Price Distance (PDIST) Indicator Explained

Price Distance (PDIST) measures the total ground price covered — up, down, and back again — across the window's opens, highs, lows, and closes. Two markets can end the week flat: one barely moved, the other traveled a war. PDIST tells them apart.

How It Works

• Sums the traversal distances within and between bars over the window.
• Direction-blind: pure activity, not displacement.
• High PDIST with no net progress = violent churn.

How to Trade It

Use PDIST as an activity gate (dead tape = skip), or divide displacement by PDIST for a homemade efficiency measure. Spread traders also use it to pick the more active leg when structuring relative trades.

Building It in Setup.Cash

Add Price Distance (PDIST) in the strategy builder — the length input controls its sensitivity — and use its value in any entry, exit, or filter condition. You can also combine it with other tools in the Indicators Lab or via the AI indicator generator. The Efficiency Ratio is exactly displacement ÷ this idea. For the full category overview, see the volatility & statistics library guide.

Volatility indicators qualify trades rather than generate them — backtest your system with and without this filter and compare the drawdowns.