Oscillator
An indicator that moves back and forth within a band or around a central line, used to gauge momentum and spot extremes.
An oscillator is an indicator that swings between fixed bounds (0–100 for RSI and Stochastic) or around a centre line (zero for MACD, Momentum and many others). It is drawn in a separate panel under the price chart and summarises how fast price has moved recently relative to its own history.
Oscillators are used for three main jobs: spotting overbought and oversold extremes, finding divergences with price, and confirming momentum through centre-line crosses.
Two cautions belong with every oscillator. First, they work best in ranges and worst in strong trends, where extremes persist. Second, most oscillators are calculated from the same few prices, so stacking RSI, Stochastic and CCI mostly shows you the same information three times. It feels like confirmation, but it isn't.
The Sky Trade terminal has a long list of oscillators: RSI, MACD, Stochastic, CCI, Williams %R, ATR, Momentum, Awesome Oscillator, ADX, ROC, TRIX, CMO, Aroon, Vortex, DeMarker and Ultimate Oscillator. Picking one or two that you understand properly beats loading them all. See the Stochastic guide and CCI explained.
In a morning range on EUR/GBP, Stochastic(14,3) swings from 15 to 85 and back three times, each turn matching an edge of the range. When the range breaks, it sits above 80 for an hour.