You add a moving average to cut the noise, and it does. It also arrives late to every turn. Price bottoms, runs fifteen pips, and only then does the line finally bend up to tell you what already happened. So you shorten the average to speed it up, and now it wiggles on every candle and fires signals that reverse a bar later. Lag or noise, pick your poison. That is the compromise ordinary moving averages hand you, and the Hull Moving Average was built to dodge it.
By the end of this guide you will be able to read the HMA line without being fooled by its speed, know exactly what “repaint” does and does not mean for it, and decide whether it belongs in your trend filter or your entry timing.
Key Findings
- The HMA is a low-lag moving average: it turns closer to the actual turn in price than a same-length simple or exponential average, while keeping a smooth line.
- The speed comes from blending, not magic: it combines a faster and a slower weighted average and smooths the result, which is why it looks smooth yet reacts early.
- Faster cuts both ways: a short HMA hugs price and flips on small pullbacks, so it needs a longer setting or a confirmation tool to avoid whipsaw.
- It does not repaint history: closed-candle values are fixed; only the point on the live, unfinished candle keeps moving until that bar closes.
What is the Hull Moving Average?
The Hull Moving Average is a moving average designed to react faster to price without turning jagged. It was published by Australian trader Alan Hull in 2005 as an answer to the oldest complaint about moving averages: they lag. On a chart it looks like any other single smooth line laid over price. The difference is in how it is built.
An ordinary simple moving average treats every candle in its window equally, so old prices drag the line back long after the market has moved on. The HMA does two things to fix that. It weights recent prices far more heavily than old ones, and it runs a fast and a slow version of that weighted average, then subtracts one from the other to cancel out most of the delay. A final smoothing pass cleans up the result. You get a line that bends near the real turn but does not shake on every tick.
Think of it like steering a car by looking at the road ahead rather than the rear-view mirror. A simple average steers by the mirror, so it corrects late. The HMA corrects earlier because it leans on the most recent information and cancels the lag the older data would add.
How does the HMA reduce lag compared to other moving averages?
The short answer: it reacts sooner than a simple or exponential average of the same length, at the cost of a slightly less stable line at sharp reversals. Here is how the three common choices stack up.
| Moving average | Reaction speed | Line smoothness | Best used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple (SMA) | Slowest, lags the most | Very smooth | Long-term trend context, wide filters |
| Exponential (EMA) | Faster than SMA | Smooth | Balanced trend following |
| Hull (HMA) | Fastest of the three | Smooth, can overshoot at turns | Early trend reads, active entry timing |
The picture below shows the idea. All three lines follow the same price path, but the SMA trails furthest behind the turn while the HMA sits closest to price.
That early turn is the whole appeal. It is also the whole risk. Because the HMA sits so close to price, a shallow pullback can bend the line the wrong way and print a turn that the market never follows through on. Speed and false signals travel together.
Does the Hull Moving Average repaint?
A Hull Moving Average built on closed candles does not repaint its history. Once a candle closes, the HMA value for that bar is locked, and scrolling back later should show the same line you saw in real time. On that count it behaves like a normal, honest indicator.
The confusion comes from the live candle. While the current bar is still forming, its price keeps changing, and every moving average recalculates its newest point as that price moves. The HMA is faster than most, so its last point can swing noticeably before the candle closes. Traders see that swing and call it repainting. It is not. The line can keep changing its signal until the candle closes; a clean read locks the signal at the close and never moves it after.
This matters because the HMA’s speed makes intrabar turns tempting. The line flips up two-thirds of the way through a candle, you enter, and the candle closes back down with the flip erased. Nothing broke. You simply acted on a value that had not settled yet. If you want to know how to prove any tool holds its signal after the close, our guide on non-repaint forex indicators walks through the exact screenshot test.
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Get RelicusRoad ProHow do you trade with the HMA?
There are two clean jobs for the HMA, and mixing them up is where most traders go wrong.
As a trend filter, a longer HMA gives you a simple rule: trade with the slope. When the line is rising and price holds above it, you look only for longs; when it is falling and price sits below, only shorts. This keeps you on the correct side of the move and costs you almost nothing in false signals because you are not trading the line itself, only using its direction as a gate.
As an entry timer, a shorter HMA marks the moment a swing turns. Here the discipline is to wait for the candle to close before you act, and to demand one piece of confirmation alongside the turn rather than trading the HMA alone. Pairing a slow HMA for direction with a faster read for timing gives you a two-part check instead of a single hair-trigger. Traders who run trend-flip tools such as the Supertrend indicator often add an HMA as the smoother, earlier read beside the flip.
An indicator cannot fix poor risk. The HMA sharpens your timing and keeps your bias honest, but a fast line pointing the right way is still just information. Position size, a defined stop, and the patience to skip the marginal setup do the actual work of keeping an account alive.
Where RelicusRoad Pro fits
The frustration behind all of this is trust. A signal that keeps moving until the candle closes, a line that flips early and reverses, an entry that looked clean on the replay but flickered live. RelicusRoad Pro is built around locking signals at the candle close so what you saw when you entered is what stays on the chart, across MT4, MT5, and TradingView. It does not replace a moving average like the HMA; it removes the guesswork about whether the read in front of you is final. If you want a broader view of how smoothing tools fit together, the moving average crossover strategy guide covers the whipsaw filters that pair well with a fast line like the Hull.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Hull Moving Average?
The Hull Moving Average, or HMA, is a moving average designed by Alan Hull to remove most of the lag that makes ordinary averages slow to react. It plots a single smooth line over price, but instead of averaging closes evenly it weights recent prices more heavily and combines a faster and a slower calculation, then smooths the result. The effect is a line that turns close to where price actually turns while still filtering out small noise, which is why traders use it as a fast trend read rather than a lagging one.
Does the Hull Moving Average repaint?
A Hull Moving Average calculated on closed candles does not repaint its history. Once a candle closes, the value the HMA printed for that bar is fixed and should not move later. What confuses people is the current, unfinished candle: while that bar is still ticking, its price is changing, so the last point of the HMA slides around until the candle closes. That is normal for every moving average, not a repaint. The mistake is reading a fresh turn in the live bar as final when it can still reverse before the close.
What are the best Hull Moving Average settings?
There is no single correct number, but common starting points are a period around 16 to 21 for entry timing and something longer, in the 55 to 100 range, as a slower trend filter. A shorter HMA reacts faster and flips more often, so it suits active timeframes but needs confirmation. A longer HMA stays smoother and gives fewer, more reliable direction changes. The sensible approach is to pick a length, watch how often it flips on your pair and timeframe, and lengthen it if the whipsaw is costing you more than the early entries are worth.
What is the difference between the HMA and the EMA?
Both are moving averages that weight recent prices more heavily, but the Hull Moving Average takes the idea further. An exponential moving average, or EMA, reacts faster than a simple average yet still trails price on sharp turns. The HMA blends two weighted averages of different speeds and smooths the difference, which lets it turn earlier than an EMA of the same length while keeping the line smooth. The trade-off is that the HMA can overshoot slightly at sharp reversals, so it reads direction well but is a poor level to lean a tight stop against.
How do you trade with the Hull Moving Average?
Most traders use the HMA in one of two ways. The first is as a trend filter: when the line is rising and price sits above it, you only look for longs, and the reverse for shorts. The second is as an entry timer, taking a signal when the HMA changes direction or when price crosses it, ideally after a candle closes rather than mid-bar. The strongest use pairs a slower HMA for the trend with a confirmation tool, so a single early turn does not pull you into a trade the wider market does not support.
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