Williams percent range
Family VI · Charts & indicators
Not to be confused with average true range, average daily range.
Williams %R is a bounded momentum oscillator introduced by Larry Williams that compares the latest close with the highest high of a chosen lookback window. It is plotted on a scale from 0 to -100, where values near 0 indicate the close is near the top of the range and values near -100 indicate it is near the bottom. The indicator is typically used to assess overbought and oversold conditions within that window.
Calculation
Williams %R is calculated as:
%R = (Highest High − Close) / (Highest High − Lowest Low) × −100
The highest high and lowest low are taken over the same lookback period, commonly 14 bars, though shorter or longer periods are used depending on the trader's timeframe. The result is always negative, with 0 representing a close at the period high and -100 a close at the period low.
Worked example
Interpretation
Readings above −20 are often considered overbought, while readings below −80 are considered oversold. These thresholds are conventions, not fixed rules, and may vary by market or analytical style. Because the indicator is bounded, it can remain in overbought or oversold territory for extended periods during strong trends, so it is frequently combined with trend or price-action analysis.
Often confused with
- average true range
- Average True Range measures the average size of price movement over a period and is unbounded, whereas Williams %R measures the close's position within the period's high-low range and is bounded between 0 and -100; the visible sign is that ATR values are positive and can exceed 100, while Williams %R is always negative and never below -100.
- average daily range
- The average daily range is the mean difference between the high and low prices of an instrument over a specified number of trading days, expressed in price units or as a percentage, and used to gauge typical intraday volatility.
See also
- forex technical analysis indicators
- price action
- fundamental analysis
- support and resistance
- technical analysis
- fibonacci