What is A/D Ratio (Bars)?
Advance/Decline Ratio (Bars) counts the bars in the window that closed at or above their open and the bars that closed below it, and divides the first count by the second. A dashed equality line at 1 marks as many up bars as down bars. It works only on the bars of the chart it is applied to, not on other markets.
It measures how often bars closed up rather than down. It does not show the size of those moves, it does not measure the wider market, and it does not predict the next bar.
How to use A/D Ratio (Bars)
- Above or below 1. Above 1, the window closed up more often than down. Below 1, more often down.
- The size of the reading. A reading of 2 means twice as many up bars as down bars. Readings below 1 are squeezed between 0 and 1, so the scale is not symmetrical around the equality line.
- A window with no down bars. The ratio would divide by zero, so the line shows the number of up bars instead, which with the default window is 9.
These are ways to read the line, not entry signals on their own.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| length | 9 | Bars in the counting window. Shorter reacts faster and jumps around more; longer is steadier. Minimum 1. |
Adjust the window length in the indicator settings. The comparison of close against open is fixed.
Calculation
Each bar is marked up or down by comparing its close with its open, and the two counts over the window are divided:
up = close - open >= 0
upBars = number of up bars in the last 9
downBars = number of down bars in the last 9
A/D = upBars / downBars (upBars if downBars = 0)Every bar is either up or down. A doji, a bar that closes exactly at its open, counts as an up bar because the test is greater than or equal to zero. That is the one difference from the Advance/Decline indicator, which counts a doji as neither.
The first full reading appears once the window holds 9 bars. With no down bars in the window, the up count is plotted in place of the ratio.
Limitations
- Dojis lean it upwards. On markets that print many bars with an unchanged close, counting them as up bars pushes the ratio higher.
- It ignores the size of moves. Several small up bars and one large down bar can read well above 1 while price has fallen.
- The scale is lopsided. Readings above 1 can grow large while readings below 1 are compressed towards 0, and the line jumps to the up count when there are no down bars.
- The live candle moves. The current bar can switch between up and down until it closes, changing the reading.
- It is not a strategy. On its own it carries no risk management, sizing or exit.
Frequently asked questions
It divides the number of up bars by the number of down bars over a window on the chart's own market, 9 bars by default. A bar is up when it closes at or above its open. A dashed line at 1 marks an equal count.
Above 1, more bars closed up than down; below 1, more closed down. It shows persistence, not size, so read it alongside price or an indicator that measures how far price moved.
Both divide up bars by down bars over a window. Advance/Decline Ratio (Bars) counts a bar that closes exactly at its open as up and uses a default window of 9. Advance/Decline counts that bar as neither and uses a default window of 10.
Yes. The indicator declares one input: length, default 9 with a minimum of 1. Open the indicator's settings on the chart to change it.
No. Each value depends only on the bars inside its window, and closed bars do not change. The current candle's value moves while that candle is live and settles when it closes.
Use the Add to chart button at the top of this page. It opens BTC/USDT on Binance in the Altrady Charts terminal with the built-in Advance/Decline Ratio (Bars) already applied. On any other market, open the indicator picker on the chart and choose Advance/Decline Ratio (Bars) from the Momentum group.