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Zero Lag Exponential Moving Average

Classic moving-average low-lag ema smoothing classic

ZLEMA attempts to eliminate the inherent lag associated with moving averages.

Usage

Use to reduce the lag of a standard EMA by approximately two thirds. Drop-in replacement for EMA in trend-following systems where responsiveness is more important than smoothness.

Background

Patrick Mulloy introduced Triple EMA in Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities (1994) as a practical lag-reduction technique. TEMA = 3EMA - 3EMA(EMA) + EMA(EMA(EMA)), subtracting out two orders of the EMA lag while preserving most of the noise reduction.

Parameters

  • period (default: 14): Smoothing period

Formula

\[ ZLEMA = EMA(Price + (Price - Price_{t - (period - 1)/2})) \]

Source