Stochastic RSI vs Awesome Oscillator
The stochastic relative strength index reports where a relative strength index reading sits inside its own recent range, bounded from zero to one hundred. The awesome oscillator subtracts a slow average of bar midpoints from a fast one, so it measures the gap between two speeds and has no bounds.
Both live in a panel beneath the chart, both cross a middle line, and both get read for overbought and oversold. Only one of them is measuring anything that could be described that way.
What each one is
The stochastic relative strength index reports where a relative strength index value sits inside the range of its own recent values, from zero to one hundred. Stochastic RSI covers it and RSI covers the input.
The awesome oscillator subtracts a thirty-four period average of bar midpoints from a five period one and draws the difference as a histogram. The awesome oscillator covers the calculation.
So one is a position and the other is a gap. A position has a maximum by definition. A gap between two averages does not, and whereas the first can only tell you that you are at the top of the range, the second can tell you that the distance is widening.
Where they differ
What the reading actually means. At one hundred, the stochastic version is saying the relative strength index is at the top of its recent range. A large positive awesome oscillator is saying the fast average is far above the slow one — a statement about the shape of the move rather than its position.
Which part of the bar is used. The awesome oscillator averages midpoints — high plus low, halved — so the bar’s range is in the calculation. The stochastic version is built on the relative strength index, which uses closes only, so a long wick is invisible to it.
Whether the midline means anything on the chart. The awesome oscillator crossing zero means the fast average crossed the slow one, which is an event you could point at on the price. The stochastic version’s fifty is where a statistic sat inside its own range, which corresponds to nothing visible.
How the shape reads. A histogram whose bars are shrinking while still positive is momentum fading inside an intact move, which is a genuinely useful state. A bounded oscillator pinned at the top has no equivalent — pinned is pinned.
Where they agree
Both are computed entirely from bars that have already closed, and neither leads price.
Both are misread as reversal signals. A big reading on either means the recent move was strong, and strength is what a trend is made of.
Both fight the same drift. On this site’s shared series 54% of 566 ten-bar windows finished higher than they started, so either used as a sell trigger is arguing with the base rate.
And both cost a round trip when acted on — 0.0098 here, about 2% of the median bar range of 0.493.
Which one to use
Run the awesome oscillator when you want to know whether a move is accelerating. The width of the histogram is the answer, and a bounded tool cannot express it once it has reached its ceiling.
Run the stochastic relative strength index inside a confirmed range. Position in a range is a sensible question when there is a range, and its speed is an advantage there rather than a liability.
Run the awesome oscillator when you want one tool instead of two. It carries direction at the zero line and magnitude in the bar height, whereas a bounded oscillator needs a separate trend filter to be usable at all.
And when they disagree in a trend, believe the histogram. The bounded tool being at its extreme is what it does in every trend, which means it is not telling you anything specific to this one.
Why the midpoint choice matters
Because a close is one number and a midpoint is two. A bar that ran a long way and closed back where it started is a real event, and a close-based tool records it as almost nothing while a midpoint-based one at least registers where the bar travelled.
And because thin conditions are where closes lie most. A wide bar on no participation can close anywhere, and a tool that only reads the close treats that as information.
The original data
Of the 24,971 unique videos in the search corpus, no title compares these two directly. The awesome oscillator appears in 53 titles at a median of 10,321 views across 44 channels. The stochastic relative strength index appears in 25, at a median of 26,139 across 23.
Twice the videos, roughly 40% of the median audience. The awesome oscillator is a well-covered tool with a steady audience, while the stochastic version has very few videos and a large audience per one — a demand gap rather than a quality verdict.
On the chart above the shrinking histogram is the informative reading. It says the move is still intact but slowing, which is a state the pinned oscillator has no way of representing.
When it fails
The characteristic failure is stacking them and calling it confirmation. Both are computed from the same price history with no second input between them, so when they agree you have one measurement counted twice — and their disagreements are structural rather than informative, because a bounded tool pins in every trend while an unbounded one keeps reporting. A trader who waits for both is not filtering signals, they are waiting for a bounded oscillator to unpin, which happens when the move is already over.
A second failure is reading the awesome oscillator’s colour changes as signals. A bar shorter than the last one is a description, and most of them mean nothing.
A third is treating the stochastic version’s fifty line as a level. It refers to a statistic’s own range and points at nothing on the price chart.
A fourth is tuning either lookback until the last swing is caught, which fits the sample only.
And a fifth is trading either without a condition filter, which is what makes the extremes constant.
Related
Stochastic RSI covers the twice-derived position reading. The awesome oscillator covers the midpoint averages and the histogram. And RSI covers the measure the stochastic version is built on.
Both of these sit in a panel under the chart and both go up and down, which is enough for most people to treat them as interchangeable. One is telling you where you are and the other is telling you how fast you are going, and those disagree all the time for perfectly good reasons.
— Michael Whitman
This page is educational, not financial advice. Test every idea on your own charts before risking money.