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Chandelier Exit (long) — Volatility, on the price chart.
What Chandelier Exit (long) measures
Two quantities are combined at every bar: the highest high over the lookback window, and a Wilder ATR over the same number of bars. The exit is the first minus the multiplier times the second. Anchoring on the window high rather than on the close is exactly what separates it from the ATR stop — while the window still contains that high, the level cannot fall for price reasons, so a retracing close does not hand back what the trend earned. A single period drives both the extreme window and the ATR, which is the original definition: the trend horizon and the volatility horizon are treated as one. Nothing is drawn until the window is full and the ATR is defined, which happens on the same bar.
The formula, as implemented
This is not how the indicator is usually defined elsewhere — it is what the shipped code computes, documented next to the implementation:
Chandelier Exit (long) — le stop « suspendu au plafond » de Chuck Le Beau : exit[i] = max(high, N barres)[i] − mult × ATR_N[i] Défauts N=22, mult=3 (les valeurs d'origine : 22 barres ≈ un mois de séances, 3 ATR). POURQUOI l'ancre est le PLUS HAUT et non le close : sur un trend long, le plus haut ne redescend jamais tant que la fenêtre le contient — le stop monte avec le mouvement et ne rend pas le gain acquis sur un simple pullback de close, ce que fait `atr-stop-long`. UNE seule période N pour la fenêtre d'extrêmes ET pour l'ATR : c'est la définition d'origine (l'écart de volatilité et l'horizon de trend y sont le même horizon). Warm-up = fenêtre pleine ET ATR défini, soit i < N−1 → null (les deux tombent exactement au même indice).
How to read it
- The line steps up when a new high enters the window and then stays flat until a higher high arrives or the ATR changes the offset.
- It can still fall for a reason unrelated to price: when the old high leaves the lookback window, the anchor drops to the next highest bar inside it.
- A widening ATR pulls the line down away from an unchanged high — that is the study saying a fixed distance would now be too tight.
- The construction is built around one event — the close crossing under the line. It says the trend has retraced more than the chosen volatility budget, not what comes next.
- On an intraday chart, expect the line's character to change across a session boundary, because the window then mixes two volatility regimes.
Parameters and defaults
Period defaults to 22 — roughly a month of sessions in the original design — and moves the high window and the ATR together: a shorter setting tracks recent highs and tightens quickly, a longer one holds a distant anchor far longer. The multiplier defaults to 3 and sets the offset in ATRs; near 1 the line sits inside normal bar noise, near 6 it is rarely touched and gives back most of a move.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Period | number | 22 | 1 – 200 |
| ATR multiplier | number | 3 | 0.1 – 10 |
What it does not show
This is a chart study, never an order: no stop is placed, moved or filled from this line, and live execution is a separate, explicitly armed action. Because the anchor is a window maximum, the level jumps when that maximum expires, which looks like a stop moving against you with no market cause. The single period ties the trend window to the volatility window, so you cannot lengthen the horizon over which the high is found without also slowing the ATR. Like every ATR construction it sees range only — it cannot know which side traded, so absorption or resting size at that price is outside its inputs.
Related indicators
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- Std Dev — Volatility
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- Chaikin Volatility — Volatility
- Realized Vol — Volatility
- Skewness — Volatility
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Frequently asked questions
- How is the Chandelier Exit different from an ATR trailing stop?
- The ATR stop measures its offset from the current close, so it follows price down as well as up. The Chandelier Exit measures from the highest high of its lookback window, so a pullback in the close leaves the level where it is. Both subtract a multiple of the same Wilder ATR; only the anchor differs.
- Can the Chandelier Exit move down?
- Yes, for two reasons that are not a falling price. If the highest high of the window rolls out of the lookback, the anchor drops to the next highest bar still inside it. And if the ATR widens, the offset below that high grows, which lowers the line.
- What period and multiplier does the Chandelier Exit use by default?
- Twenty-two bars and a multiplier of 3, the values from the original design. The same period drives both the highest-high window and the ATR, which is part of the definition rather than a simplification. Both are adjustable, the period from 1 to 200 and the multiplier from 0.1 to 10.