Smoothing a Trend Detector with a Three-Pole Butterworth Filter

Summary

The Smoothed Simple Trend Detector applies a three-pole Butterworth filter, attributed to Witold Wozniak, to create a smoothed version of the indicator. The document describes its use as similar to the Relative Strength Index or DeMarker, suggesting an oscillator-like way to interpret its values.

An accompanying image distinguishes the unsmoothed series from the filtered series by color. This conveys the basic purpose of the filter, but the document provides no calculation details, parameter guidance, thresholds, or worked trading examples. It also gives no backtest or evidence that smoothing improves signals, reduces noise, or produces better results. Readers therefore get a high-level description of the indicator’s construction and intended comparison, rather than a complete method for generating or evaluating trades.

Key ideas

• A three-pole Butterworth filter is used to smooth the trend detector.
• The indicator is presented as usable in a manner similar to RSI or DeMarker.
• The document distinguishes the raw and smoothed lines visually.
• It provides no thresholds, trading rules, or performance evidence.

Tags

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.