what is a linearly weighted moving average 
a linearly weighted moving average lwma is a moving average calculation that more heavily weights recent price data the most recent price has the highest weighting and each prior price has progressively less weight the weights drop in a linear fashion lwmas are quicker to react to price changes than simple moving averages sma and exponential moving averages ema the formula for the linearly weighted moving average lwma is lwma p n w 1 p n 1 w 2 p n 2 w 3 w where p price for the period n the most recent period n 1 is the prior period and n 2 is two periods prior w the assigned weight to each period with the highest weight going first and then descending linearly based on the number of periods being used begin aligned text lwma frac left p n w 1 right left p n 1 w 2 right left p n 2 w 3 right sum w textbf where text p price for the period text n the most recent period n 1 is the prior period text and n 2 is two periods prior text w the assigned weight to each period with the text highest weight going first and then descending linearly text based on the number of periods being used end aligned lwma w pn w1 pn 1 w2 pn 2 w3 where p price for the periodn the most recent period n 1 is the prior period and n 2 is two periods priorw the assigned weight to each period with thehighest weight going first and then descending linearlybased on the number of periods being used 