Almost every indicator in this track is built for traders watching daily or intraday charts. The Coppock curve is the opposite: a slow, monthly indicator built in 1962 for long-term investors, with one job — to tell them when a major market bottom has probably passed and it is time to buy for the long haul.
How to read its one signal
You wait for the curve to fall below the zero line — which happens during and after a serious market decline — and then hook upward. That hook is the buy. There is deliberately no sell signal: Coppock built the tool to catch the bottom, not the top, so it stays silent on when to exit. That single-mindedness is a feature, not a gap. It answers one narrow, valuable question and refuses to pretend it can answer others.
On what chart and for what purpose is the Coppock curve designed to be used?
Zyada tar indicators traders ke liye daily chart pe hote hain. Coppock curve ulta hai — 1962 ka, long-term investors ke liye, monthly chart pe, ek hi kaam: bade bottom ke baad batana ki ab lambe time ke liye kharidne ka waqt hai. Ajeeb kahani: economist Coppock ne padrion se poocha "gham kitna chalta hai?" — 11-14 mahine — aur wahi periods formula mein daale, is soch pe ki market crash se recovery gham se recovery jaisi hai. Signal: curve zero ke neeche se upar mudte hi buy. Sell signal nahi — sirf bottom pakadta. Slow hai, kabhi-kabhi hi signal deta, aur sirf broad index pe — single stock ya daily chart pe bekaar.
- The Coppock curve is a slow, monthly, long-term momentum indicator from 1962.
- Its periods trace to how long people grieve — markets recover like mourners, its author reasoned.
- It is buy-only: the signal is an upturn from below zero after a decline.
- It flags major index bottoms but fires rarely and can whipsaw near zero.
- Use it on broad indices on monthly data, never on single stocks or short timeframes.
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Common questions
Short, direct answers to what people ask about this topic.
- what is the coppock curve
- The Coppock curve is a long-term momentum indicator, created by economist Edwin Coppock in 1962, designed to identify buying opportunities after major market declines. It is calculated on monthly data by adding two rate-of-change measures of an index and smoothing the result with a weighted moving average. It produces a single slow-moving line, and its classic signal is a turn upward from below zero, read as the start of a new long-term bull phase.
- how do you use the coppock curve
- It is used on monthly charts of a broad index, not on individual stocks or short timeframes: the buy signal is when the curve, having fallen below zero, turns back up. That upturn is taken as confirmation that a major bottom has passed and a long-term advance is beginning. Crucially it has no sell signal — Coppock designed it purely to catch the turn after a bear market, so it answers "is it time to buy the index for the long run?" and nothing else.
- does the coppock curve work
- It has a reasonable historical record at flagging major index bottoms, but it is slow, gives very few signals, and can whipsaw when it hovers near the zero line without committing. It is a tool for long-term, index-level investors willing to act on a signal that appears only every few years, not for traders or stock-pickers. Like any single indicator it should inform a decision rather than dictate it, and it is meaningless applied to individual shares or short timeframes.
- why does the coppock curve use 11 and 14 month periods
- Coppock reportedly chose those periods after asking clergymen how long people typically grieve a bereavement — the answer was around 11 to 14 months — on the theory that recovering from a market crash is emotionally similar to recovering from a loss. Whether or not the reasoning holds, it explains the unusual month-based settings: the indicator is deliberately built around the long, human timescale of recovery, which is why it lives on monthly charts and moves slowly.