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Indicators

How to Read RSI Overbought and Oversold

Overbought and oversold are the names for the top and bottom strips of the RSI scale, above 70 and under 30: an RSI over 70 means the last fourteen days' up days were far bigger than their down days, and under 30 the other way round. This paper shows you the Nasdaq's readings of 22.6 and 75.1 in 2025 drawn from real closes, the idea as a thermometer that reads the last two weeks' weather, the low reading on the daily chart, the fourteen days that each word was made of, and how to pin the RSI box to a fixed scale on your platform.

Difficulty
Beginner
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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Two strips on the scale

Overbought and oversold are names for the top and bottom strips of the RSI scale. RSI is a score from 0 to 100 that weighs the last fourteen days' up days against their down days; above 70 the score is called overbought, and under 30 oversold. The Nasdaq's score read 22.6 on 4 April 2025, deep in the bottom strip, and 75.1 on 22 September, in the top one. The words name where the line is on its scale. That is all they do, and it is worth being exact about, because they sound as if they do more.

A thermometer

The picture is a thermometer. The top of its scale is marked hot and the bottom cold, and the reading is the last two weeks' weather: fourteen days of up days much bigger than the down days push the mercury into the hot band above 70; fourteen days the other way push it into the cold band under 30. Overbought and oversold are the names of the two bands. A hot reading says the last two weeks were hot. It does not say whether tomorrow will be cooler, or hotter still.

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