Improving MACD Technical Analysis by Optimizing Parameters and Modifying Trading Rules: Evidence from the Japanese Nikkei 225 Futures Market
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Much research has examined performance or market efficiency by using the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) technical analysis tool. However, most tests fail to verify efficiency with the traditional parameter settings of 12, 26, and 9 days. This study confirms that applying the traditional model to Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures prices produces negative performance over the period of 2011–2019. Yet, it also finds that the MACD tool can earn significant positive returns when it uses optimized parameter values. This suggests that the Japanese market is not weak-form efficient in the sense that futures prices do not reflect all public information. Hence, the three parameters values of the MACD tool should be optimized for each market and this should take precedence over finding other strategies to reduce false trade signals. This study also tests which models are able to improve profitability by applying additional criteria to avoid false trade signals. From simulations using 19,456 different MACD models, we find that the number of models with improved performance resulting from these strategies is far greater for models with optimized parameter values than for models with non-optimized values. This approach has not been discussed in the existing literature.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.012 | 0.032 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".