2) for pullback timing, long (13+) for trend force and divergence.
• Raw is for timing, Force is for trend. The unsmoothed line catches quick pullbacks; the smoothed one reads the bigger picture.
• Zero cross = momentum shift, but it's noisy on the short setting — that noise is the entry signal in Elder's method.
• Tick volume on forex — directional proxy, not contract size.

Related blocks

• OBV
• Money Flow Index
• Elder Ray
• Volume

Inputs

Socket	Type	What to wire in
Source	bars	Price bars (needs close + volume)

Outputs

Output	Type	Plots as	Description
Force	series	Line · sub-pane	EMA-smoothed Force Index
Raw	series	Line · sub-pane	Single-bar Force (close-to-close × volume), unsmoothed
Bull ↑	signal	Signal arrows	Force crosses above zero
Bear ↓	signal	Signal arrows	Force crosses below zero

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	What it does
EMA period	number · 1–200	13
Line color	colour	#ffa726

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Reference auto-generated from the block catalog · category Indicators.