ATR on TradingView — Pine Script v5 Source

Pine has ta.atr built in, and it’s more interesting to use ATR than just plot it — so we’ll show the line and then draw ATR-based stop bands on price. See the explainer for the concept.

What you’ll need

• A TradingView account (free tier is fine)
• The Pine Editor

The ATR line

//@version=5
indicator("AlgoGen ATR", shorttitle="AG ATR", overlay=false)

length = input.int(14, "ATR length", minval=1)
atrVal = ta.atr(length)

plot(atrVal, "ATR", color=#eb6834, linewidth=2)

ta.atr(length) computes True Range internally (including the previous-close gap terms) and applies Wilder’s smoothing — the orange line from the output chart.

From scratch, to see the True Range

//@version=5
indicator("AlgoGen ATR (manual)", overlay=false)
length = input.int(14, "Length")
tr  = math.max(high - low, math.abs(high - close[1]), math.abs(low - close[1]))
atrManual = ta.rma(tr, length)     // ta.rma == Wilder's smoothing
plot(atrManual, color=#eb6834, linewidth=2)

ta.tr is even shorter (tr = ta.tr(true) handles the first-bar edge case), but spelling out the three-way max shows exactly what True Range is.

ATR stop bands on price

The genuinely useful application — a volatility-scaled trailing reference:

//@version=5
indicator("AlgoGen ATR Stops", overlay=true)
length = input.int(14, "ATR length")
mult   = input.float(3.0, "Multiplier")
atrVal = ta.atr(length)
longStop  = close - mult * atrVal
shortStop = close + mult * atrVal
plot(longStop,  "Long stop",  color=#0ca30c)
plot(shortStop, "Short stop", color=#d03b3b)

ATR as a percentage (for screening)

Because ATR is in price units, comparing it across instruments is meaningless until you normalize. ATR% fixes that:

//@version=5
indicator("AlgoGen ATR %")
length = input.int(14, "Length")
atrPct = 100 * ta.atr(length) / close
plot(atrPct, "ATR %", color=#eb6834, linewidth=2)

Now a reading of “2” means “the average bar moves about 2% of price,” directly comparable between a $20 stock and a $2,000 one — handy for volatility screens and for setting percentage-based stops.

Gotchas

• ta.rma, not ta.sma. Wilder’s ATR uses rma (his 1/N smoothing). Using ta.sma(tr, length) gives a valid-but-different simple ATR that won’t match most platforms.
• close[1] on the first bar is na; ta.atr/ta.tr(true) handle this for you, but a fully manual version should guard bar 0.
• ATR is unbounded. Keep it in its own pane (the line) or use it to derive overlays (the stops) — don’t try to force it onto the 0–100 scale of an oscillator.

Same indicator elsewhere: Python, MQL5, EasyLanguage, NinjaScript. Then test ATR stops in AlgoGen.

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This post is educational, not financial advice. Indicators describe the past; they don’t predict the future. Backtest anything before you risk real money on it.