ATR formula used in MT4 indicator is not original

Rasoul Mojtahedzadeh 2014.08.02 10:30

I was studying Average True Range indicator that I realized the calculation used in standard MT4 indicator is different than original formula. The calculation of ATR in MT4 is based on following formula:

ATR[i] = ATR[i-1] + ( TR[i] - TR[i-n] ) / n; // n is the ATR period

But the original formula as described in the book New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems is:

ATR[i] = ( ATR[i-1] * (n-1) + TR[i] ) / n; // n is the ATR period

Does anybody know what the rationale behind this different calculation of ATR is?

graziani 2014.08.02 10:45 #1

many of implemented indicators are different compared to original.

in case of Wilders indicator, one of the reason would be optimization: Welles was calculating practically everything manually, so he was optimising calculations in favour of calculation speed on the cost of precision.

Theorem on the intersection Indicator to EA Ongoing Indicator Calculations vs

William Roeder 2014.08.02 16:23 #2

ATR[i] = ATR[i-1] + ( TR[i] - TR[i-n] ) / n; // n is the ATR period	This is the SMA(n, TR) that mt4 uses.
ATR[i] = ( ATR[i-1] * (n-1) + TR[i] ) / n; // n is the ATR period	This is the MMA(N, TR) which equals EMA(2N-1, TR) original.
ATR[i] = ATR[i-1] + (TR[i] - ATR[i-1]) / n; // n is the ATR period	Same but without magnifying round off errors.
ATR[i] = ATR[i-1] + (TR[i] - ATR[i-1] ) * 2/(N+1);	This is EMA(N, TR) that some other platforms use.

Rasoul Mojtahedzadeh 2014.08.03 13:05 #3

WHRoeder:

	This is the SMA(n, TR) that mt4 uses.
	This is the MMA(N, TR) which equals EMA(2N-1, TR) original.
	Same but without magnifying round off errors.
	This is EMA(N, TR) that some other platforms use.

Thanks for your explanation! It is now clear for me why the formula that MT4 uses is different than the original formula.

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