TapeUpdated daily after close · as of 2026-08-21
Range Efficiency: Is QQQ Trending or Chopping?
Range efficiency is |close − open| ÷ (high − low) — how much of the day's full range the net move actually captured. High readings mean clean, directional trend days; low readings mean whippy chop that covered ground but went nowhere. The 50-day average is a trend-vs-chop regime gauge. QQQ since 1999.
Today's reading
As of market close on August 21, 2026, QQQ's 50-day range efficiency is 49.1% — a trending tape (48%–52% of the daily range captured by the net move). That means the open-to-close move is capturing about 49% of each day's full high-to-low range, versus a long-run average of 47.4% since 1999 (the 68th percentile).
Today’s tape: Clean, modest tapemove size 0.82% (normal moves) · follow-through 49% (trending)
Normal-size moves that hold their direction — orderly trend conditions. Combines this gauge with Intraday Momentum.
Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-08-21 · Open ↓Close ↑
Source
QQQ daily OHLC from our price database (1999–present)
Methodology
Range efficiency = |close−open|/(high−low) (%) per day, 50-day SMA; percentile vs full history
Updates
Daily after US market close (~1pm PT)Last: 2026-08-21
Maintained & reviewed by Yuriy Matso — methodology shown on the page.
Range efficiencyQQQ · 2026-08-21 · 50-day
TRENDING
49.1%
48%–52% of the daily range captured · 68th percentile since 1999
All-time avg
47.4%
Most trending day
Fri
Choppiest day
Tue
Over the last 50 sessions QQQ's net open→close move captured 49.1% of the daily range, vs a 47.4% all-time norm — a trending tape. 6,905 sessions since 1999.
01
Range efficiency over time
Window:loading…
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QQQ price (top, log) 50-day range efficiencyZones: chop <44% · mixed · trend · strong >52%
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Range efficiency by weekday
| Day | Avg range efficiency | Samples |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 47.1% | 1296 |
| Tuesday | 46.8% | 1417 |
| Wednesday | 47.3% | 1417 |
| Thursday | 47.8% | 1391 |
| Friday | 48.0% | 1384 |
Range efficiencyQQQ · 2026-08-21 · 50-day
TRENDING
49.1%
48%–52% of the daily range captured · 68th percentile since 1999
All-time avg
47.4%
Most trending day
Fri
Choppiest day
Tue
Over the last 50 sessions QQQ's net open→close move captured 49.1% of the daily range, vs a 47.4% all-time norm — a trending tape. 6,905 sessions since 1999.
How Range Efficiency Works
- 1Measure the net move against the full rangeFor each QQQ session, range efficiency = |close − open| ÷ (high − low) × 100. The numerator is how far price actually got from open to close; the denominator is the entire distance it travelled intraday. The ratio is the fraction of the day's motion that turned into net progress.
- 2Read it as trend vs chopNear 100% means an efficient trend day — price opened, ran one direction, and closed at the extreme. Near 0% means a choppy, mean-reverting day that swung around and closed near where it opened. Most days land in between; the long-run average is roughly half.
- 3Smooth with a 50-day averageThe 50-day moving average of range efficiency turns the noisy daily series into a regime read: a rising line means the tape is producing cleaner trends; a falling line means more chop and whipsaw.
- 4Read it in plain trend-vs-chop bandsWe label the current 50-day reading by how much of the range the net move captures: under 44% is Choppy, 44–48% Mixed, 48–52% Trending, and over 52% Strongly trending. 50% means the move captured exactly half the day's range; readings have clustered near 47% (the median) since 1999. The percentile vs history is shown alongside for context.
Who Uses Range Efficiency
Trend / Breakout Traders
Your edge lives in efficient days. When range efficiency is high and rising, breakouts follow through; when it is low, breakouts trap and fade.
Mean-Reversion Traders
The mirror image: low range efficiency (choppy regime) is when fading extremes and selling rallies / buying dips into the range pays best.
Day Traders
Set expectations before the open. A strongly-trending regime rewards holding winners; a choppy regime rewards quick profit-taking and tight targets.
Systematic Traders
Use it as a regime switch — route capital to momentum models when efficiency is high and to mean-reversion models when it is low.
Pro Tips
01
Efficiency ≠ size
A day can have a huge range but low efficiency (lots of motion, no net progress) or a small range with high efficiency (a clean drift). Pair this with Intraday Momentum: high IMI plus high efficiency is the textbook trend day.
02
Watch the 50% line
The long-run average sits near 50%. Sustained readings above it mark trend-friendly regimes; sustained readings below it mark the chop that grinds down breakout strategies.
03
Regimes persist
Range efficiency is autocorrelated — trending stretches and choppy stretches both cluster. A turn in the 50-day line tends to mark a real change in character rather than a one-day fluke.
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Direction-agnostic
A clean down day is just as "efficient" as a clean up day. This measures how directional the tape is, not which way — combine it with a directional read.
Common Issues & Solutions
Why QQQ instead of SPY?▾
QQQ (the Nasdaq-100) is the higher-beta, more day-trader-relevant index, with sharper trend-and-chop swings than SPY. History runs back to QQQ's 1999 inception.
Is this the same as the Choppiness Index?▾
It captures the same idea (trend vs chop) but is simpler and more intuitive: a single-day ratio of net move to total range, then smoothed. The classic Choppiness Index uses a log of summed true ranges over a lookback; range efficiency reads directly as "percent of the range the move captured."
Why does it average around 50%?▾
On a typical session the open-to-close move covers about half the high-to-low range — there is usually some back-and-forth around the net drift. Readings persistently above ~55% are genuinely trendy; persistently below ~45% are genuinely choppy.
Does a high reading mean the market is going up?▾
No — it is direction-agnostic. High range efficiency means clean directional days in either direction. It tells you trend-following is working, not which way the trend points.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is range efficiency?▾
For each day, |close − open| ÷ (high − low) × 100 — the share of the session's full high-to-low range that the net open-to-close move actually captured. It measures how directional ("efficient") the day was: near 100% is a clean trend day, near 0% is a choppy day that went nowhere.
What do the range-efficiency bands mean?▾
We band the 50-day average by the share of the daily range the net move captures: under 44% is Choppy (whipsaw, mean-reversion-friendly), 44–48% Mixed, 48–52% Trending, and over 52% Strongly trending (clean directional days, momentum-friendly). 50% means the move captured exactly half the range; readings have clustered near 47% (the median) since 1999. We also show the percentile vs history for context.
How is it different from Intraday Momentum?▾
Intraday Momentum measures the size of the open-to-close move; range efficiency measures how directional that move was relative to the day's total range. A big move with low efficiency means lots of chop; the cleanest trend days are large and efficient at once.
Is this a buy or sell signal?▾
No. It is a regime gauge with no directional content. It tells you whether the environment favors trend-following (high efficiency) or mean-reversion (low efficiency), which way you still have to decide from a directional read.
How often is it updated?▾
Daily after the US market close, from QQQ's open, high, low and close. The 50-day average and percentile reflect data through the most recent session.
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Last updated: 2026-08-21