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Understanding Average True Range (ATR)

The Average True Range (ATR) indicator measures the volatility of a security, not its price direction or duration. Developed by J. Welles Wilder, ATR accounts for gaps, limit moves, and small high/low ranges in its calculation of True Range (TR), which is the greatest of: the current high/low range, the absolute value of the current high minus the previous close, or the absolute value of the current low minus the previous close. The ATR is then calculated as the average TR over a specific number of periods, typically 14 periods.

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172 views2 pages

Understanding Average True Range (ATR)

The Average True Range (ATR) indicator measures the volatility of a security, not its price direction or duration. Developed by J. Welles Wilder, ATR accounts for gaps, limit moves, and small high/low ranges in its calculation of True Range (TR), which is the greatest of: the current high/low range, the absolute value of the current high minus the previous close, or the absolute value of the current low minus the previous close. The ATR is then calculated as the average TR over a specific number of periods, typically 14 periods.

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sanny2005
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  • Introduction
  • Examples

Average True Range (ATR)

Introduction
Developed by J. Welles Wilder and introduced in his book, New Concepts in Technical
Trading Systems(1978), the Average True Range (ATR) indicator measures a security's
volatility. As such, the indicator does not provide an indication of price direction or
duration, simply the degree of price movement or volatility.

As with most of his indicators, Wilder designed ATR with commodities and daily prices
in mind. In 1978, commodities were frequently more volatile than stocks. However,
recent NIFTY price action may belie that notion. In addition, commodities were (and still
are) often subject to gaps and limit moves. A limit move occurs when a commodity opens
up or down its maximum allowed move and does not trade again until the next session.
The resulting bar or candlestick would simply be a small dash. In order to accurately
reflect the volatility associated with commodities, Wilder sought to account for gaps,
limit moves and small high/low ranges in his calculations. A volatility formula based on
only the high/low range would fail to capture the actual volatility created by the gap or
limit move.

Wilder started with a concept called True Range (TR) which is defined as the greatest of
the following:

The current high less the current low.


The absolute value of: current high less the previous close.
The absolute value of: current low less the previous close.

If the current high/low range is large, chances are it will be used as the TR. If the current
high/low range is small, it is likely that one of the other two methods would be used to
calculate the TR. The last two possibilities usually arise when the previous close is
greater than the current high (signaling a potential gap down and/or limit move) or the
previous close is lower than the current low (signaling a potential gap up and/or limit
move). To ensure positive numbers, absolute values were applied to differences.

Examples
The example above shows three potential situations when the TR would not be based on
the current high/low range. Notice that all three examples have small high/low ranges and
two examples show a significant gap.

A. A small high/low range formed after a gap up. The TR was found by calculating
the absolute value of the difference between the current high and the previous
close.
B. A small high/low range formed after a gap down. The TR was found by
calculating the absolute value of the difference between the current low and the
previous close.
C. Even though the current close is within the previous high/low range, the current
high/low range is quite small. In fact, it is smaller than the absolute value of the
difference between the current high and the previous close, which is used to value
the TR.

Typically, the Average True Range (ATR) is based on 14 periods and can be calculated on
an intraday, daily, weekly or monthly basis. But different ATR values can also be taken
for specific purposes.

Average True Range (ATR) Introduction Developed by J. Welles Wilder and introduced in his book, New Concepts in Technical
The example above shows three potential situations when the TR would not be based on the current high/low range. Notice that

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