Chande Kroll Stop (CKSP)

Summary

Chande and Kroll's two-line volatility stop. The highest high is offset down, and the lowest low up, by a multiple of the Average True Range, and each line then takes the extreme of its own recent values, so it moves only when a new extreme enters the stop window or an old one leaves it. Price above both lines reads as an uptrend and price below both as a downtrend.

Formula

FirstHighStop = MAX(High, TimePeriod) - Multiplier * ATR(TimePeriod) FirstLowStop = MIN(Low, TimePeriod) + Multiplier * ATR(TimePeriod)

HighStop = MAX(FirstHighStop, StopPeriod) LowStop = MIN(FirstLowStop, StopPeriod)

Notes

• The two lines are named for how they are built, not for the position they protect, because published implementations give "long stop" and "short stop" to opposite lines. outHighStop is the line most platforms plot as the short stop, outLowStop the one they plot as the long stop.
• Neither line is always above the other: a large multiplier pushes the high line below the low one.
• The Average True Range is this library's, whose first value is the average of the first full period of true ranges that have a previous close. Platforms that start the true range on the very first bar give slightly different values on early bars; the difference decays as the average warms up.
• The book's own settings are reported as a multiplier of 3 and a stop period of 20; the defaults here are the ones charting platforms ship.
• A stop period of 1 leaves the first stops unchanged, which is the Chandelier Exit on both sides.
• Both lines inherit the Average True Range's warm-up, so a caller who wants them converged sets TA_FUNC_UNST_ATR, exactly as when calling that function directly.

Inputs

• inHigh — High price of each bar
• inLow — Low price of each bar
• inClose — Close price of each bar

Outputs

• outHighStop — Highest of the recent first high stops; usually plotted as the short stop
• outLowStop — Lowest of the recent first low stops; usually plotted as the long stop

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Accepted values	Description
optInTimePeriod	integer	10	2–100000	Window of the highest high and lowest low, and smoothing period of the Average True Range
optInMultiplier	real	1	≥ 0	Multiplier applied to the Average True Range to offset the first stops
optInStopPeriod	integer	9	1–100000	Window over which each first stop takes its extreme

Properties

Numerical Stability: Initial Unstable Period — Inherited from ATR, which CKSP computes internally; tunable via ATR's unstable period.

✅ Overlap Input i
☐ Independent Y-Axis
☐ Candlestick
☐ Can Output NaN or ±Inf
☐ Identity at Period 1

Implementation

TA-Lib Definition: cksp.c · cksp.yaml

Native	File
C	ta_CKSP.c
Rust	cksp.rs
Java	Core_CKSP.java
C#	Core_CKSP.cs

TA-Lib is also available for Python, R and more using a wrapper.

Aliases

Chande Kroll Stop, CKS, Chande-Kroll Stop

See Also

ATR · MAX · MIN · SUPERTREND · KC · DONCHIAN

References

• Tushar S. Chande and Stanley Kroll, The New Technical Trader, John Wiley & Sons, 1994
• Chande Kroll Stop (TradingView)