Concept
DeMarker
DeMarker is a Momentum & Oscillators concept. A reference entry: the Library explains it rather than implements it.
DeM
What is the DeMarker indicator?
DeMarker, often shortened to DeM, is a momentum oscillator created by Tom DeMark. Instead of comparing closing prices the way RSI or ROC do, it is built from bar-to-bar comparisons of highs and lows, so it responds to whether demand is genuinely lifting each bar's upper extreme or supply is pressing the lower one. The result plots as a bounded oscillator beneath price.
Within the family of TD studies, DeMarker is the approachable one. It reads like a classic overbought/oversold gauge, and because simplified versions ship as built-ins on several retail platforms, it is often the first DeMark tool a trader encounters. The official study, however, belongs to DeMark Analytics' licensed suite alongside the exhaustion counts and auxiliary studies.
Interpretation follows familiar oscillator logic: readings pinned at an extreme describe a stretched, one-sided market, while a fresh price extreme that DeM declines to confirm carries the same warning as a regular divergence on any other momentum tool. What distinguishes DeM is the raw material: by scoring highs and lows directly, it reacts to range pressure that close-based oscillators can smooth away.
Why there's no indicator for this
The TD studies, DeMarker included, are commercial intellectual property of DeMark Analytics, which licenses official implementations to platforms such as Bloomberg and offers them through its own Symbolik service. A faithful, branded implementation requires that authorization, so the Library documents the study rather than shipping a lookalike.
A simplified DeM formula has circulated publicly for decades, and clones exist on many charting platforms; for casual use they behave like ordinary bounded oscillators. What a clone cannot claim is fidelity to the official study: DeMark Analytics maintains the current settings and qualifying rules within its licensed suite, so an unlicensed version has no authoritative specification to be verified against.
How to read a DeMarker panel
On platforms that carry a DeM implementation, the study renders as a bounded oscillator in its own pane, and it is read like other bounded momentum tools.
- 1Find the extreme zones. Most implementations mark an upper and a lower band; readings inside them flag stretched demand or stretched supply.
- 2Respect trend context. A reading that stays pinned at an extreme is evidence of a strong trend at least as often as of an imminent reversal, the classic failure mode of bounded oscillators.
- 3Look for non-confirmation. A new price extreme paired with a weaker oscillator reading is the highest-value pattern the tool offers.
How traders use it
- As a stretched-market gauge: traders treat persistent extreme readings as a sign the current push is one-sided and late, tightening stops or scaling out rather than reflexively fading.
- Divergence spotting: a new price high or low that DeM refuses to confirm is read as thinning pressure, the same logic traders apply to the Stochastic Oscillator or RSI.
- Confluence with TD counts: on licensed platforms, practitioners often want a DeM extreme to line up with a completed exhaustion count before acting on either.
DeMarker vs adjacent oscillators
RSI: Both are bounded and read for extremes and divergence, but RSI smooths close-to-close changes while DeM scores bar-over-bar highs and lows, so the two can disagree in gappy or wide-range conditions.
Stochastic Oscillator: The stochastic locates the close within the recent range; DeMarker measures whether the range itself is being pushed higher or lower, so it asks who is moving the boundaries rather than where price sits.
Related concepts · Exhaustion-count cluster (DeMark)
Concept family
Momentum & Oscillators
91 concepts mapped · 72 in the Library
DeMarker FAQ
Is DeMarker the same as RSI?
No. RSI is built from smoothed close-to-close changes; DeMarker compares successive highs and lows. Both are bounded oscillators read in similar ways, but they can disagree, which is why some traders watch both.
Who created the DeMarker indicator?
Tom DeMark, the analyst behind the broader family of TD studies now maintained and licensed by DeMark Analytics.
Is the DeMarker indicator free to use?
Simplified versions are built into several retail platforms at no cost. Official, branded implementations of the TD studies are licensed products, available through licensees such as Bloomberg and through Symbolik by DeMark.
Is DeMarker a buy or sell signal on its own?
No. Like any momentum gauge, an extreme reading describes conditions rather than a trade. DeMark's framework surrounds signals with qualifiers and risk levels, and practitioners confirm with price action.
Build DeMarker your way.
Quant writes, tests, and refines it with you — then it runs on LuxAlgo charting or ports to TradingView.