Above +DI = sellers lead.
The short answer
- What is the Minus Directional Indicator (−DI)?
- Minus Directional Indicator: the strength of the downward move, normalized.
- When does −DI get it wrong?
- Same caveat as +DI. You can see its current reading on the platform's tickers, on the last daily close, in the “Reading now” table on this page. Read it now →
Reading now
| Ticker | Value | Five sessions ago | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPY | 26.66 | 23.99 | Higher than five sessions ago |
| QQQ | 31.49 | 19.65 | Higher than five sessions ago |
| IWM | 38.26 | 31.97 | Higher than five sessions ago |
| DIA | 27.19 | 31.60 | Lower than five sessions ago |
A description of where the number sits against its thresholds. It is not an entry or exit signal.
Indicator limit
Same caveat as +DI.
Read it with
Average Directional Index: seller leadership is read when ADX confirms the trend has strength.
Answers: does the market have a trend?
What it actually does
The Minus Directional Indicator measures the strength of the downward move alone: how far the session's low breaks yesterday's low (when that beats the high's extension), smoothed and divided by the true range. It is the mirror image of its positive twin, and the second of the two building blocks of Wilder's directional system.
How it is read in practice
When it sits above the positive line, the downward move dominates. A fast rise in it is one of the cleanest signs that sharp selling waves are starting: sellers break lows session after session with no upward extensions worth mentioning.
Defensive use
Watching it on the major indexes is an early warning for a portfolio: a cross above its twin on a market index while trend strength rises means a downtrend regime is taking hold · time to review hedging before the headlines talk.
Hypothetical example
An index holds up on the surface above its support while the negative line climbs steadily for three weeks: inner lows break again and again even though the famous support holds. When the support finally broke, it was no surprise to someone reading the indicator · the bearish structure had been building in front of them.
Where it errs and why
Like its twin: noise in ranges and a structural lag. Reading it alone, without the twin and the gate, gives only half the picture.
Read it with
It is not read alone. The environment is classified with the trend strength indicator, confirmed with volume, and placed on the structural levels from the gamma map, since a signal at a dense wall carries more weight than one in open space.
Where to see it on the platform
The technical chart in the members area shows it in its full family on any symbol and timeframe you choose.
Its window and calibration
Like its sibling: 14 sessions by convention, and the window is unified across the whole system (the twins and the gate) so its parts don't contradict each other. Some stock traders lengthen it, because sharp selling waves quickly saturate the short version and it loses the ability to tell an ordinary decline from an accelerating collapse · a longer window keeps the scale graduated in storms.
