The rules
- Channel: the middle line is the 20-day EMA of the close; the bands are the middle line ± 2 × the 10-day average true range (Wilder smoothing), the same as Keltner channels (20, 2, 10) on FreeCharting.
- Channel break: a close above the upper band (or below the lower band) after a close inside it, in the last 3 days.
- Channel position: the close against the channel in band widths: 0 on the middle line, +1 on the upper band, −1 on the lower band.
- Rising channel: the middle line is higher than 10 days ago. Back at the middle line means within a quarter of a band width of it.
About this setup
- What it is
- Keltner channels are bands set a fixed number of average true ranges above and below an exponential moving average. Because the ATR measures how far a market usually moves in a day, the channel widens in volatile periods and narrows in quiet ones.
- How traders use it
- Trend followers often read a close outside a band as momentum in that direction and stay with the move while price holds beyond the middle line. Others buy pullbacks to the middle line while the channel rises. Narrow channels mark quiet markets that some traders watch for a pickup in volatility.
- Caveats
- Closes outside a band also happen at the end of moves, and in sideways markets price often slips back inside within days. The bands lag price, and the signals change with the EMA length and ATR multiplier.
Calculated in your browser from daily candles; crypto’s daily candle is still forming until 00:00 UTC, so today’s values can change. Not investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
Which markets can it scan?
Four, picked with the Market buttons above the table. Crypto (the default) scans the 250 busiest USDT pairs on Binance. Crypto perps scans the 200 busiest USDT perpetual futures on OKX. Both are free public data and need no key. US stocks scans about 600 US stocks and ETFs with your own free Alpaca key, and CME futures scans about 25 front-month CME Group contracts (stock indexes, Treasuries, oil, gas, metals, grains, livestock, currencies and CME bitcoin) with your own free Massive key.
Why do stocks and futures need a key?
Stock and futures prices are licensed data, so a website can’t hand them out for free. Alpaca (for stocks) and Massive (for futures) give anyone a free data key. Your key is saved only in your browser and sent only to that provider. See how to get a free Alpaca key and how to get a free Massive key for futures.
Is the data real-time?
Crypto and crypto perps are live from Binance and OKX, on daily candles that start at 00:00 UTC (today’s candle is still forming). Alpaca’s free stock data is 15 minutes behind the market, and Massive’s free futures plan is 8 hours delayed. Turn on auto-refresh next to the results to update the table in place every 30 seconds, minute or 5 minutes.