1 The Story
Anticipating the crossover
In 1986 Thomas Aspray added the histogram to Gerald Appel's MACD, turning a lagging crossover tool into one that could anticipate momentum changes.
Aspray found the MACD reacted too slowly and often missed important moves, especially on weekly charts. His solution — the MACD histogram, plotting the gap between the MACD line and its signal line — let traders see momentum building or fading before the lines actually crossed. He presented the work at a CompuTrac conference and in Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities.1
2 The Big Idea
What they gave the markets
The histogram — momentum you can see before the crossover.
By plotting MACD minus signal as bars, Aspray gave the indicator an early read on momentum shifts and reduced its lag.1
3 The Method & Contribution
What he added
4 See It On This Site
Go deeper
On this site
Our MACD deep dive covers the histogram, divergence, and the honest evidence.
5 The Work
MACD/MACD-Histogram research
MACD/MACD-Histogram research
Thomas Aspray · 1986, in TASC- Introduced the MACD histogram to reduce signal lag.
- Published in Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities.
6 Read More
Go deeper
- CONCEPTMACD — the definitive guide.
- TRADERGerald Appel — creator of the MACD.
§ Sources
- Thomas Aspray — the MACD histogram (1986) — MACD overview; TASC archive.