Volatility (Function)

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The Volatility series function measures the market volatility by plotting a smoothed average of the TrueRange. It returns an average of the TrueRange over a specific number of bars, giving higher weight to the TrueRange of the most recent bar.

Syntax

Volatility(Length)

Returns (Double)

A numeric value containing the market volatility. As the number increases, the market is more volatile.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
Length	Numeric	Sets the number of bars to include in the volatility calculation.

Remarks

Volatility is the variation in price over a specific interval (the difference between the highest and lowest prices). As the time interval being studied increases, volatility also increases to a maximum before leveling off. As prices increase, the volatility tolerance also increases.

The Volatility function uses a slightly different set of calculations than the original formula. The Volatility variation tends to smooth recent activity, which means that it will take more time (bars) to ’normalize.’ The original formula is provided in the VolatilityClassic function.

Example

Plots the volatility over the last 20 bars.

Plot1(Volatility(20);

Assigns to Value1 the volatility of the last 15 bars.

Value1 = Volatility(15):

Reference

Kaufman, P.J. The New Commodity Trading Systems and Methods. John Wiley & Sons. New York 1980. Pages 99-101.