What it does
Martin Pring's Special K sums a dozen smoothed rate-of-change calculations spanning short, intermediate and long lookbacks into a single momentum curve. The idea is that short-term, cyclical and secular momentum usually peak and trough together, so one composite line can track the full sweep of a bull or bear move from start to finish. It is designed so that its major peaks and troughs roughly coincide with the primary trend turning points of price itself.
How to add it
Click Indicators (ƒx) in the header.
Search “Pring's Special K” and click the result.
Hover its legend row and click the gear to open settings.
How traders use it
- Treat major peaks and troughs in Special K as candidates for primary trend reversals in price.
- Confirm signals by drawing trendlines on Special K itself or applying a long moving average (Pring suggests around 100 periods) and trading its crosses.
- Divergence between Special K and price at long-term extremes is a strong warning that the primary trend is turning.
- Use it top-down: establish the primary trend with Special K on daily or weekly data, then time entries with faster tools.
Inputs
| Input | Type | Default | Range / Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source | select | close | Close / Open / High / Low / HL2 / HLC3 / OHLC4 |
Plots & styling
| Plot | Style | Default color |
|---|---|---|
| PSK | line | #00C000 |
Every plot's color, line width and visibility can be changed on the Style tab. Precision (default 4 decimals), price-scale labels and status-line values are configurable at the bottom of the Style tab.
Reference levels
| Level | Value |
|---|---|
| Zero Level | 0 |
Level values, colors and line styles are editable in settings.
Tips
- Hide the study from the legend eye instead of removing it when you only want it out of the way temporarily.
- Merge multiple oscillators into one pane from the legend ⋯ menu to compare them on a shared axis.
- Double-click the plot to open settings directly, skipping the legend hover.
Watch out for
- It is built for primary-trend analysis and is of little use for intraday or very short-term trading.
- Because it aggregates many lagging components, confirmation of a turn can come well after the actual price extreme.