Coppock Curve Indicator: Formula, Settings and How to Read It
The Coppock Curve, published by Edwin Coppock in 1962, is a weighted moving average of the sum of two rates of change of the close. Senzoukria plots it in a separate pane with Coppock's original 10 / 14 / 11 settings.
Senzoukria · Indicators · Updated September 2026
Coppock Curve ships with the Senzoukria desktop app, in the Momentum group of the indicator catalogue. It is drawn in its own panel below the chart.
What Coppock Curve measures
The two rates of change are percentages measured over 14 and 11 bars; they are added together and smoothed by a 10-period weighted moving average whose weights rise linearly from 1 to the period, so the most recent value carries the most weight. That weighting is why the curve inflects earlier than an equally long simple average would. Adding two close-but-different momentum horizons damps the false starts a single rate of change produces, while the weighted average gives the curve enough inertia not to flip negative on one quiet bar. A rate of change whose reference close is zero yields nothing, the weighted average refuses any window containing a gap, and the first value appears after long + wma − 1 bars.
The formula, as implemented
This is not a description of how the indicator is usually defined elsewhere — it is what the shipped code computes, documented next to the implementation:
Coppock Curve (Edwin Coppock, 1962) : Coppock = WMA_w( ROC%_long(close) + ROC%_short(close) ) WMA à POIDS LINÉAIRES 1..w (pas de SMA, pas d'EMA, pas de Wilder) — c'est la définition de Coppock, et le poids croissant donne à la courbe son inflexion précoce. Défauts 10/14/11 (l'article original). POURQUOI additionner deux ROC de périodes proches (14 et 11) : Coppock cherchait un indicateur de FIN DE DEUIL boursier ; la somme de deux momentums légèrement déphasés lisse les faux départs qu'un ROC seul produit, et la WMA ajoute l'inertie qui empêche la courbe de repasser en négatif sur une simple respiration. L'usage historique est mensuel — en intraday futures il se lit comme un oscillateur de momentum lent, pas comme un signal d'achat de long terme. ROC en %, référence NULLE → null ; la WMA traverse une série à trous et refuse toute fenêtre incomplète. Warm-up : long + w − 1 barres.
How to read it
- The zero line is the reference: above it the two momentum measures sum positive, below it negative.
- Coppock's own use was a turn upward from below zero on monthly equity data. On intraday futures bars, the same turn says only that slow momentum has stopped deteriorating.
- Slope matters more than level — a curve rising while still negative describes improving momentum from a low base.
- Because the weights favour recent values, the curve can inflect while price is still making new extremes; that is the weighting, not a forecast.
- Long stretches on one side of zero are normal. The curve has no bounds and is not built to oscillate between fixed levels.
Parameters and defaults
longRoc (14) and shortRoc (11) set the two momentum horizons and wma (10) the smoothing. Keeping the two rate-of-change periods close together is what makes their sum behave like a single, slightly phase-shifted momentum measure; pulling them far apart turns the indicator into something else. A longer weighted average makes the curve smoother and later, and pushes the first plotted bar further right.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| WMA period | number | 10 | 1 – 200 |
| Long ROC | number | 14 | 1 – 500 |
| Short ROC | number | 11 | 1 – 500 |
What it does not show
This is a slow, price-only indicator designed for monthly equity index data; on intraday bars it should be read as a lagging momentum curve and nothing more. It has no volume, delta or liquidity input and no upper or lower bound, so levels cannot be compared across instruments. Any rate of change divides by a past close, which makes it undefined where that reference is zero, and its percentage scale means the same absolute price move produces different readings at different price levels.
Using it in Senzoukria
Add it from the Indicators panel of any footprint chart or candle chart. It runs on futures data from Rithmic or Databento and on crypto pairs from Binance and Bybit, on the same engine — the calculation does not change with the venue, only the data feeding it does. Market data subscriptions are billed by the provider, separately from the app.
Related indicators
See the full indicator library, or start with the order flow guide if you are new to reading aggression, delta and absorption.
Frequently asked questions
- Can the Coppock Curve be used on intraday charts?
- It can be computed on any bar series, since the periods are expressed in bars rather than months. But it was built from monthly equity index data to identify the end of long declines, and that interpretation does not transfer to a five-minute futures chart. On intraday bars, read it as a slow momentum curve and expect it to lag.
- Why does the Coppock Curve add two rates of change?
- Coppock summed two momentum measures of nearly the same length, 14 and 11 by default, so that the noise in one would partly cancel the noise in the other. A single rate of change produces frequent false starts; the sum of two slightly phase-shifted ones is steadier while remaining responsive. Setting them far apart breaks that balance.
- What kind of moving average does the Coppock Curve use?
- A weighted moving average with linear weights from 1 up to the period, so in the default 10-period version the most recent value counts ten times as much as the oldest. It is not a simple, exponential or Wilder average. The linear weighting is what gives the curve its earlier inflection compared with a simple average of the same length.