The Volatility Panel: ATR, Bollinger, Keltner, Donchian, Squeeze
Use the platform's volatility tools to size positions, place stops, and detect compression breakouts
Volatility is the heartbeat of every market. When it contracts, price coils. When it expands, big moves happen.
The Volatility panel collects every classic volatility tool — ATR, Bollinger, Keltner, Donchian, and a squeeze flag — plus distribution-shape statistics, on a single card. Volatility is the size of typical price swings. It is not direction and it is not signal — it is the measuring stick for everything else.
Stops are sized in volatility units. Position sizes are scaled to volatility. Breakouts are validated against volatility.
A trader who ignores volatility uses fixed-dollar stops on every name, which means routine noise stops out high-vol positions and tiny moves chop up low-vol positions. ATR (Average True Range) is the average of the true range over 14 periods (Wilder smoothing). ATR(14) of $3 means the stock typically swings ~$3 per day, including overnight gaps.
That is the opening. Finishing a lesson is where it stops being interesting and starts being useful: the full lesson runs to 6 sections and ends with 4 practice questions. A free account is what opens the rest, and the other 255 lessons in the Academy with it. No card.
What this lesson covers
- 1ATR — Your Stop-Loss Tool
- 2Bollinger Bands — A Statistical Channel
- 3Keltner Channels and the Squeeze
- 4ATR (Wilder), Bollinger Bands, and Keltner Channels
- 5Real-world: 2008 Death Cross & 2009 Golden Cross — Volatility Regime Shift
- 6Summary