Are you uncertain whether the market is trending or stuck in a range? The "Trend or Range?" indicator is here to eliminate the guesswork by providing a structured, data-driven analysis of market conditions.
How It Works: This indicator doesn't rely on a single metric; instead, it analyzes five core components of market behavior to provide two actionable scores: Trend Score and Range Score. Here's how each component is calculated and integrated:
1. NATR (Normalized ATR) Purpose: Measures volatility relative to the current price. Higher values indicate active, trending markets, while lower values suggest quieter, range-bound conditions.
NATR = ATR / Close
ATR is the Average True Range over 14 periods (default setting).
2. ADX (Average Directional Index) Purpose: Measures the strength of the trend. A higher ADX value indicates a stronger trend. Explanation: ADX is calculated based on directional movement (+DI and -DI). It highlights the strength of the trend, regardless of direction.
3. Slope Purpose: Tracks the rate of change in price over a fixed period (14 by default) to identify momentum strength. A steeper slope indicates stronger trends.
Slope = abs((Close - Close[14]) / 14)
This measures the absolute price change over 14 bars, normalized by time.
4. RSI Stability Purpose: Measures the consistency of the RSI (Relative Strength Index) over time, highlighting mean-reverting behavior.
RSI Stability = stdev(RSI, 14)
This calculates the standard deviation of RSI values over 14 periods.
5. Deviation Index Purpose: Quantifies the price's deviation from its 14-period simple moving average (SMA). This highlights overextension, which is common in range-bound markets.
Deviation Index = (Close - SMA(14)) / SMA(14)
Positive values indicate price above the SMA, while negative values show it below.
Scoring System Trend Score Calculation The Trend Score is a weighted sum of metrics that favor trending markets:
30% NATR: High volatility is a hallmark of trends. 30% ADX: A proven measure of trend strength. 40% Slope: Directly measures momentum.