VAcc (Velocity & Acceleration)

16 oct 2023

VAcc (Velocity & Acceleration) is a momentum indicator published by Scott Cong in Stocks & Commodities V. 41:09 (8–15). It applies concepts from physics, namely velocity and acceleration, to financial markets. VAcc functions similarly to the popular MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) indicator when using a longer lookback period, but produces more responsive results. With shorter periods, VAcc exhibits characteristics reminiscent of the stochastic oscillator.

🟠 Algorithm

The average velocity over the past n periods is defined as

((C - C_n) / n + (C - C_{n-1}) / (n - 1) + … + (C - C_i) / i + (C - C_1) / 1) / n

At its core, the velocity is a weighted average of the rate of change over the past n periods.

The calculation of the acceleration follows a similar process, where it’s defined as

((V - V_n) / n + (V - V_{n - 1}) / (n - 1) + … + (V - V_i) / i + (V - V_1) / 1) / n

🟠 Comparison with MACD

A comparison of VAcc and MACD on the daily Nasdaq 100 (NDX) chart from August 2022 helps demonstrate VAcc's improved sensitivity. Both indicators utilized a lookback period of 26 days and smoothing of 9 periods.

The VAcc histogram clearly shows a divergence forming, with momentum weakening as prices reached new highs. In contrast, the corresponding MACD histogram significantly lagged in confirming the divergence, highlighting VAcc's ability to identify subtle shifts in trend momentum more immediately than the traditional MACD.