IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2604.26063.html

A Volume-Price-Adjusted MACD Trading Strategy with Sensitivity Calibration for U.S. Equity Indices

Author

Listed:
  • Luyun Lin
  • Lixing Lin
  • Zhen Zhang
  • Moxuan Zheng
  • Yiqing Wang

Abstract

Traditional moving average convergence divergence (MACD) trading rules are often constrained by signal lag and susceptibility to false signals. To address these limitations, this study develops a volume-price-adjusted MACD (VP-MACD) framework that incorporates volume, volatility, and intraday price structure into the conventional indicator, and introduces a sensitivity parameter to allow earlier trade entry and improve responsiveness to market movements. Using the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, and Dow Jones Industrial Average as representative U.S. equity indices, the model is calibrated over historical records from 2018 to 2022 and evaluated out of sample over 2023 to February 2026. The results indicate that the proposed framework generally delivers better economic performance than the baseline MACD strategy in terms of profitability, risk-adjusted return, and downside-risk control, while generating fewer but more selective trading signals. These findings suggest that incorporating additional market information into technical trading rules may enhance signal quality in U.S. equity index markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Luyun Lin & Lixing Lin & Zhen Zhang & Moxuan Zheng & Yiqing Wang, 2026. "A Volume-Price-Adjusted MACD Trading Strategy with Sensitivity Calibration for U.S. Equity Indices," Papers 2604.26063, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2604.26063
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.26063
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Terence Tai-Leung Chong & Wing-Kam Ng & Venus Khim-Sen Liew, 2014. "Revisiting the Performance of MACD and RSI Oscillators," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-12, February.
    2. Byung-Kook Kang, 2026. "Optimal and Non-Optimal MACD Parameter Ranges with Stop-Loss and Take-Profit Rules: Evidence from the Gold Market," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
    4. Park, Cheol-Ho & Irwin, Scott H., 2004. "The Profitability of Technical Analysis: A Review," AgMAS Project Research Reports 37487, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics.
    5. Robert J. Shiller, 2003. "From Efficient Markets Theory to Behavioral Finance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 83-104, Winter.
    6. Byung-Kook Kang, 2021. "Improving MACD Technical Analysis by Optimizing Parameters and Modifying Trading Rules: Evidence from the Japanese Nikkei 225 Futures Market," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Gunasekarage, Abeyratna & Power, David M., 2001. "The profitability of moving average trading rules in South Asian stock markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 17-33, March.
    8. Brock, William & Lakonishok, Josef & LeBaron, Blake, 1992. "Simple Technical Trading Rules and the Stochastic Properties of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1731-1764, December.
    9. Antonio Zoratto Sanvicente, 2015. "The Price-Trading Volume Relationship in the Brazilian Stock Market, the Impact of Stock Lending and a Role for Technical Analysis," Brazilian Review of Finance, Brazilian Society of Finance, vol. 13(4), pages 631-649.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cheol‐Ho Park & Scott H. Irwin, 2007. "What Do We Know About The Profitability Of Technical Analysis?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 786-826, September.
    2. Stefanescu, Răzvan & Dumitriu, Ramona, 2015. "Buy and sell signals on Bucharest Stock Exchange," MPRA Paper 89014, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Jan 2016.
    3. Stephan Schulmeister, 2007. "The Interaction Between the Aggregate Behaviour of Technical Trading Systems and Stock Price Dynamics," WIFO Working Papers 290, WIFO.
    4. Philippe Mathieu & Olivier Brandouy, 2006. "A Broad-Spectrum Computational Approach for Market Efficiency," Post-Print hal-00731962, HAL.
    5. Park, Cheol-Ho & Irwin, Scott H., 2004. "The Profitability Of Technical Trading Rules In Us Futures Markets: A Data Snooping Free Test," 2004 Conference, April 19-20, 2004, St. Louis, Missouri 19011, NCR-134 Conference on Applied Commodity Price Analysis, Forecasting, and Market Risk Management.
    6. Hannah Thinyane & Jonathan Millin, 2011. "An Investigation into the Use of Intelligent Systems for Currency Trading," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 37(4), pages 363-374, April.
    7. Dan Anghel, 2013. "How Reliable is the Moving Average Crossover Rule for an Investor on the Romanian Stock Market?," The Review of Finance and Banking, Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti, Romania / Facultatea de Finante, Asigurari, Banci si Burse de Valori / Catedra de Finante, vol. 5(2), pages 089-115, December.
    8. Guanqing Liu, 2019. "Technical Trading Behaviour: Evidence from Chinese Rebar Futures Market," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 54(2), pages 669-704, August.
    9. Terence Tai-Leung Chong & Wing-Kam Ng & Venus Khim-Sen Liew, 2014. "Revisiting the Performance of MACD and RSI Oscillators," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-12, February.
    10. Matheus José Silva de Souza & Danilo Guimarães Franco Ramos & Marina Garcia Pena & Vinicius Amorim Sobreiro & Herbert Kimura, 2018. "Examination of the profitability of technical analysis based on moving average strategies in BRICS," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 4(1), pages 1-18, December.
    11. Stephan Schulmeister, 2009. "Profitability of technical stock trading: Has it moved from daily to intraday data?," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(4), pages 190-201, October.
    12. Chen, Cheng-Wei & Huang, Chin-Sheng & Lai, Hung-Wei, 2009. "The impact of data snooping on the testing of technical analysis: An empirical study of Asian stock markets," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 580-591, September.
    13. Stephan Schulmeister, 2009. "Technical Trading and Trends in the Dollar-Euro Exchange Rate," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 37582.
    14. Mohamed Masry, 2017. "The Impact of Technical Analysis on Stock Returns in an Emerging Capital Markets (ECM¡¯s) Country: Theoretical and Empirical Study," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(3), pages 91-107, March.
    15. Cheol‐Ho Park & Scott H. Irwin, 2010. "A reality check on technical trading rule profits in the U.S. futures markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 633-659, July.
    16. Lukas Menkhoff & Mark P. Taylor, 2007. "The Obstinate Passion of Foreign Exchange Professionals: Technical Analysis," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 936-972, December.
    17. Abudy, Menachem Meni & Kaplanski, Guy & Mugerman, Yevgeny, 2024. "Market timing with moving average distance: International evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    18. Kung, James J., 2009. "Predictability of Technical Trading Rules: Evidence from the Taiwan Stock Market," Review of Applied Economics, Lincoln University, Department of Financial and Business Systems, vol. 5(01-2), pages 1-17, March.
    19. Chong, Terence Tai-Leung & Lam, Tau-Hing & Yan, Isabel Kit-Ming, 2012. "Is the Chinese stock market really inefficient?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 122-137.
    20. Farias Nazário, Rodolfo Toríbio & e Silva, Jéssica Lima & Sobreiro, Vinicius Amorim & Kimura, Herbert, 2017. "A literature review of technical analysis on stock markets," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 115-126.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2604.26063. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.