Williams %R
Williams %R measures where the latest close sits within the highest high and lowest low of the last 14 sessions, on a scale from 0 at the top of the range to -100 at the bottom.
`williams_r` locates today's close inside the last 14 sessions' high-low range. A reading of 0 means the stock closed at the very top of everything it has traded in that window; -100 means the very bottom. The conventional zones follow from the scale: below -80 is oversold — closing near the bottom of its two-week range — and above -20 is overbought.
On daily NSE data it is a fast mean-reversion gauge. The oversold staple pairs `williams_r < -80` with `close > sma(200)`, restricting washed-out readings to stocks whose long-term trend is intact — oversold in a downtrend is just a stock going down. The overbought side reads as extension: above -20 with RSI also above 70 flags names priced for perfection in the short term, more useful for tightening stops than for shorting.
Its speed is the trade-off. %R uses no smoothing at all, so it snaps to its extremes on any sharp move and can pin at -100 for days while a real decline runs — an oversold reading is a location, not a floor. It reacts faster than RSI, which makes it better for spotting a turn and worse for confirming one; the reading alone says nothing about whether selling has actually stopped.
Its nearest sibling is the stochastic oscillator, which measures the identical thing — close location within the recent range — on a 0-100 scale instead of -100 to 0, and in its slow form adds smoothing plus a %D signal line. %R is the raw, inverted, single-line version: quicker to reach its extremes, with no built-in crossover to time the exit from them.
In Sift
Written as williams_r — scaled -100 to 0; below -80 oversold, above -20 overbought. A working scan — Closing near the bottom of its two-week range while the long trend holds:
where williams_r < -80 and close > sma(200)1
of the 500 most-traded NSE stocks match today, as of 20 Aug 2026
Scans that use it
Prebuilt scans in the library whose query reads this value — each with a hit-rate replay over the last 250 sessions.
Common questions
What does Williams %R below -80 mean?
The stock is closing in the bottom fifth of its last 14 sessions' high-low range — the conventional oversold zone. It marks short-term one-sidedness, not a bottom: in a genuine downtrend the reading can stay pinned near -100 for days. Most scans pair it with a long-term trend filter for that reason.
Why is Williams %R negative?
By construction. Larry Williams defined the scale from 0 at the top of the recent range to -100 at the bottom, so every reading is between -100 and 0. It carries the same information as a stochastic %K flipped and shifted; the negative scale is convention, not meaning.
What is the difference between Williams %R and the stochastic oscillator?
They compute the same ratio — where the close sits in the recent high-low range. %R presents it raw and inverted on a -100 to 0 scale with no smoothing. The slow stochastic smooths %K and adds a %D signal line, so it turns later but offers a crossover to trade against. Fast versus confirmable.