Hull Moving Average (HMA)
The Hull moving average is Alan Hull's low-lag moving average, built by combining weighted moving averages of different lengths so the line hugs price closely while staying smooth enough to read.
Every moving average lags, and Hull's construction is an attempt to engineer most of it away. It takes a WMA of half the period, doubles it, subtracts the full-period WMA — which overshoots in the direction price is moving — and then smooths the result with a WMA of the square root of the period to tame the noise the overshoot introduces. The result is a line that turns within a bar or two of price itself, yet stays visibly smoother than raw closes.
Because the 21-day HMA tracks price so closely, traders use it less as support and more as a direction stamp: the question is not whether price is above it but which way the line itself is pointing. A common screen on daily NSE bars is the HMA rising for several consecutive sessions while price holds a longer average — the fast line confirming the turn, the slow one confirming there is a trend worth turning into.
The catch is that low lag is bought with overshoot. The doubled half-period term deliberately extrapolates, so at sharp turns the HMA can swing past where price settles and snap back — and in a sideways market it changes direction constantly, each wiggle looking like the start of something. It is a responsive line, not a prescient one; it reports the turn quickly and reports the head-fakes just as quickly.
Against the EMA the difference is degree: both front-load recent price, but the HMA's subtraction step actively cancels lag rather than merely reducing it, making it the fastest smooth line in this catalog. TEMA chases the same goal by stacking EMAs; the HMA gets there with WMAs and typically runs a touch smoother at the same responsiveness.
In Sift
Written as hma(21). A working scan — stocks whose 21-day Hull average has risen five straight sessions above a healthy 50-day:
where hma(21) rising for 5 bars and close > sma(50)1
of the 500 most-traded NSE stocks match today, as of 20 Aug 2026
Common questions
Is the Hull moving average better than the EMA?
It is faster, which is not the same as better. The HMA turns with price almost immediately, so it flags trend changes earlier than an EMA — and flags noise earlier too. In trending stocks the speed helps; in choppy ones it manufactures signals. The trade-off is measurable: run the same scan with each and compare hit rates on past sessions.
How is the Hull moving average calculated?
From three weighted moving averages: twice the WMA of half the period, minus the WMA of the full period, smoothed by a WMA of the square root of the period. The subtraction cancels most of the lag; the final smoothing tames the noise that cancellation lets through. PatternsRadar precomputes it at 21 days.