Stoch RSI Crossovers by Timeframe: 36 Settings Tested

Stoch RSI runs a stochastic over RSI. Rather than reading RSI's level, it reads where RSI sits inside its own range over the last N bars: a second layer of processing that makes it quicker to turn.

I tested four parameters across 36 combinations on USD/JPY through the whole of 2025, on three timeframes, then ran the same 36 on 2024.

On hourly bars, only 3 of 36 were positive in both years. Twenty were positive in 2025 and seven in 2024, but almost never the same ones.

On four-hour bars, 30 of 36 settings were positive in both years, compared with only 3 of 36 on hourly bars despite using the same Stochastic RSI parameters.

more settings survived both yearsfewersettings profitable in both 2024 and 2025 / settings tested

How does the timeframe change it?

The result reversed between timeframes.

The trade count explains it.

Two layers of smoothing produce a great many signals: about 4,850 a year on 15-minute bars. For comparison, on the same terms QQE took 465 trades a year and Supertrend took 152.

Spread cost scales exactly with the count. At 4,850 trades a 0.3 pip spread is about 1,455 pips a year; at 1,230 it is 369. Only at the four-hour chart's 300 trades does the frequency start to fit the cost.

Is it worth tuning on hourly bars?

Changing the settings did not pay.

The 14/7/5/3 setting moved from +858.4 pips in 2024 to −2,200.9 pips in 2025. The 14/21/3/5 setting moved from +1,560.4 pips in 2025 to −2,011.2 pips in 2024. The setting selected in either year lost money in the other.

Can four-hour settings be selected?

Four-hour bars profited, but one year still did not select the next.

The 7/21/5/5 setting moved from +3,799.1 pips in 2024 to −863.4 pips in 2025. The 21/21/3/3 setting remained above +2,200 pips in both years.

All 36 settings were positive in 2024. The default 14/14/3/3 remained above +1,400 pips in both years.

Does win rate track the result?

It did not. Across the 36 hourly settings in 2025, win rates ran from 38.17% to 41.84%, while annual net ranged from −3,221.7 to +1,560.4 pips.

On four-hour bars the win-rate range widened to 36.72%–45.85%. Win rate alone still does not identify the annual result.

Adding Stoch RSI to a chart

How this was measured

Using this indicator means raising the timeframe until the trade count is bearable. The same constraint governs RVI. The RSI underneath it signals orders of magnitude less often without the two extra layers. Also tested this way: OsMA, Accelerator Oscillator, QQE, Aroon, Supertrend, Williams %R and MFI.

Notes

• One pair, two years
• Stoch RSI implementations differ (how RSI is smoothed, how %K is taken). These figures come from Formiq's
• Only the %K/%D crossover is tested; level readings such as 20/80 are not, and would reduce the trade count
• Entries and exits both fill at bar closes
• The spread is modelled as a flat 0.3 pips, which matters more here than for any low-frequency indicator
• Four-hour settings trade 230 to 397 times a year