Oscillators

ATR: Average True Range

ATR tells you how much the price typically moves in one candle, so you can set sensible stops and position sizes.

The idea in plain words

Some days a market moves a little, some days a lot. ATR is simply the average size of recent candles, counting gaps between candles too, so it shows the market's current "normal" movement.

How it is calculated

For each candle take the "true range": the largest of high minus low, high minus the previous close, and the previous close minus low. Average it over 14 candles.

True range = max(high − low, |high − previous close|, |low − previous close|)
ATR = average of true range over N (default 14; a simple average)

How to use it

Stops: place a stop 1.5–3 ATRs away from entry so normal noise does not hit it.
Position size: risk the same money on each trade by trading less when ATR is high.
Targets: a move of several ATRs in one day is unusually large.

Drawing conclusions

Rising ATR: the market is getting more active (often in sell-offs and breakouts). Falling ATR: it is calming down.
ATR has no direction; it only measures size.

Example

GBPUSD has a daily ATR of 0.0090 (90 pips). A trader buying at 1.2700 places a stop 2 ATRs lower, at 1.2520, so an ordinary day's swing will not knock them out.

Prices in examples are illustrative.

Watch out for

ATR is in price units, so you cannot compare ATRs of different markets directly; divide by the price for a percentage.

A little history

J. Welles Wilder Jr., 1978, originally for commodity futures, where gaps between sessions were common.

Educational content only. No indicator or pattern predicts the future, and nothing here is investment advice.