Accelerator Oscillator by Timeframe: 27 Settings Tested
27 Accelerator Oscillator settings backtested on USD/JPY across 2025 and 2024. On hourly bars 24 of 27 were profitable in both years; on 15-minute bars, none were.
The Accelerator Oscillator measures the acceleration of the Awesome Oscillator: not how strong the move is, but whether that strength is building or fading.
I tested three parameters across 27 combinations on USD/JPY through the whole of 2025, on three timeframes, then ran the same 27 on 2024.
On hourly bars, 24 of 27 were profitable in both years. On 15-minute bars, none were.
Which timeframe does it work on?
| Timeframe | Year | Profitable settings | Median annual net | Median annual trades |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15-minute | 2025 | 7 / 27 | −437 pips | 2,934 |
| 15-minute | 2024 | 0 / 27 | −1,707 pips | — |
| 1-hour | 2025 | 26 / 27 | +1,292 pips | 711 |
| 1-hour | 2024 | 25 / 27 | +1,814 pips | — |
| 4-hour | 2025 | 24 / 27 | +658 pips | 184 |
| 4-hour | 2024 | 16 / 27 | +274 pips | — |
At about 2,930 trades a year, a 0.3 pip spread costs roughly 880 pips, and nothing here earned past that. All 27 of them lost in 2024, so not one was profitable in both years.
Across both years, 24 of 27 hourly settings and 16 of 27 four-hour settings were profitable. Four-hour had 24 profitable settings in 2025 and 16 in 2024.
Did the best setting hold in 2024?
| Setting | Year | Annual net |
|---|---|---|
| Default 5/34/5 | 2025 | +2,139.4 pips |
| Default 5/34/5 | 2024 | +1,436.8 pips |
| 2025 maximum, 3/34/3 | 2025 | +3,359.1 pips |
| 2025 maximum, 3/34/3 | 2024 | +1,108.6 pips |
| 2024 maximum, 3/55/8 | 2025 | +1,031.6 pips |
| 2024 maximum, 3/55/8 | 2024 | +3,400.9 pips |
| 2025 minimum, 8/21/3 | 2025 | −175.0 pips |
| 2025 minimum, 8/21/3 | 2024 | +2,716.1 pips |
The 3/34/3 setting fell from +3,359.1 pips in 2025 to +1,108.6 pips in 2024. The 8/21/3 setting moved the other way, from −175.0 pips to +2,716.1 pips. One year's net result did not identify the next year's setting.
The default 5/34/5 remained profitable in both years at +2,139.4 and +1,436.8 pips.
Hourly trade counts ran 434 to 1,208. Shrinking the fast term raises the frequency.
Are the defaults good enough?
| Setting | Year | Annual net |
|---|---|---|
| Default 5/34/5 | 2025 | +2,192.3 pips |
| Default 5/34/5 | 2024 | +274.2 pips |
| 2024 maximum, 5/21/3 | 2025 | +1,988.2 pips |
| 2024 maximum, 5/21/3 | 2024 | +2,053.6 pips |
| 2025 minimum, 8/55/3 | 2025 | −901.1 pips |
| 2025 minimum, 8/55/3 | 2024 | −1,227.5 pips |
The default produced the largest annual net among the 27 four-hour settings in 2025. It took 190 trades at a 46.84% win rate. The hourly default took 711 trades at 41.49%, so the smaller four-hour sample is not enough to treat the win-rate difference as a stable property.
Can win rate choose the setting?
Across the 27 hourly settings in 2025, win rates ran from 38.34% to 43.79%, a 5.45-point range, while annual net ranged from −175.0 to +3,359.1 pips. Win rate alone did not separate the profitable settings.
Holding in the direction of a zero-line break puts it in the same family as OsMA and Supertrend: frequent small losses, occasional large wins, a win rate under 50% by design.
Adding the Accelerator Oscillator to a chart
| Platform | How to add it |
|---|---|
| MT4 / MT5 | Built in — Navigator, Bill Williams, Accelerator Oscillator |
| TradingView | In the indicator list as "Accelerator Oscillator" |
| Browser (Formiq) | In the indicator list, with fast, slow and smoothing adjustable |
How this was measured
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Pair | USD/JPY |
| Period | 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 (2024 run identically for comparison) |
| Timeframes | 15-minute / 1-hour / 4-hour |
| Bars tested | 6,226 hourly bars in 2025; 24,903 on 15-minute, 1,610 on 4-hour |
| Buy | AC crosses above zero, filled at that bar's close |
| Sell | It crosses below zero |
| Exit | The opposite zero crossing only — no stop, no target, no time exit |
| Costs | 0.3 pip spread, zero slippage, 0.1 lot |
| Combinations | 3 fast (3, 5, 8) × 3 slow (21, 34, 55) × 3 smoothing (3, 5, 8) = 27 |
| Method | Executed in Formiq's backtester; pips recomputed from each trade's fill prices |
The same method applied to OsMA, QQE, Aroon, RVI, Supertrend, Williams %R and MFI.
Notes
- One pair, two years
- 27 combinations is a coarser grid than the 54 to 240 used for other indicators in this series
- AC inherits whatever the Awesome Oscillator implementation does. These figures come from Formiq's
- Entries and exits both fill at bar closes
- The spread is modelled as a flat 0.3 pips; the 15-minute result depends heavily on that
- Four-hour settings trade 61 to 161 times a year: wide numbers at that count
Questions people ask
- What are the best Accelerator Oscillator settings?
- On hourly bars, 3/34/3 produced +3,359.1 pips from 1,160 trades in 2025 and +1,108.6 pips in 2024. The setting with the largest 2024 result, 3/55/8, produced +3,400.9 pips in 2024 and +1,031.6 pips in 2025. The default 5/34/5 remained profitable at +2,139.4 and +1,436.8 pips.
- What does the Accelerator Oscillator measure?
- The acceleration of the Awesome Oscillator. Where AO is the gap between a short and a long average of the bar midpoint, AC subtracts a further moving average from AO. It tracks how fast momentum is changing rather than momentum itself.
- Which timeframe suits the Accelerator Oscillator?
- Hourly and four-hour in this test: 24 of 27 settings profitable in both years on hourly, 16 of 27 on four-hour, and none of 27 on 15-minute. The 15-minute version trades about 2,930 times a year, which the spread outweighs.
- What win rate does it produce?
- Across the 27 hourly settings in 2025, 38.34% to 43.79% with a median of 41.0%. Holding through a zero-line crossing is trend following, so the win rate sits below 50% and the average win has to exceed the average loss.
- Is it built into MetaTrader?
- Yes. Both MT4 and MT5 ship it under Bill Williams as Accelerator Oscillator. TradingView lists it as "Accelerator Oscillator". Formiq's charts include it with all three parameters adjustable.
Formiq is a free browser-based FX terminal with replay practice and no-code backtesting. Open the chart or see what the free plan includes.