What it does
Price Channel, also known as the Donchian Channel, plots the highest high and lowest low of the past N bars (commonly 20) as an upper and lower band, often with a midline at their average. The bands mark the extremes of the recent trading range, so a touch of a band means price is at an N-bar high or low. The calculation involves no averaging, making the levels exact and objective.
Typedraws on the price chart
How to add it
Click Indicators (ƒx) in the header.
Search “Price Channel” and click the result.
Hover its legend row and click the gear to open settings.
How traders use it
- Breakout trading: a close above the upper channel signals an N-bar high breakout to buy, and a close below the lower channel a breakdown to sell, the core of classic turtle-style systems (20-bar entry, 10-bar exit).
- In trends, the opposite band serves as a trailing exit: longs exit when price hits the lowest low of the shorter exit window.
- The channel width is a direct volatility gauge: narrowing channels mark compression that often precedes a strong breakout.
- In confirmed ranges the bands can instead be faded, buying the lower band and selling the upper with the midline as target.
Inputs
| Input | Type | Default | Range / Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length | number | 20 | 1–2000 |
| Offset Length | number | 0 | 1–2000 |
Plots & styling
| Plot | Style | Default color |
|---|---|---|
| High | line | #F50057 |
| Low | line | #F50057 |
| Center | line | #2196F3 |
Every plot's color, line width and visibility can be changed on the Style tab. Precision, price-scale labels and status-line values are configurable at the bottom of the Style tab.
Tips
- Use Add to favorites in the legend menu; starred studies surface at the top of the picker.
- The legend eye toggles it off without losing your settings — handy for before/after comparisons.
- Its price-scale label can be switched off per-indicator at the bottom of the Style tab if the axis gets crowded.
Watch out for
- Breakout entries buy strength and sell weakness at range extremes, so in rangebound markets false breakouts produce long losing streaks.
- The bands are set by single extreme prints, so one spike bar can distort the channel for the entire lookback window.