Counterpart of the negative line: +DI is built from it. A rise means buying pressure is widening.
The short answer
- What is Plus Directional Movement (Plus Directional Movement)?
- Plus Directional Movement: how far the high rose above the previous candle's high, when that exceeds the drop in the low.
- When does Plus Directional Movement get it wrong?
- Like its counterpart, it is an intermediate material, not a signal, and reading it alone produces confidence with nothing behind it. See its current reading on platform symbols, at the latest daily close, in the "Reading now" table on this page. See its current reading →
Reading now
| Ticker | Value | Five sessions ago | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPY | 0.00 | 5.01 | Lower than five sessions ago |
| QQQ | 0.00 | 5.94 | Lower than five sessions ago |
| IWM | 0.00 | 0.40 | Lower than five sessions ago |
| DIA | 4.20 | 2.71 | Higher than five sessions ago |
A description of where the number sits against its thresholds. It is not an entry or exit signal.
Indicator limit
Like its counterpart, it is an intermediate material, not a signal, and reading it alone produces confidence with nothing behind it.
Read it with
Average True Range: divided by true range it gives +DI, and on its own it cannot be compared across two symbols.
Answers: does the market have a trend?
What it actually does
Plus Directional Movement is the raw material before any scaling: how far today's high exceeds yesterday's high, in dollars, provided that excess beats the downward extension of the low. Otherwise it is zero. No division by range and no smoothing: the basic building block itself.
Why the competing condition
A session can extend the high and the low at once (an outside session). Which one counts? Wilder's rule: only the larger, and the other becomes zero. The logic is that net directional movement is what wins a session, not the sum of both directions. A session that widened both ends is not a trend but a disturbance.
Its place in the chain
It is the input the whole system is built from. It is smoothed and scaled by true range to become the Positive Directional Indicator, then compared with its twin to produce trend strength. Understanding the block explains the pyramid's behavior: every oddity at the top starts here.
Hypothetical example
A quantitative researcher builds their own system and wants to weight upward thrusts with their own formula, not Wilder's. They take this raw block and apply their own smoothing and scaling. The block is there for those who build, and the finished pyramid for those who use it.
Where it errs and why
A raw dollar value: not comparable across assets, and not suited to direct daily reading. Its raw noise is very high. It is an input to a calculation, not a decision indicator.
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.
