Schaff Trend Cycle¶
Indicators · Oscillators
Schaff Trend Cycle — MACD double-smoothed into a fast 0-100 cycle oscillator.
The Schaff Trend Cycle (STC), developed by Doug Schaff, tries to give you MACD's trend sense with a fast oscillator's timing. It takes the MACD calculation and runs it through a cyclical (stochastic-style) smoothing, producing a responsive 0–100 line that turns earlier than MACD while staying smoother than a raw stochastic. The idea is to catch trend changes sooner — STC often signals a turn several bars before MACD's crossover confirms it.
How it works¶
The block first builds a MACD line from the MACD fast (23) and MACD slow (50) EMAs of the Source. It then applies a stochastic-style normalisation over the Cycle (stoch length) (10) — twice, with a Smoothing factor (0.5) between — to fold that MACD into a smooth 0–100 cycle oscillator. The STC line plots in a sub-pane with Overbought (75) and Oversold (25) guides. Signals come on the turns: Bull ↑ when STC rises up out of oversold, Bear ↓ when it falls down out of overbought (plus plain OB/OS flags).
When to use it¶
Use STC as an early trend-change signal. The headline plays are the turns out of the extremes: STC hooking up from below 25 is an early long, hooking down from above 75 an early short. Because it leads MACD it can get you in sooner, but that earliness is also its risk — in choppy conditions it cycles between extremes and fires premature signals. It's best in markets with discernible cycles and paired with a trend filter to suppress the false turns.
Example¶
An early-turn entry: wire bars into the Schaff Trend Cycle and take Bull ↑ (STC turning up out of oversold) into a Buy Signal, gated by a higher-timeframe EMA bias through an And. Protect with a Fixed Stop-Loss and backtest in the Tester, comparing entry timing against a plain MACD.
Tips & gotchas¶
- Leads MACD — its main selling point is earlier turns, at the cost of more false ones.
- Trade the hooks out of the extremes, not the mere level — the turn is the signal.
- Cycles in chop → premature signals; pair with a trend filter.
- It's MACD wrapped in a stochastic — same DNA, faster and bounded 0–100.
Related blocks¶
Inputs¶
| Socket | Type | What to wire in |
|---|---|---|
| Source | bars / series |
Price bars or any indicator series |
Outputs¶
| Output | Type | Plots as | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| STC | series |
Line · sub-pane | Schaff Trend Cycle (0-100) |
| Bull ↑ | signal |
Signal arrows | STC crosses up out of oversold |
| Bear ↓ | signal |
Signal arrows | STC crosses down out of overbought |
| OB | signal |
— | STC above the overbought threshold |
| OS | signal |
— | STC below the oversold threshold |
Parameters¶
| Parameter | Type | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| MACD fast | number · 2–200 | 23 |
|
| MACD slow | number · 3–400 | 50 |
|
| Cycle (stoch length) | number · 2–100 | 10 |
|
| Smoothing factor | number · 0.05–1.0 | 0.5 |
|
| Overbought | number · 50.0–100.0 | 75.0 |
|
| Oversold | number · 0.0–50.0 | 25.0 |
|
| Source | choice (close, open, high, low, hl2, hlc3, ohlc4) |
close |
|
| Line color | colour | #42a5f5 |
Chart guides
This indicator draws reference level(s): overbought, oversold.
Reference auto-generated from the block catalog · category Indicators.