Last updated: 8 October 2026. Every screenshot below was recorded on 8 October 2026 on an IQ Option Practice account registered in Brazil, on EUR/USD 5-minute candles; the Chart analysis picture in Step 1 was recorded on 5 October 2026. We placed no real-money trade. The settings come from the platform’s dialog and the calculation from the published source code of the platform’s built-in indicators (Quadcode’s script library). The tested box shows what two signals, the centerline crossover and the signal-line crossover, did on EUR/USD 5-minute candles recorded between 29 September and 5 October 2026; it says nothing about what will happen next.
The Know Sure Thing (KST) is Martin Pring’s momentum oscillator. It takes four rates of change over different lengths, smooths each with a simple moving average, weights them 1, 2, 3 and 4, and adds them up. On IQ Option it opens in its own panel under the price chart as two lines around a zero line, the KST and a signal line that is a 9-period simple moving average of the KST. A cross of the zero line and a cross of the signal line are read. The line has no upper or lower limit, so it shows no overbought or oversold area. On 5-minute EUR/USD candles it crossed zero 33 times and its signal line 71 times in 1,230 candles.
Quick answer
- What it plots: two lines in a panel under the price chart: the KST (red by default) and its signal line (green), plus a zero line.
- Formula: KST = 1 × SMA(ROC 10, 10) + 2 × SMA(ROC 15, 10) + 3 × SMA(ROC 20, 10) + 4 × SMA(ROC 30, 15); signal = SMA(KST, 9).
- Settings on the platform: ten: the RoC and SMA periods of the four cycles (10 and 10, 15 and 10, 20 and 10, 30 and 15), the period of the signal line (9) and the Source (close).
- Reading: above zero the weighted momentum is positive, below zero negative; a cross of the signal line is the second signal. There are no overbought or oversold levels.
- Where: the Momentum list of the Chart analysis panel; search for Know Sure.
- Tested: the centerline crossover gave 33 signals and won 43.8% of the decided trades with a 5-minute trade; the signal-line crossover gave 51 signals and won 56.0% (60.8% with a 15-minute trade). Break-even is 54.1% at an 85% payout, and a few days of one pair prove nothing.
How do you add the Know Sure Thing on IQ Option?
Set the chart
Choose the asset, the chart type and the candle size first: the indicator is calculated from the candles on the chart. The examples in this guide use 5-minute candles on EUR/USD. These steps use the web traderoom on a Practice balance, and the numbers in each screenshot match the numbers in the text. If you do not have an account yet, see how to register.
Step 1: Open Chart analysis
Click the indicators button (1), the wave icon in the chart toolbar at the bottom left of the chart. The Chart analysis panel opens with the tabs Indicators, Templates, Widgets and Scripts. Stay on Indicators.
Step 2: Find Know Sure Thing
Type “Know Sure” in the Search for indicators box (1), or open the Momentum list, and click Pring’s Know Sure Thing (2).
Step 3: Check the settings
The dialog has the tabs Basic settings (1), Colors and display and Script. The RoC Period (2) opens at 10, the rate of change of the lightest cycle, weight 1. The SMA Period (3) opens at 10, the average that smooths it. The Light – RoC Period (4) opens at 15, the rate of change of the light cycle, weight 2. The Light – SMA Period (5) opens at 10, its average. The Heavy – RoC Period (6) opens at 20, the rate of change of the heavy cycle, weight 3. The Heavy – SMA Period (7) opens at 10, its average. The Heaviest – RoC Period (8) opens at 30, the rate of change of the heaviest cycle, weight 4. The Heaviest – SMA Period (9) opens at 15, its average. The Signal line – Period (10) opens at 9, the length of the simple moving average of the KST that gives the signal line. The Source (11) opens at close, the price used. The first two fields belong to the lightest cycle; the platform gives the other three cycles the prefixes Light, Heavy and Heaviest.
Step 4: Check the colours and click Apply
Open the Colors and display tab (1). The tab has three rows: KST, red by default, and Signal line, green by default, each with a colour box and a line-style box, and Base line, the zero line, with a checkbox, a grey colour box and a line-style box. All the rows are in box 2. Click Apply (3).
Step 5: Read the panel
The two lines are drawn in their own panel under the price chart. The title bar of the panel reads Pring’s Know Sure Thing (10,10,15,10,20,10,30,15,9,close), the eight periods of the four cycles, the period of the signal line and the source, followed by the settings, eye and close icons (1). The scale at the right edge has no fixed range: it shows 1, 0 and −1 in the picture, and a grey line marks 0. The KST is the red line and its signal line the green one (2).
How is the Know Sure Thing calculated?
The Quadcode source takes the rate of change (ROC) of the source over four periods, 10, 15, 20 and 30 candles, smooths each with a simple moving average of 10, 10, 10 and 15 candles, and adds them with weights 1, 2, 3 and 4: the longest cycle counts the most. The signal line is a simple moving average of the KST over 9 candles. These are also the usual defaults: ROC periods 10, 15, 20 and 30, averages 10, 10, 10 and 15, and a signal line with period 9.
| Cycle | RoC Period | SMA Period | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lightest | 10 | 10 | 1 |
| Light | 15 | 10 | 2 |
| Heavy | 20 | 10 | 3 |
| Heaviest | 30 | 15 | 4 |
The signal line has its own Period (9) and the Source is the price used (close). The indicator is credited to Martin Pring; it is a momentum oscillator for four time frames, built on smoothed rates of change.
How do you read the Know Sure Thing?
There are three readings. Centerline: above zero the bulls dominate and the price is rising; below zero the bears control the market. Signal line: when the KST rises above the signal line while it is negative, the downtrend is ending; when it falls below the signal line while it is positive, the uptrend is ending. Divergence: a large divergence between the price and the KST, ending with a signal-line cross, is another signal. The centerline and signal-line crossovers are the most popular and productive; the KST has no limits, and its own limits are that it needs different settings for different markets and gives false signals against strong trends.
What did it look like on 5-minute candles?
We replayed the library script on EUR/USD 5-minute candles recorded from the Practice traderoom: 1,093 candles from 29 September 2026 (01:55 UTC) to 2 October (20:55 UTC) and 241 from 4 October (21:00 UTC) to 5 October (17:00 UTC). With the defaults both lines have a value from the 53rd candle of each stretch, 1,230 values in all.
- Zero crossings: 33 (28 in the first stretch and 5 in the second), about one every 37 candles.
- Signal-line crossings: 71, about one every 17 candles.
- Side of zero: the KST was above zero on 528 of the 1,230 candles (43%).
- Scale: the KST has no limits. Over the whole recording it ran from −4.76 to 3.08 and its signal line from −4.66 to 2.92, in the units of the platform’s scale (the scale of the panel adjusts to the window: its labels read 1, 0 and −1 in window A and 2 and 0 in window B).
Two stills of the platform, window A (the Step 5 picture shows its two ends) and window B (not pictured), agree with the replay: the scale of each window read from its labels, 261 points of the KST and the signal line read off the chart differed from the replay of the script by 0.016 on average and by 0.04 at most, in the units of the scale. In window A, 29 September from 05:56 to 11:45 on the platform clock, the KST starts at −1.02 at 06:00, falls to its low of −1.41 at 07:00, rises through zero at 08:15, makes its high of 0.97 at 09:30, falls through zero at 10:35 and ends at −0.45 at 11:45; the signal line crosses zero upwards at 08:35 and downwards at 10:55. In window B, from 11:14 to 17:03, the KST starts at −0.51 at 11:15, makes lows of −0.92 at 12:55 and −1.63 at 14:45, rises through zero at 15:40 and reaches its high of 1.51 at 16:40; the signal line crosses zero upwards at 16:00. (A point is drawn at the close of its candle: the value of the candle that opened at 09:25 sits at the 09:30 mark.)
The signals, tested
We wrote the two most popular signals as rules on closed candles, with the option opened at the close of the signal candle. Centerline: Higher on the candle where the KST rises above zero, Lower where it falls below. Signal line: Higher on the candle where the KST rises above its signal line while the KST is below zero, Lower where it falls below its signal line while the KST is above zero. No expiry is given, so the box shows five minutes and fifteen minutes.
Tested on IQ Option: the Know Sure Thing, EUR/USD 5-minute candles of 29 September to 5 October 2026
| Asset and candles | EUR/USD binary (regular, not OTC): 1,334 five-minute candles (2026-09-29 01:55 to 2026-10-02 20:55 UTC and 2026-10-04 21:00 to 2026-10-05 17:00 UTC). The candles were recorded from IQ Option’s Practice traderoom. The replay places no orders; it only scores the rule on those closed candles, at an 85% payout. |
|---|---|
| Rule tested | The two most popular signals on closed candles, the option opening at the close of the signal candle. Centerline: Higher on the candle where the KST rises above zero, Lower where it falls below. Signal line: Higher on the candle where the KST rises above its signal line while the KST is below zero, Lower where it falls below its signal line while the KST is above zero. No expiry is given, so the box shows 5 and 15 minutes on 5-minute candles. |
| Signals | Centerline crossover, 5-minute, 1 candle: 33 signals (17 Higher, 16 Lower) Signal-line crossover on the wrong side of zero, 5-minute, 1 candle: 51 signals (30 Higher, 21 Lower) Centerline crossover, 5-minute, 3 candles: 32 signals (17 Higher, 15 Lower) Signal-line crossover, 5-minute, 3 candles: 51 signals (30 Higher, 21 Lower) |
| Outcomes | Centerline crossover, 5-minute, 1 candle: 14 won, 18 lost, 1 tied; 43.8% of the 32 decided trades won; net −$0.18 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.16 at 91%) Signal-line crossover on the wrong side of zero, 5-minute, 1 candle: 28 won, 22 lost, 1 tied; 56.0% of the 50 decided trades won; net +$0.04 per $1 staked at 85% (+$0.07 at 91%) Centerline crossover, 5-minute, 3 candles: 14 won, 18 lost, 0 tied; 43.8% of the 32 decided trades won; net −$0.19 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.16 at 91%) Signal-line crossover, 5-minute, 3 candles: 31 won, 20 lost, 0 tied; 60.8% of the 51 decided trades won; net +$0.12 per $1 staked at 85% (+$0.16 at 91%) |
| Break-even | At an 85% payout a trade needs to win more than 54.1% of its decided trades to break even (1 ÷ 1.85); at 91%, more than 52.4% (1 ÷ 1.91). |
A replay is only a look back at candles recorded on the dates above: it placed no real orders, covers about four and a half days of one pair, and counts overlapping trades as if they were independent. A short test proves nothing about the future, and no profit and no win rate is promised here. IQ Option’s own blog on backtesting says that most strategies need dozens, and often hundreds, of trades before a result means anything.
With a trade of one candle (5 minutes) the centerline rule gave 33 signals and won 14 of the 32 decided trades (43.8%, one tie), and the signal-line rule gave 51 signals and won 28 of 50 (56.0%, one tie). With a trade of three candles (15 minutes) the figures were 43.8% (14 of 32) and 60.8% (31 of 51). Break-even is 54.1% at an 85% payout: the centerline rule is below it in both cases and the signal-line rule above it in both, but the 95% interval of the signal-line rule runs from 42% to 69% with 5-minute trades and from 47% to 73% with 15-minute trades, so neither result can be told from chance.
Pros and Cons of the Know Sure Thing
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Combines four cycles, from 10 to 30 candles, in one line. | A lot of settings: eight periods and a signal period in the dialog. |
| A centerline and a signal line give two readings from one panel. | No overbought or oversold levels: it has no limits, so a high value is not a warning. |
| The weights make the longer cycles count more, so the line is smoother than a single rate of change. | It lags, and it needs different settings for different markets. |
Common mistakes
- Looking for overbought and oversold levels. The KST has no limits.
- Changing several of the eight periods at once. Change one, and test it on a Practice balance.
- Entering on every signal-line cross. It crossed 71 times in about four and a half days of 5-minute candles.
- Reading a result of a few dozen trades as a rule. The two signals gave 33 and 51 signals.
Related guides
- Pring’s Special K and Coppock Curve
- Rate of Change on IQ Option and MACD on IQ Option
- Classic and hidden divergences and leading and lagging indicators
- All indicator guides and all strategy guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the Know Sure Thing indicator?
A: A momentum oscillator that adds four smoothed rates of change with weights 1 to 4. It is credited to Martin Pring.
Q: What settings does the Know Sure Thing have on IQ Option?
A: Ten: the RoC period and the SMA period of each of the four cycles (10 and 10, 15 and 10, 20 and 10, 30 and 15), the period of the signal line (9) and the Source (close); the colours of the KST, the signal line and the base line can be changed on the Colors and display tab.
Q: Does the KST show overbought and oversold areas?
A: No. It has no upper or lower limit, so, unlike the RSI or the Stochastic, it shows no overbought or oversold area.
Q: Which signals does the KST give?
A: The cross of the zero line and the cross of the signal line, and divergences. The results of the first two are in the tested box.
Q: Is the KST better than the MACD?
A: We did not compare them. Both are built from averages of price changes and both lag.
Q: Can I use the KST on binary options?
A: The platform draws it on any chart. Whether a rule works is something to test on the Practice balance with the expiry you plan to use.
