Volatility and NATR: picking a coin that actually moves
NATR is the average candle range as a percentage of price. It shows where there is something to trade today and where the market stands still while fees eat your stop.
Absolute range is useless for comparison: two thousand dollars on bitcoin and two cents on a small coin can mean the same move. NATR divides the range by price and makes coins comparable.
How it is used
- Picking an instrument: at 0.1% NATR per hour intraday trading is pointless — the move is smaller than spread plus fees.
- Sizing the stop: a stop tighter than the usual candle range takes you out on noise rather than on being wrong.
- Comparing windows: a high one-minute NATR on a calm day means the coin took off just now.
Why six windows
We compute NATR over one, five and fifteen minutes, one hour, four hours and a day. Scalpers need the short ones, swing traders the long ones, and the gap between them is the interesting part: a coin quiet all day that exploded in five minutes behaves differently from one that is evenly noisy.
Volatility is not return
A high NATR means the coin moves, not that it rises. It is equally high in a strong trend and in a pointless chop that eats a deposit one piece at a time.
The most active coins right now
| Coin | Value | Details |
|---|---|---|
| HFT | 33.08% | $701.5M |
| BLESS | 15.07% | $526.1M |
| HEI | 13.52% | $577.6M |
| ACE | 13.30% | $840.6M |
| BICO | 10.41% | $997.2M |
| ON | 8.64% | $239.4M |
| ZBT | 8.61% | $477.2M |
| EPIC | 8.44% | $136.0M |
Hourly NATR for coins with turnover above five million dollars. Daily turnover is shown alongside: volatility without liquidity trades badly.
Frequently asked questions
How is NATR different from ordinary ATR?
ATR is measured in the instrument's price, NATR as a percentage of it. That is why ATR cannot be compared across coins and NATR can.
What counts as a high NATR?
It depends on the market and the window. For crypto, 0.5% per hour is ordinary and 2% is notably high. Currency pairs move an order of magnitude less: there 0.1% per hour is already an event.
Why is the 24-hour NATR empty for some coins?
There is not enough history, usually for recently added instruments. The shorter windows are already being calculated.