The random walk index was created by Michael Poulos in order to determine if a security’s current price action is exhibiting “random walk” or is the result of a statistically significant trend, higher or lower.
The random walk index has two lines, a RWI High and RWI Low, which measure uptrend and downtrend strength.
When the RWI High is above the RWI Low, it means there is more upward strength than downward strength, and vice versa.
When either the RWI High or RWI Low is above one, it indicates a strong, non-random, trend is present. Readings below one mean movement could be random because there is not enough strength to indicate otherwise.
Calculation :Â
The calculation for high periods, or RWI High, is:
unlike many version of that indicator that can be found on the net (that are using some approximations that are omitting the real calculation), the first version already was calculating the RWI correctly – this one does that correctly too
there were two issues that needed attention in original version :
int its original form it is hard to use (RWI is a “nervous” indicator – a lot of sudden changes and then it is not easy to check what the “trend” is)
it has a very complex calculation (loop within a loop type of calculation that can not be avoided a lot of times) – and for longer periods it is heavy on the CPU
both issues are addressed in this version
the interface is changed to make it (at least that is my opinion) easier to follow
and, in a lot of cases it is significantly faster (now it becomes suitable for back-testing – average speed up in back-testing ranged, for default values, from 10 to 15 times faster, for longer periods – like the examples, the difference is much higher)
One deviation is made compared to the original which makes the values a bit different, but the significant points (crosses) are remaining at their original places
