Williams %R (Williams Percent Range)

The Williams Percent Range, also called Williams %R, is a momentum indicator that shows you where the last closing price is relative to the highest and lowest prices of a given time period. As an oscillator, Williams %R tells you when a currency pair might be “overbought” or “oversold.” Think of it as a less popular and more sensitive version of Stochastic. As a momentum indicator, it also gives RSI-like vibes in that it measures the strength of a current trend. But while RSI uses its mid-point figure (50) to determine trend strength, traders use %R’s extreme levels (-20 and -80) for cues.

Did you know that Stochastic and %R use the same formula to pinpoint the relative location of a currency pair? The only difference is that Stochastic shows you a relative location by using the lowest price in a time range while %R uses the highest price to pinpoint the closing price’s position. In fact, if you invert the %R line, it will have the exact same line as Stochastic’s %K line! This is why Williams %R uses the 0 to -100 scale while Stochastic is scaled from 0 to 100. A reading above -20 is overbought. A reading below -80 is oversold. An overbought or oversold reading does NOT guarantee that the price will reverse. All “overbought” means the price is near the highs of its recent range. The same goes for oversold. All “oversold” means the price is near the lows of its recent range.