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 three readings of the rules did on EUR/USD 5-minute candles recorded between 29 September and 5 October 2026; it says nothing about what will happen next.
The True Strength Index (TSI) is a momentum oscillator that smooths the price change twice and compares it with the smoothed size of the change. On IQ Option it opens in its own panel under the price chart as two lines around a zero line: the TSI line and a signal line, an exponential moving average of the TSI. Above zero the smoothed price changes are net positive, below zero net negative. The usual readings are the zero line, the signal-line crossover and overbought and oversold areas near ±20 or ±30. On 5-minute EUR/USD candles the TSI crossed its signal line 93 times and zero 42 times in 1,236 candles.
Quick answer
- What it plots: two lines in a panel under the price chart: the TSI and its signal line, plus a zero line.
- Formula: TSI = 100 × EMA(EMA(price change, Long), Short) ÷ EMA(EMA(|price change|, Long), Short); signal = EMA(TSI, Period). Defaults: Long 25, Short 13, Period 13.
- Settings on the platform: four: Long (25), Short (13), Source (close) and Signal line – Period (13).
- Reading: above zero momentum is positive, below zero negative; a cross of the signal line or of zero is what is watched.
- Where: the Momentum list of the Chart analysis panel; search for True Strength.
- Tested: on EUR/USD 5-minute candles of 29 September to 5 October 2026 the signal-line cross gave 93 signals and won 48 of 93 (51.6%) at a five-minute expiry, the same cross filtered by the zero line 16 of 34 (47.1%), and the zero-line cross 24 of 38 decided trades (63.2%); break-even is 54.1% at an 85% payout. Three rules, two expiries: a short replay, no promise.
How do you add the True Strength Index 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 True Strength Index
Type “True Strength” in the Search for indicators box (1), or open the Momentum list, and click True Strength Index (2).
Step 3: Check the settings
The dialog, titled True Strength Indicator, has three tabs: Basic settings (1), Colors and display and Script. The Long (2) opens at 25, the period of the first smoothing. The Short (3) opens at 13, the period of the second smoothing. The Source (4) opens at close, the price whose changes are used. The Signal line – Period (5) opens at 13, the period of the moving average of the TSI.
Step 4: Check the colours and click Apply
Open the Colors and display tab (1). The tab has three rows, each with a checkbox that shows or hides the line, a colour box and a line-style box: the Main line (light blue by default), the Signal line (red) and the Base line (the zero line, grey). All three are in box 2. Click Apply (3).
Step 5: Read the panel
The TSI opens in a panel under the price chart. Its title is at the top left of the panel (1); the two lines (2) are the TSI in light blue and the signal line in red, around the zero line.
How is the True Strength Index calculated?
The Quadcode source takes the change of the price from one candle to the next and smooths it twice with exponential moving averages, first with the Long period and then with the Short period. It does the same for the absolute value of the change. The TSI is 100 times the first result divided by the second, so it stays between −100 and +100: it is +100 when every change in the smoothed window is up and −100 when every one is down. The signal line is an exponential moving average of the TSI.
| Part | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Long | 25 | Period of the first smoothing |
| Short | 13 | Period of the second smoothing |
| Source | close | The price whose changes are used |
| Signal line – Period | 13 | Period of the moving average of the TSI |
The signal line is an EMA with a period usually between 7 and 13, and the TSI belongs to the oscillators.
How do you read the True Strength Index?
There are four readings. Zone: above zero the bulls are in control and below zero the bears. Overbought and oversold: there are no strict levels; one asset can be overbought near +20 and oversold near −20, another near ±30, so look at the extremes your own asset reaches, and do not treat a zone as a signal by itself. Signal line: when the TSI crosses its signal line from above you may want to sell, and from below you may consider buying; such crossovers happen regularly, so filter them, for example buy only when the TSI is above zero and sell only when it is below. Divergence: the price falls while the TSI rises (bullish) or the price rises while the TSI falls (bearish), which can mean the trend is weakening; the exact entry is hard to find. A divergence is judged by eye and is not tested here.
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 50th candle of each stretch, 1,236 values in all.
- Range: from −87.9 to 53.3.
- Crossovers: the TSI crossed its signal line 93 times (about every 13 candles) and zero 42 times (about every 29 candles).
- Zones: the TSI was at or above +20 on 130 candles (11%) and at or below −20 on 323 (26%); above +30 on 47 and below −30 on 144. On this pair and candle size the line spent far more time on the negative side, because EUR/USD fell during the recording.
The Step 5 picture covers 05:27 to 11:16 on the platform clock. The TSI went from a low of −33.2 at 06:50 to a high of 27.2 at 09:15. It crossed its signal line four times (06:00, 06:15, 07:05 and 09:35) and zero twice: upwards at 08:00 (a Higher option opened at the close, 1.13494, ended five minutes later at 1.13462 and lost) and downwards at 10:10 (a Lower option opened at 1.13456 ended at 1.13455 and won by a tenth of a pip). In a second window of our recording, 10:44 to 16:33 (not pictured), the TSI fell to −44.3 at 14:10, crossed its signal line upwards at 15:00 (entry 1.13159, exit 1.13300: a win of 14 pips) and crossed zero at 15:20 (entry 1.13364, exit 1.13359: a loss). (The platform draws the value of a candle at the time the candle closes: a cross found on the candle that opened at 07:55 sits at the 08:00 mark, and the option opens at that close.)
The rules, tested
We wrote three of the readings as rules on closed candles, with the option opened at the close of the signal candle. No expiry is given, so the box shows five minutes and fifteen minutes for each.
- Signal line: Higher on the candle where the TSI crosses above its signal line, Lower where it crosses below.
- Signal line with the zero filter: the same, kept only when the TSI is above zero for a Higher and below zero for a Lower.
- Zero line: Higher on the candle where the TSI rises above zero, Lower where it falls below.
Tested on IQ Option: three readings of the TSI, EUR/USD 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 | Three readings as rules on closed candles; the option opens at the close of the signal candle. Signal line: Higher on the candle where the TSI crosses above its signal line, Lower where it crosses below. Signal line with the zero filter: the same, kept only when the TSI is above zero for a Higher and below zero for a Lower. Zero line: Higher on the candle where the TSI rises above zero, Lower where it falls below. Default settings (25, 13, 13); expiry one candle and three candles. |
| Signals | TSI crosses its signal line, 5-minute, 1 candle: 93 signals (46 Higher, 47 Lower) Signal-line cross filtered by the zero line, 5-minute, 1 candle: 34 signals (12 Higher, 22 Lower) TSI crosses zero, 5-minute, 1 candle: 42 signals (21 Higher, 21 Lower) Signal-line cross, 5-minute, 3 candles: 93 signals (46 Higher, 47 Lower) Filtered cross, 5-minute, 3 candles: 34 signals (12 Higher, 22 Lower) Zero cross, 5-minute, 3 candles: 42 signals (21 Higher, 21 Lower) |
| Outcomes | TSI crosses its signal line, 5-minute, 1 candle: 48 won, 45 lost, 0 tied; 51.6% of the 93 decided trades won; net −$0.04 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.01 at 91%) Signal-line cross filtered by the zero line, 5-minute, 1 candle: 16 won, 18 lost, 0 tied; 47.1% of the 34 decided trades won; net −$0.13 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.10 at 91%) TSI crosses zero, 5-minute, 1 candle: 24 won, 14 lost, 4 tied; 63.2% of the 38 decided trades won; net +$0.15 per $1 staked at 85% (+$0.19 at 91%) Signal-line cross, 5-minute, 3 candles: 48 won, 45 lost, 0 tied; 51.6% of the 93 decided trades won; net −$0.04 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.01 at 91%) Filtered cross, 5-minute, 3 candles: 17 won, 17 lost, 0 tied; 50.0% of the 34 decided trades won; net −$0.07 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.04 at 91%) Zero cross, 5-minute, 3 candles: 23 won, 19 lost, 0 tied; 54.8% of the 42 decided trades won; net +$0.01 per $1 staked at 85% (+$0.05 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.
The zero-line rule gave the highest win rate, 24 wins and 14 losses at five minutes, but 38 decided trades are a small base: its interval runs from 47% to 77%. At fifteen minutes the same rule fell to 54.8%, and the signal-line rule stayed near 51% at both expiries. With three rules and two expiries, one of the six is likely to look good by chance.
Pros and Cons of the True Strength Index
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Double smoothing removes much of the candle-to-candle noise. | It lags: a cross of the zero line comes well after the turn in price. |
| Bounded between −100 and +100, with a zero line and a signal line. | The overbought and oversold levels depend on the asset; there is no fixed level. |
| Several readings in one panel: zone, crossover, extremes, divergence. | The signal-line crossover happens every 13 candles on 5-minute EUR/USD, so it needs a filter. |
Common mistakes
- Using one set of overbought and oversold levels for every asset. The levels differ by instrument; check the extremes on your own chart.
- Trading every signal-line cross. It crossed 93 times in about four and a half days of 5-minute candles.
- Calling a zone a signal. An overbought or oversold TSI is not a trading signal by itself.
- Choosing the reading with the highest win rate. We ran three rules at two expiries; the table lists all six.
Related guides
- MACD on IQ Option and Know Sure Thing
- RSI on IQ Option and classic and hidden divergences
- Overbought and oversold markets and leading and lagging indicators
- All indicator guides and all strategy guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the True Strength Index?
A: A momentum oscillator that compares the double-smoothed price change with the double-smoothed size of the change. It moves between −100 and +100 around a zero line.
Q: What settings does the True Strength Index have on IQ Option?
A: Four: Long (25), Short (13), Source (close) and, for the signal line, Period (13). The colours, the line styles and the visibility of the three lines are on the Colors and display tab.
Q: What are the overbought and oversold levels of the TSI?
A: There is no fixed level. ±20 or ±30 are common examples; look at the extremes your own asset reaches.
Q: How do I use the signal line?
A: A cross of the TSI above the signal line is read as a possible buy and a cross below it as a possible sell, and a filter such as the zero line is suggested. The results of both on 5-minute EUR/USD candles are in the tested box.
Q: Does the TSI show divergences?
A: Yes, when the price and the TSI move in different directions. It is a judgement made on the chart; it is not tested here.
Q: Can I use the TSI 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.
