diff --git a/doc/source/computation.rst b/doc/source/computation.rst
index 207e2796c468d..85c6b88d740da 100644
--- a/doc/source/computation.rst
+++ b/doc/source/computation.rst
@@ -453,15 +453,16 @@ average as
     y_t = (1 - \alpha) y_{t-1} + \alpha x_t
 
 One must have :math:`0 < \alpha \leq 1`, but rather than pass :math:`\alpha`
-directly, it's easier to think about either the **span** or **center of mass
-(com)** of an EW moment:
+directly, it's easier to think about either the **span**, **center of mass
+(com)** or **halflife** of an EW moment:
 
 .. math::
 
    \alpha =
     \begin{cases}
 	\frac{2}{s + 1}, s = \text{span}\\
-	\frac{1}{1 + c}, c = \text{center of mass}
+	\frac{1}{1 + c}, c = \text{center of mass}\\
+	1 - \exp^{\frac{\log 0.5}{h}}, h = \text{half life}
     \end{cases}
 
 .. note::
@@ -474,11 +475,12 @@ directly, it's easier to think about either the **span** or **center of mass
 
   where :math:`\alpha' = 1 - \alpha`.
 
-You can pass one or the other to these functions but not both. **Span**
+You can pass one of the three to these functions but not more. **Span**
 corresponds to what is commonly called a "20-day EW moving average" for
 example. **Center of mass** has a more physical interpretation. For example,
-**span** = 20 corresponds to **com** = 9.5. Here is the list of functions
-available:
+**span** = 20 corresponds to **com** = 9.5. **Halflife** is the period of
+time for the exponential weight to reduce to one half. Here is the list of 
+functions available:
 
 .. csv-table::
     :header: "Function", "Description"
diff --git a/doc/source/release.rst b/doc/source/release.rst
index 66c3dcd203a6a..cd1cd669152ec 100644
--- a/doc/source/release.rst
+++ b/doc/source/release.rst
@@ -138,6 +138,8 @@ Improvements to existing features
     (:issue:`4961`).
   - ``concat`` now gives a more informative error message when passed objects
     that cannot be concatenated (:issue:`4608`).
+  - Add ``halflife`` option to exponentially weighted moving functions (PR
+    :issue:`4998`)
 
 API Changes
 ~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/pandas/stats/moments.py b/pandas/stats/moments.py
index fd81bd119fe09..f3ec3880ec8b5 100644
--- a/pandas/stats/moments.py
+++ b/pandas/stats/moments.py
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@
     Center of mass: :math:`\alpha = 1 / (1 + com)`,
 span : float, optional
     Specify decay in terms of span, :math:`\alpha = 2 / (span + 1)`
+halflife : float, optional
+    Specify decay in terms of halflife, :math: `\alpha = 1 - exp(log(0.5) / halflife)`
 min_periods : int, default 0
     Number of observations in sample to require (only affects
     beginning)
@@ -338,25 +340,29 @@ def _process_data_structure(arg, kill_inf=True):
 # Exponential moving moments
 
 
-def _get_center_of_mass(com, span):
-    if span is not None:
-        if com is not None:
-            raise Exception("com and span are mutually exclusive")
+def _get_center_of_mass(com, span, halflife):
+    valid_count = len([x for x in [com, span, halflife] if x is not None])
+    if valid_count > 1:
+        raise Exception("com, span, and halflife are mutually exclusive")
 
+    if span is not None:
         # convert span to center of mass
         com = (span - 1) / 2.
-
+    elif halflife is not None:
+        # convert halflife to center of mass
+        decay = 1 - np.exp(np.log(0.5) / halflife)
+        com = 1 / decay - 1
     elif com is None:
-        raise Exception("Must pass either com or span")
+        raise Exception("Must pass one of com, span, or halflife")
 
     return float(com)
 
 
 @Substitution("Exponentially-weighted moving average", _unary_arg, "")
 @Appender(_ewm_doc)
-def ewma(arg, com=None, span=None, min_periods=0, freq=None, time_rule=None,
+def ewma(arg, com=None, span=None, halflife=None, min_periods=0, freq=None, time_rule=None,
          adjust=True):
-    com = _get_center_of_mass(com, span)
+    com = _get_center_of_mass(com, span, halflife)
     arg = _conv_timerule(arg, freq, time_rule)
 
     def _ewma(v):
@@ -377,9 +383,9 @@ def _first_valid_index(arr):
 
 @Substitution("Exponentially-weighted moving variance", _unary_arg, _bias_doc)
 @Appender(_ewm_doc)
-def ewmvar(arg, com=None, span=None, min_periods=0, bias=False,
+def ewmvar(arg, com=None, span=None, halflife=None, min_periods=0, bias=False,
            freq=None, time_rule=None):
-    com = _get_center_of_mass(com, span)
+    com = _get_center_of_mass(com, span, halflife)
     arg = _conv_timerule(arg, freq, time_rule)
     moment2nd = ewma(arg * arg, com=com, min_periods=min_periods)
     moment1st = ewma(arg, com=com, min_periods=min_periods)
@@ -393,9 +399,9 @@ def ewmvar(arg, com=None, span=None, min_periods=0, bias=False,
 
 @Substitution("Exponentially-weighted moving std", _unary_arg, _bias_doc)
 @Appender(_ewm_doc)
-def ewmstd(arg, com=None, span=None, min_periods=0, bias=False,
+def ewmstd(arg, com=None, span=None, halflife=None, min_periods=0, bias=False,
            time_rule=None):
-    result = ewmvar(arg, com=com, span=span, time_rule=time_rule,
+    result = ewmvar(arg, com=com, span=span, halflife=halflife, time_rule=time_rule,
                     min_periods=min_periods, bias=bias)
     return _zsqrt(result)
 
@@ -404,17 +410,17 @@ def ewmstd(arg, com=None, span=None, min_periods=0, bias=False,
 
 @Substitution("Exponentially-weighted moving covariance", _binary_arg, "")
 @Appender(_ewm_doc)
-def ewmcov(arg1, arg2, com=None, span=None, min_periods=0, bias=False,
+def ewmcov(arg1, arg2, com=None, span=None, halflife=None, min_periods=0, bias=False,
            freq=None, time_rule=None):
     X, Y = _prep_binary(arg1, arg2)
 
     X = _conv_timerule(X, freq, time_rule)
     Y = _conv_timerule(Y, freq, time_rule)
 
-    mean = lambda x: ewma(x, com=com, span=span, min_periods=min_periods)
+    mean = lambda x: ewma(x, com=com, span=span, halflife=halflife, min_periods=min_periods)
 
     result = (mean(X * Y) - mean(X) * mean(Y))
-    com = _get_center_of_mass(com, span)
+    com = _get_center_of_mass(com, span, halflife)
     if not bias:
         result *= (1.0 + 2.0 * com) / (2.0 * com)
 
@@ -423,15 +429,15 @@ def ewmcov(arg1, arg2, com=None, span=None, min_periods=0, bias=False,
 
 @Substitution("Exponentially-weighted moving " "correlation", _binary_arg, "")
 @Appender(_ewm_doc)
-def ewmcorr(arg1, arg2, com=None, span=None, min_periods=0,
+def ewmcorr(arg1, arg2, com=None, span=None, halflife=None, min_periods=0,
             freq=None, time_rule=None):
     X, Y = _prep_binary(arg1, arg2)
 
     X = _conv_timerule(X, freq, time_rule)
     Y = _conv_timerule(Y, freq, time_rule)
 
-    mean = lambda x: ewma(x, com=com, span=span, min_periods=min_periods)
-    var = lambda x: ewmvar(x, com=com, span=span, min_periods=min_periods,
+    mean = lambda x: ewma(x, com=com, span=span, halflife=halflife, min_periods=min_periods)
+    var = lambda x: ewmvar(x, com=com, span=span, halflife=halflife, min_periods=min_periods,
                            bias=True)
     return (mean(X * Y) - mean(X) * mean(Y)) / _zsqrt(var(X) * var(Y))
 
diff --git a/pandas/stats/tests/test_moments.py b/pandas/stats/tests/test_moments.py
index 70653d9d96bef..1f7df9894a97d 100644
--- a/pandas/stats/tests/test_moments.py
+++ b/pandas/stats/tests/test_moments.py
@@ -535,6 +535,16 @@ def test_ewma_span_com_args(self):
         self.assertRaises(Exception, mom.ewma, self.arr, com=9.5, span=20)
         self.assertRaises(Exception, mom.ewma, self.arr)
 
+    def test_ewma_halflife_arg(self):
+        A = mom.ewma(self.arr, com=13.932726172912965)
+        B = mom.ewma(self.arr, halflife=10.0)
+        assert_almost_equal(A, B)
+
+        self.assertRaises(Exception, mom.ewma, self.arr, span=20, halflife=50)
+        self.assertRaises(Exception, mom.ewma, self.arr, com=9.5, halflife=50)
+        self.assertRaises(Exception, mom.ewma, self.arr, com=9.5, span=20, halflife=50)
+        self.assertRaises(Exception, mom.ewma, self.arr)
+
     def test_ew_empty_arrays(self):
         arr = np.array([], dtype=np.float64)