What is Typical Price?
Typical Price draws one line through the chart at the average of each bar's high, low and close. It blends the bar's range with where it finished, so it sits closer to the middle of the bar than the close does while still leaning towards the close.
Typical Price is a per-bar reference value. It does not smooth across bars and does not signal trend direction, momentum or strength on its own. Its main use is showing the value that several other indicators read.
How to use Typical Price
- A calmer price line. A close at the very top or bottom of a bar pulls Typical Price only part of the way there, so the line is less jumpy than a close-only line.
- Against the close. A close well above Typical Price means the bar finished high in its range; well below, low in its range.
- What other indicators see. The Commodity Channel Index and Money Flow Index both begin from this value, as does any indicator set to the hlc3 source. Plotting it shows their raw input.
It is a reference line, not an entry or exit signal.
Settings
Typical Price has no inputs. The three prices it averages are fixed, so there is nothing to tune.
Calculation
Each bar is calculated on its own, with no look-back:
Typical Price = (high + low + close) / 3No earlier bars are involved, so there is no warm-up and the line starts on the first bar. Compared with Average Price, which also includes the open, Typical Price gives the close a third of the weight instead of a quarter. Compared with Median Price, which uses only high and low, it adds the close.
Limitations
- It is not a moving average. Every value comes from one bar, so the line is roughly as noisy as the candles. Smooth it with a moving average if you need a trend line.
- It adds no new information. It rearranges prices already on the chart, so it cannot confirm anything the candles do not already show.
- The live candle moves. The current bar's value changes with every tick until that bar closes.
- It depends on timeframe. The same moment gives a different value on 15m than on 1D, because the bars being averaged are different.
Frequently asked questions
Typical Price plots the average of each bar's high, low and close as a line over the candles. It is often written as HLC3. It is a single-bar calculation that sits between the middle of the bar's range and its close.
It is a compact summary of a bar that respects both its range and its close. The Commodity Channel Index measures how far Typical Price has moved from its own average, and Money Flow Index multiplies it by volume. Plotting it on its own is mostly a way to see what those indicators are reading.
No. The indicator declares no inputs. The calculation is fixed as the average of high, low and close. Average Price and Median Price cover the other common blends.
No. Values on closed bars are never revised, and since each value uses only its own bar, loading older history does not change anything. The current candle's value moves while it 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 Typical Price already applied. On any other market, open the indicator picker on the chart and choose Typical Price from the Trend group.