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Williams alligator calculator

Three shifted averages that show whether the market is trending or asleep, and which way.

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  • No sign-up
  • Nothing you type is stored

The bars

Oldest first, at least 22 bars. Three numbers per bar, bars split by semicolons: 2295.6 2282.7 2286.3; 2294.8 2278.4 2281.9

The alligator

The alligator is awake and eating up.

The three lines
Jaw 2,314.88, teeth 2,347.58, lips 2,380.33. The lips are above the teeth and the teeth above the jaw, the order of an up trend, for 15 bars. The mouth spans 65.45 and is opening; the close is above the three lines.
How it is read
Williams pictured an alligator: asleep with its mouth shut while the market ranges, waking and opening its mouth when a trend starts, and closing it again as the trend tires. Traders wait out the sleep and follow the side it eats on.
Read it with care
It is built from slow averages moved forward, so it lags: it wakes after a trend has begun and sleeps after it has ended. It gives no timing for the next bar.

The close and the alligator's jaw (13 bars, moved 8), teeth (8, moved 5) and lips (5, moved 3) on the last bars. The last bar is marked.

BarCloseJawTeethLips
7 ago2,391.502,291.832,311.042,328.07
6 ago2,380.502,295.612,313.992,333.37
5 ago2,399.102,298.172,317.472,341.63
4 ago2,412.502,300.582,322.112,350.25
3 ago2,430.802,303.212,328.682,357.16
2 ago2,427.402,306.182,335.682,363.30
1 ago2,432.402,309.902,341.822,371.79
Last2,443.602,314.882,347.582,380.33

Education only, not investment advice. The answer comes from the numbers you typed in, not from your account or the market. Simulated results are hypothetical and have limits: real trading has slippage, gaps, changing results and emotions. Trading leveraged products can lose money quickly, including all of it. Risk warning

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Educational only, not financial advice; trading involves risk.

Three lines, one animal

Bill Williams built the alligator in the 1990s from three smoothed averages of each bar's midpoint: the jaw over 13 bars, the teeth over 8 and the lips over 5, each moved forward (8, 5 and 3 bars) so it trails the price. When the lines lie tangled, the market has no trend; when they fan out in order, a trend is running.

Pair it with the awesome oscillator, which Williams built alongside it, check trend strength with the ADX calculator, and size the trade with the position size calculator.

Not advice. Arithmetic on the bars you type; an indicator describes the past bars, not the next one.

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