Reflex and Trendflex Oscillators for Separating Cycles and Trend
Summary
This document describes two price oscillators attributed to John Ehlers: Reflex, intended to track the cycle component of prices, and Trendflex, intended to retain the trend component. The supplied indicator procedures first smooth closing prices with a SuperSmoother filter, then calculate an average of price differences. Reflex adjusts those differences using an estimated slope over the selected lookback, while Trendflex uses the smoothed price changes directly. Both normalize the result using a recursively updated estimate of squared values.
The suggested use is to view the two oscillators together, reading Trendflex for trend and Reflex for market cycles, with the stated aim of reducing lag compared with other lagging calculations. The document provides implementation examples and a default lookback setting, but no chart evidence, signal rules, or performance tests. It does not establish that the indicators reliably forecast price changes, and their practical behavior will depend on parameter choices and market conditions.
Key ideas
- Reflex is presented as an oscillator for the cycle component of price data.
- Trendflex is presented as an oscillator for the trend component.
- Both procedures smooth prices before calculating and normalizing price differences.
- Reflex adjusts its differences using an estimated slope across the lookback period.
- The document suggests reading both oscillators together but provides no performance evidence.
Tags
This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.