CCI and Williams %R
Two more oscillators. Both normalize price against a recent range, which is what almost every oscillator does, and the differences are in the arithmetic rather than in the information.
MadStockAlerts Research · Updated August 28, 2026
What to Take Away
- Williams %R is the stochastic inverted, on a scale from 0 to -100.
- CCI measures deviation from a moving average, scaled by mean deviation.
- CCI is unbounded; Williams %R is bounded.
- Both saturate in a trend, like every range-normalized oscillator.
- Adding a second oscillator rarely adds a second piece of information.
MAD Academy Training Video · 0:44
Two Oscillators With Awkward Scales
CCI is unbounded and Williams %R runs backwards. Both are readable once you know what the numbers mean.
This lesson is part of a MAD Academy plan.
Williams %R
%R = -100 x (highest high - close) / (highest high - lowest low)
- over a lookback conventionally set to 14
- the result runs from 0 at the top of the range to -100 at the bottom
Compared against the stochastic's %K, this is the same quantity subtracted from one hundred and given a negative sign. The two indicators plot the same information with the axis flipped, which is worth knowing before treating them as independent.
CCI
CCI = (typical price - SMA of typical price) / (0.015 x mean deviation)
- typical price is the average of the high, low and close
- the constant 0.015 exists to place most readings between -100 and +100
Despite the name, it is not specific to commodities. It measures how far price has moved from its own average, scaled by how far it typically moves from that average, which makes it a normalized distance rather than a position within a range.
Scroll the chart sideways to see all of it.
Why adding another rarely helps
The indicator budget argument in the charting pillar applies directly here. RSI, the stochastic, Williams %R and CCI are four normalizations of one price series, and they move together most of the time by construction.
Having four on a chart guarantees that at least one supports any decision. That is not confirmation; it is a larger set of views of the same data, and the appearance of agreement was produced by the arithmetic.
Choosing one oscillator deliberately
Given that the family measures the same thing several ways, the useful question is which single one to use rather than which combination.
| If the question is | The construction that suits it |
|---|---|
| Where is price within its recent range | The stochastic, or Williams %R, which is the same quantity |
| How far has price moved from its own average | CCI, which measures distance rather than position |
| Is recent strength unusual for this security | RSI, which normalizes gains against losses |
| Is the move backed by participation | The money flow index, which is the only one using volume |
Only the last row introduces information the others do not contain. That is the strongest argument available for choosing among them, and it is a much better basis than which one produced the nicest-looking history.
Choosing one and staying with it also has the property the layouts article describes: readings become comparable across securities and over time, which they are not when the indicator changes with the situation.
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