Acceleration momentum
Flags minutes where price's one-minute return jumps up far more than usual, a sudden upturn in pace.
For each one-minute bar it measures the return from the previous close, then how much that return changed from the bar before. It keeps the last window of these changes and flags a bar when its change is positive and more than acceleration_factor standard deviations above their average. The average and spread include the current bar's change, so the test is relative to recent minutes and has no fixed size threshold.
How to read it
- Markers sit on the candles where the test fires, with no separate pane.
- Each marker is one minute where price moved up noticeably faster than the minute before, compared with recent minutes.
- At default settings it fired about 37 times a day on SPY one-minute bars for September 2026.
- Read a marker with the candle and the trend: it marks a rebound off a red minute as well as a push higher.
What it outputs
- Acceleration flag
- Marks each minute where the one-minute return jumps up far more than in recent minutes.
When it fires
Fires on a minute where the one-minute return rose from the previous minute's return by more than acceleration_factor standard deviations above the recent average, and the rise is positive. It means price picked up pace sharply, from a rally or a rebound off a red minute.
Settings
- window
- How many recent return changes set the normal range. Shorter ties it to the last few minutes; at 5 or fewer bars it can never fire at the default factor. Longer compares against a broader stretch and delays the first marker.
- acceleration_factor
- How many standard deviations above the typical change a jump must be. Raising it keeps only sharper jumps and thins the markers. Lowering it flags smaller steps; at 0 a positive step above the average counts. Above about 3.6 at window 15, nothing fires.
Pitfalls
- The test is relative and has no minimum move size, so a tiny step in a dead-quiet stretch can flag just like a large move in a volatile one.
- Only the change in the return is tested, so a marker does not need the price to be rising overall or above a moving average.
- The slider runs to 181, but at window 15 no factor above about 3.6 can ever produce a marker.