It is said that Archimedes discovered the principle of displacement while sitting in a tub of water. It's not unusual for insights to occur at unforeseen times. So too it was with economist Edwin Coppock. On being told that it took 11 to 14 months to mourn a death, he used this idea to develop an indicator that would predict a sustained rally after an economic downturn.

The Coppock indicator is the sum of a 14-month rate of change in an index and 11-month rate of change, smoothed out by a 10-period weighted moving average. When the curve less than zero and rises, that is a "buy" signal. The deeper it goes below zero, the more powerful the rally. The Coppock indicator has predicted 16 U.S. rallies from 17 "buy" signals, and recently the Coppock indicator gave another "buy" signal.

Continue reading What is the Coppock indicator?

What is the Coppock indicator? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.