📈 Indicators·intermediate

MFI (Money Flow Index)

Also called: money flow index

A volume-weighted RSI that measures buying and selling pressure — values above 80 are overbought, below 20 are oversold.

Money Flow Index is essentially RSI with volume baked in. It measures the same overbought/oversold concept but weights each price change by the volume that occurred during that period. Big volume up days push MFI up faster than small volume up days. The result is a momentum oscillator that's more sensitive to actual buying and selling pressure than pure-price RSI. MFI ranges from 0 to 100, with 80+ being overbought and 20- being oversold. Like RSI, the most useful signals are divergences — when price makes a new high but MFI makes a lower high, sellers are more active than the price chart suggests. MFI is best on assets with reliable volume data: stocks, indices, crypto. On spot forex it's less reliable because volume isn't centralized.

Real trade example

BTCUSD printed a textbook bearish MFI divergence at $73k in March 2024 — price topped, MFI made a lower high, and the reversal led to a 25% drop over the next two months.

Related terms

RSI (Relative Strength Index)

intermediate

A momentum indicator from 0-100 that flags overbought (>70) and oversold (<30) conditions — and, more importantly, divergences.

OBV (On-Balance Volume)

intermediate

A volume indicator that adds volume on up days and subtracts it on down days — used to confirm trends and spot divergences.

Divergence

intermediate

When price moves in one direction but a momentum indicator moves in the opposite direction — a warning of trend exhaustion.

Heiken Ashi

intermediate

A modified candlestick chart that smooths price action — uses an averaged open and close to filter noise and reveal trends.

Supertrend

intermediate

A trend-following indicator based on ATR that plots a single line above or below price — line below means uptrend, above means downtrend.

Golden Cross

beginner

When a short-term moving average (typically 50-day) crosses above a long-term moving average (typically 200-day) — a major bullish signal.

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