Published 19 February 2019
A research report from Investtech based on 12 years of data from the National Stock Exchange in India shows that stocks with high RSI, above the critical 70 level, have continued to rise. Similarly stocks with low RSI, below the critical 30 level, have continued to underperform vs benchmark.
RSI is an oft-used indicator in technical analysis. RSI means Relative Strength Index, and it measures how well a stock has performed compared to itself. The figure is calculated by looking at the strength of days with rising prices compared to strength of days with falling prices over a certain period of time and it gets a value between 0 and 100.
Many investors feel that RSI indicates whether a stock has risen or fallen too much and will react back. Investtech’s research shows that this overbought/oversold interpretation is not statistically correct. The results show that RSI is a good indicator of whether the stock has positive momentum or negative momentum and that this “RSI momentum” is a good indicator of future price development.
We have studied 31,220 cases where RSI21 crossed above the 70 limit and 23,404 cases where RSI21 fell below the 30 limit. We called this strategy RSI momentum and called it a buy signal when RSI went above 70 and a sell signal when RSI fell below 30.
The table below shows annualized excess return following RSI momentum signals. The figures are based on the quarterly figures, i.e. excess return 66 days (3 months) after the signal was triggered.
Annualized excess return | |
Buy signal RSI21 breaks above 70 | 9.0 %p |
Sell signal RSI21 breaks below 30 | -10.9 %p |
%p: percentage points
The results indicate that RSI is a well-suited momentum indicator and that investments based on buy signals from RSI momentum give statistically stronger return than average benchmark.
Investtech offers a number of stock picking tools, and using Stock selection you can set criteria for RSI, allowing you to find for instance all stocks with RSI above 70. You can also set criteria for liquidity and volatility.
Please find more research results and details in the complete research report here.
Keywords: Buy signal,NSE,RSI,RSI-momentum,Sell signal,statistics.
Investeringsaanbevelingen worden gedaan door Investtech.com AS ("Investtech"). Investtech garandeert geen volledigheid of juistheid van de analyses. Eventuele fouten in de aanbevelingen, koop- en verkoopsignalen en mogelijke negatieve gevolgen hiervan zijn geheel het risico van de belegger. Investtech neemt geen enkele verantwoordelijkheid voor verlies, direct of indirect, als gevolg van het gebruik van Investtechs analyses. Meer informatie omtrent Investtechs analyses kunt u vinden op disclaimer.
Investeringsaanbevelingen worden gedaan door Investtech.com AS ("Investtech"). Investtech garandeert geen volledigheid of juistheid van de analyses. Eventuele fouten in de aanbevelingen, koop- en verkoopsignalen en mogelijke negatieve gevolgen hiervan zijn geheel het risico van de belegger. Investtech neemt geen enkele verantwoordelijkheid voor verlies, direct of indirect, als gevolg van het gebruik van Investtechs analyses. Meer informatie omtrent Investtechs analyses kunt u vinden op disclaimer.