Triangular moving average
An SMA of an SMA — double-smoothed, weighting the middle of the lookback period most heavily, for a very smooth trend line.
What the numbers mean
The period is the window, but it is averaged twice — an SMA of an SMA — so the weight peaks in the middle of the lookback rather than at either end. A 20-period TMA therefore responds to what happened around ten bars ago more than to today.
- 20 — the weight peaks around bar 10 of the window, not at today
- 50 or 100 — for describing the broad shape of a long trend
How it is used
Used to identify the broad direction of a market without reacting to the edges of the window, particularly on noisy intraday data.
- Identifying the underlying direction of a noisy market
- Better suited to analysis after the fact than to live signals
How it relates to everything else
The TMA is the slowest common average, sitting at the opposite end of the spectrum from TEMA and HMA. Because its weight is centred, its turns arrive roughly half a window late — which makes it a useful backdrop for judging whether a faster line's signal is going with or against the bigger picture.
- TMA → SMA → WMA → EMA → DEMA → TEMA: slowest to fastest
- Works best as the slow line in a pair, never as the fast one
What to watch for
Centre-weighting makes it the laggiest of the common averages. It is a description of where price has been, not a timing tool.