You take a long because price is trending up, and it keeps trending up. But every push higher feels weaker than the last, and then the move rolls over without warning. The trend was intact the whole way down. What changed was the force behind it, and price alone never showed you that.
That gap between direction and force is what Dr. Alexander Elder built the Elder Ray Index to close. It keeps the trend on the chart but adds a second question underneath it: who is actually winning, buyers or sellers, right now?
By the end of this guide you will read Bull Power and Bear Power, spot the divergence that warns a trend is tiring, and run the one check that separates a trustworthy Elder Ray from a repainting fake.
Key Findings
- It splits pressure in two: Bull Power is the bar's high minus a 13-period EMA; Bear Power is the bar's low minus that same EMA.
- The EMA sets the trend: the two histograms then read whether buyers or sellers are winning around that trend, so the tool is a gauge, not a trigger.
- Divergence is the strongest read: price makes a new extreme but Bull or Bear Power does not, hinting the force behind the move is fading.
- The core version does not repaint: a closed bar's values are fixed, but the live bar moves until close and some arrow add-ons redraw history. Test before you trust.
What does the Elder Ray Index actually measure?
The Elder Ray measures how far buyers and sellers pushed price away from the trend on each bar, using a 13-period exponential moving average as the trend line.
The design is simple, which is its strength. Take a 13-period EMA as the reference for the trend. Then, on every bar, measure two distances. Bull Power is the bar’s high minus the EMA: how far buyers managed to lift price above the trend. Bear Power is the bar’s low minus the EMA: how far sellers managed to drive price below it. Both plot as histograms around a zero line.
That split is the whole idea. Most momentum tools blend buying and selling into one line, so you see net pressure but not the tug of war behind it. The Elder Ray keeps the two forces apart, so you can watch one strengthen while the other fades. That kind of shift often shows up before price does.
Elder introduced the tool in his 1993 book Trading for a Living, alongside his Force Index, as part of a system that reads trend and pressure together rather than trusting either alone; the reference overview at Investopedia lays out the same two-histogram construction. The name is deliberate: like an X-ray, it looks past the surface of price to the bulls and bears working underneath it.
How do you read Bull Power and Bear Power?
Fix the trend with the EMA first, then read the two histograms as a balance of power. The clearest signal is divergence, not a bare crossing of zero.
In a healthy uptrend, the pattern you want is Bull Power positive and rising while Bear Power stays negative but shallow. That says buyers keep stretching price above the trend and sellers cannot push it far below. A downtrend is the mirror: deep, expanding Bear Power and weak Bull Power.
The reading that earns its place is divergence. Price prints a higher high, but Bull Power prints a lower peak than it did on the previous high. Price went further; the buying force behind it did not. That is an early hint the trend is running on fumes. It is the same logic traders use across momentum tools, mapped in leading vs lagging indicators . The same warning works in reverse: a lower low in price paired with a shallower Bear Power says sellers are losing their grip.
Two habits keep this honest. First, never trade the Elder Ray alone. Elder built it as one screen in a stack, confirmed against a trend read and price structure. Second, respect the EMA slope: Bull Power spikes inside a clear downtrend are counter-trend noise more often than they are reversals.
Elder Ray vs MACD histogram: what is the real difference?
Put them side by side and the temperaments separate. Both draw momentum as bars around zero, but they measure different quantities, and that changes what each one is good at.
| Factor | Elder Ray Index | MACD histogram | Awesome Oscillator |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it measures | High and low distance from one EMA | Gap between MACD line and its signal | Difference of two median-price averages |
| Buyers vs sellers | Kept on separate lines | Blended into one line | Blended into one line |
| Best read | Divergence and pressure balance | Momentum acceleration | Momentum shift and zero cross |
| Trend reference | Built in, the 13-EMA | Implied by the underlying EMAs | Implied, no explicit trend line |
| Weak spot | Two lines to watch at once | Hides the buyer/seller split | Hides the buyer/seller split |
The point is not that one wins. It is that the Elder Ray keeps buying and selling visible as separate forces, while a blended histogram like the MACD histogram or the awesome oscillator collapses them into a single net reading. If you want to see which side is tiring, the split matters. If you only need net momentum, the blended tool is simpler to watch.
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Get RelicusRoad ProDoes the Elder Ray Index repaint?
The standard Elder Ray does not repaint its history. Once a bar closes, its Bull Power and Bear Power are locked and will not move when you reload the chart.
This matters because a repainting tool flatters every back-test and then fails you live. Bull Power and Bear Power are built from the completed high, low, and EMA of each closed bar, so past values are final. What does move is the current, unfinished bar: its high, low, and EMA all shift with each tick until the candle closes. That live wobble is normal for any indicator and is not repainting.
The real trap is third-party “Elder Ray arrow” or “signal” add-ons that stamp buy and sell marks on the chart and then redraw those marks after the fact so the history looks flawless. The check is the same one from the non-repaint forex indicator guide : note a past mark, reload the chart, and confirm it did not move. If the arrows shift, the tool was showing you hindsight, not signals.
How does RelicusRoad Pro fit alongside the Elder Ray?
RelicusRoad Pro does not replace a pressure read. It handles the part the Elder Ray leaves open: confirmation at the close.
The Elder Ray tells you buyers or sellers are winning around the trend, and divergence warns when that grip is loosening. What it will not do is call the exact bar to act on, which is why Elder always paired it with other screens. RelicusRoad Pro commits each signal at the candle’s close, fixed there on the non-repaint side of the reload test above, reading structure and momentum together rather than leaving you to reconcile two histograms against price by hand. The same logic runs across MT4, MT5, and TradingView, so the read you trust on one platform carries to the next.
None of that is sold as automatic trading, and that is deliberate. A pressure gauge and a signal tool sharpen your timing. They cannot size your position or set your risk — that stays with you. What the pairing removes is the reflex to hold a fading trend because price still looks fine.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Elder Ray Index? The Elder Ray Index is a momentum tool built by Dr. Alexander Elder that measures the buying and selling pressure around a trend. It uses a 13-period exponential moving average as a reference for the trend, then plots two histograms against it. Bull Power is the bar’s high minus the EMA, showing how far buyers pushed price above the trend. Bear Power is the bar’s low minus the EMA, showing how far sellers pushed price below it. Read together, the two lines tell you which side is controlling price relative to the underlying trend.
How do you read Bull Power and Bear Power? Start with the EMA to fix the trend direction, then read the two histograms as a pressure balance. In an uptrend, you want Bull Power positive and rising while Bear Power stays negative but shallow, which says buyers dominate and sellers cannot push price far below the trend. In a downtrend, you want the reverse. The most useful signal is divergence: if price prints a new high but Bull Power makes a lower peak, the push had less force behind it than the last one. Elder taught the tool as a filter used with a separate trend read, not as a lone trigger.
What are good Elder Ray settings? The original design uses a 13-period exponential moving average as the trend reference, and that remains the common default. A shorter EMA reacts faster and suits lower timeframes at the cost of more noise; a longer EMA smooths the reference and suits position trading. There is no single correct number. Match the EMA length to your timeframe and confirm it on the market you actually trade rather than copying a setting from a different chart.
What is the difference between the Elder Ray Index and the MACD histogram? Both display momentum as bars around a zero line, but they measure different things. The MACD histogram shows the gap between the MACD line and its signal line, so it tracks the acceleration of a moving-average spread. The Elder Ray measures the raw distance from each bar’s high and low to a single EMA, so it reports how far buyers and sellers stretched price away from the trend on that bar. The MACD histogram is one blended reading; the Elder Ray keeps buying and selling pressure on separate lines, which makes the balance between the two easier to see.
Does the Elder Ray Index repaint? The standard Elder Ray does not repaint its history. Bull Power and Bear Power use the completed high, low, and EMA of each closed bar, so once a candle closes its values are fixed and will not change when you reload the chart. The current, unfinished bar does move with each tick until it closes, which is normal for any indicator and is not repainting. The real risk is third-party Elder Ray arrow or signal add-ons that redraw their past marks so a back-test looks perfect. Note a past mark, reload the chart, and confirm it did not move.
The Elder Ray will not call your exact top or bottom, and it was never built to. It does one thing well: it separates buying from selling around the trend, so a move losing its force shows up in the pressure before it shows up in the price.
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