What it does
KAMA, designed by Perry Kaufman, is a moving average that changes its own speed based on market conditions. It computes an efficiency ratio: net price change over the period divided by the sum of all bar-to-bar changes, which is near 1 in clean trends and near 0 in choppy noise. That ratio scales the smoothing constant between a fast EMA (default 2-period) and a slow EMA (default 30-period), so KAMA speeds up in trends and flattens out in ranges.
How to add it
Click Indicators (ƒx) in the header.
Search “Kaufman Adaptive Moving Average” and click the result.
Hover its legend row and click the gear to open settings.
How traders use it
- Use it as a whipsaw-resistant trend filter: because it goes nearly flat in ranges, price chopping around a flat KAMA tells you to stand aside.
- Trade closes across KAMA as trend signals; they fire far less often than EMA crosses in sideways markets.
- Watch the slope: KAMA turning from flat to sloped signals a range resolving into a trend.
- Use it as a trailing stop reference in established trends where it hugs price efficiently.
Inputs
| Input | Type | Default | Range / Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Period | number | 10 | 2–10000 |
| Fast Period | number | 2 | 1–100 |
| Slow Period | number | 30 | 1–500 |
| Source | select | close | Close / Open / High / Low / HL2 / HLC3 / OHLC4 |
Plots & styling
| Plot | Style | Default color |
|---|---|---|
| KAMA(10) | line | #AB47BC |
Every plot's color, line width and visibility can be changed on the Style tab. Precision, price-scale labels and status-line values are configurable at the bottom of the Style tab.
Tips
- The legend eye toggles it off without losing your settings — handy for before/after comparisons.
- Its price-scale label can be switched off per-indicator at the bottom of the Style tab if the axis gets crowded.
- Drag the indicator to its own pane from the legend ⋯ menu if it crowds the price chart.
Watch out for
- The adaptive logic delays its reaction at the very start of a new trend, so early entries are not its strength.
- Three parameters (efficiency length, fast and slow constants) make it easy to overfit.