Calculating Slopes of MAs

[z11]

what is the best method to get slope of a MA line (x number of bars in length) in degrees (angle) so say, a value of 45 degrees would indicate a positively sloping line of the MA while a value of 315 degrees would mean a negatively sloping line?
Thanks.

[dloomis]

If the slope of a line is the rise/run, where the rise is the change in the value (positive or negative) of the MA over x bars, the run is x, so if the rise is 0.5 pts over 5 bars, wouldnt the slope be 0.1 pts/bar?

Now the angle issue, the angle is in the eye of the beholder.

If you scrunch the chart up the angle looks steep, if you spread it out the same angle looks shallow.

[z11]

David,
that's a good point but my challenge is to find a "normalized" quantity to determine the shape of a line so that this quantity is consistent regardless of scales of the underlying line....thus the idea of degree...any thoughts on this gentlemen? Thanks.

[dloomis]

hmmm, normalized you say?

How about using a percent change over time?

[Guest]

Hi Z11,

Would you consider posting the efs that you are working on, not only to help us help you, but that's the nice thing about an open source community, innovation promotes further innovation.

[z11]

hi Steve,

I am rather new to EFS ...started to program in it about 3 weeks ago. The question on some sort of quantity to measure shape of a line just came up during one of my "thinking" sessions and I don't have any EFS per se for use it. When I do I'd be more than happy to post and this is really a great community with core group of users such as yourself. Thanks for all the help guys.