BITCOIN COMMODITY CHANNEL INDEX

What is Bitcoin Commodity Channel Index?

Bitcoin’s Commodity Channel Index, or CCI, measures how far the current candle’s typical price sits from its recent average. Typical price here means the average of the high, low and close. The distance is divided by a measure of the window’s usual variation, making a given dollar gap look larger when recent candles have clustered tightly together.Despite its name, CCI does not need commodity data. Maketo calculates it from Bitcoin candles with a default period of 20. It has a center at zero but no fixed upper or lower limit. A reading of 200 is possible; it is neither a percentage price change nor twice the probability attached to a reading of 100.

Start with the sign

Positive CCI means the current typical price is above the window’s average typical price. Negative CCI means it is below. At zero they are equal, or the entire typical-price window is flat under Maketo’s flat-window convention. The page’s direction label follows that sign.

Understand what makes the number large

CCI = (typical price − its simple average) ÷ (0.015 × mean absolute deviation). Mean absolute deviation is the average distance of each window value from the current window mean, ignoring whether that distance is above or below. A small denominator makes a modest dollar gap produce a large reading.

Read familiar levels as distances

CCI of +100 means the current typical price is 1.5 times that mean distance above the average. At −100 it is the same distance below. The 0.015 factor sets this scale; it does not establish fixed odds that price will reverse or that a set percentage of Bitcoin observations must remain inside ±100.

How Commodity Channel Index is calculated

Typical price = (high + low + close) / 3. CCI divides its distance from the 20-candle average by 0.015 times the average absolute deviation. The page is published on CCI, period 20. A period counts candles at the interval you choose, so the same setting covers a different stretch of time on a one-hour chart than on a daily one. How smoothing and missing candles are handled.

A calculation you can follow

A three-candle example keeps every arithmetic step visible. The live default uses 20 candles instead. Suppose three candles have typical prices of $90,000, $100,000 and $110,000. Each typical price is calculated separately as (high + low + close) ÷ 3.Their simple average is ($90,000 + $100,000 + $110,000) ÷ 3 = $100,000.The absolute distances from that average are $10,000, $0 and $10,000. Their mean is $6,666.67, using the unrounded fraction in the calculation.The latest typical price is $10,000 above the mean. Divide by 0.015 × $6,666.67, approximately $100: CCI is 100.The same dollar gap would produce a smaller CCI if earlier typical prices were more spread out. CCI describes distance relative to its own recent window, not distance from a permanent fair price.

The 20-candle window

A shorter window changes the average and its mean distance more quickly. A longer one retains older price conditions. Both numerator and denominator change when the period changes, so doubling the period does not simply halve the reading.

Candle interval

Twenty daily candles summarize 20 days; twenty 4-hour candles summarize 80 hours. Higher-timeframe candles also have their own highs, lows and closes. A daily CCI is therefore not an average of intraday CCI values.

The selected price

This page uses high, low and close equally when forming typical price. It does not use the candle’s opening price or weight the inputs by volume. A long upper wick can lift typical price even when the close barely changes.

A changing denominator can hide the move

After a very large candle, the window’s average distance may expand. Price can move further from its average while CCI rises less than expected, because the reference spread expanded too. Read both the price gap and the recent candle shapes before interpreting the index alone.

Do not substitute standard deviation

Mean absolute deviation averages absolute distances. Standard deviation squares the distances before averaging and taking a square root, giving unusually large deviations more influence. Replacing one with the other changes CCI’s formula and its familiar numerical scale.

An old extreme can move the reading as it leaves

The window rolls forward one candle at a time. Dropping an old unusual typical price changes the mean and the denominator, even if the new candle looks ordinary. That mechanical change is not evidence of a fresh burst of trading.

Commodity Channel Index compared with Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands compare closes with an average using standard deviation. CCI uses high-low-close typical prices and mean absolute deviation. Comparing them reveals whether a reading depends on candle wicks, the distance measure, or both; their numerical levels are not interchangeable. Open Bitcoin Bollinger Bands.

Is CCI bounded between −100 and +100?

No. Those are reference levels on an unbounded scale. Values outside them describe larger departures from the window average, not an invalid calculation.

Can CCI rise while the latest close is unchanged?

Yes. A different high or low can change typical price. The rolling average and mean absolute deviation can also change as older candles leave the window.