SMMA

Indicators · Moving Averages

Smoothed (Wilder) Moving Average — slower than EMA.

The SMMA (Smoothed Moving Average), also called Wilder's moving average, is the slow and steady member of the family. It deliberately gives up responsiveness in exchange for an exceptionally smooth, stable line that ignores short-term noise almost entirely. If the EMA is quick and the SMA is balanced, the SMMA is the calm one — it barely flinches at a single spike.

How it works

The SMMA is an exponential average with a gentle smoothing factor of 1 / Period (an EMA uses the larger 2 / (Period + 1), which is why the SMMA reacts more slowly for the same length). Each bar it nudges the previous value a small fraction of the way toward the new price. This is the exact smoothing Welles Wilder baked into RSI, ATR, and ADX / DMI, so the SMMA is really those indicators' internal averaging exposed as a standalone line. The Source defaults to close; the single output plots on the price pane in your Line color.

When to use it

Use the SMMA when you want a noise-resistant trend baseline — a slow line that defines the bigger picture and rarely gives false direction changes. It's well suited to longer-term bias filters and to smoothing jumpy inputs (wire a noisy series into it and the SMMA calms it right down). The downside is the obvious one: it lags more than an EMA, so it's a poor entry trigger and the last MA to react to a genuine reversal.

Example

SMMA on EURUSD · H1

A stable bias filter: wire bars into a Period 50 SMMA and only allow longs while price holds above it, combining that with a faster trigger through an And gate into a Buy Signal. Because the SMMA changes direction rarely, your bias stays stable through the noise. Backtest in the Tester.

Tips & gotchas

• Slower than EMA on purpose. The 1/Period factor makes it the smoothest classic average — great for bias, poor for timing.
• It's the engine inside Wilder's indicators. If you've ever used a 14-period RSI or ATR, you've used SMMA smoothing.
• Excellent noise filter for choppy series — feed an oscillator through it to clean up false crosses.
• Don't trade its crosses fast. Its lag means crossover signals arrive late; use it for context.

Related blocks

• EMA
• SMA
• ATR
• RSI

Inputs

Socket	Type	What to wire in
Source	bars / series	Price bars or any indicator series

Outputs

Output	Type	Plots as	Description
SMMA	series	Line	Smoothed price series

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	What it does
Period	number · 2–500	14	Window length for Wilder's smoothing
Source	choice (close, open, high, low, hl2, hlc3, ohlc4)	close	Which price to smooth (used when bars are wired)
Line color	colour	#ce93d8	Color of the SMMA line on the chart

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