The Chaikin Oscillator and the Accumulation/Distribution Study in Excel

Thom Hartle – December 24, 2025

The Accumulation/Distribution Study and the Chaikin Oscillator were introduced in the post titled CQG Primer: The Chaikin Oscillator.

The Chaikin Oscillator is the difference between two exponential moving averages of the Accumulation/Distribution (A_D) Study. The default settings for the oscillator are 3- and 10-day EMAs.

These two RTD formulas pull in the values from CQG:

=RTD("cqg.rtd",,"StudyData",$N$2, "A_D","", "A_D", $N$4, $A2, $N$6,$N$10,,$N$8,$N$12)
=RTD("cqg.rtd",,"StudyData",$N$2, "CHAIKIN^","", "c1", $N$4, $A2, $N$6,$N$10,,$N$8,$N$12)

The symbol is in cell $N$2 and the time frame is in cell $N$4 in the downloadable sample at the bottom of the post.

f1

The Chaikin Oscillator uses the parameters applied to the study CQG IC or QTrader.

Requires CQG Integrated Client or CQG QTrader, and Excel 365 or more recent locally installed, not in the cloud.

Downloads

Disclaimer

Trading and investment carry a high level of risk, and CQG, Inc. does not make any recommendations for buying or selling any financial instruments. We offer educational information on ways to use our sophisticated CQG trading tools, but it is up to our customers and other readers to make their own trading and investment decisions or to consult with a registered investment advisor. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of CQG, Inc. or its affiliates.