Direct Answer
Lowest low is the minimum of the low prices over the last N bars. It marks the lower edge of the recent range and is a building block of channel and breakout indicators. It steps down when price makes a new low and otherwise stays flat until the old low leaves the window.
Lowest Low: Formula, Meaning, Signals, Examples and How to Use It
How Is Lowest Low Calculated?
Lowest low is the minimum of the low prices over the last N bars. It marks the lower edge of the recent range and is a building block of channel and breakout indicators.
Formula: Lowest low(N) = min(low_t, low_t-1, ..., low_t-N+1)
Inputs:
- Low price of each bar
- Lookback length N
Worked example. Five bars with lows of 98.4, 97.1, 99.0, 96.8 and 97.5 have a lowest low of 96.80. The inputs are illustrative numbers, not market data.
Reading it. It steps down when price makes a new low and otherwise stays flat until the old low leaves the window. A close at or below it indicates price is at the bottom of the window's range.
Limits. A single outlier low sets the level until it leaves the window, and the lookback length changes what counts as recent. It describes past prices only.
What is Lowest Low?
Lowest low is the minimum of the low prices over the last N bars. It marks the lower edge of the recent range and is a building block of channel and breakout indicators.
How to use Lowest Low
It steps down when price makes a new low and otherwise stays flat until the old low leaves the window. A close at or below it indicates price is at the bottom of the window's range. A reading alone is never a buy or sell signal; it needs context from price structure, volume, volatility and the broader market regime.
Strengths
- It takes the minimum of the low field only, so the value is a real traded price from a specific bar rather than a computed average.
- As the floor of a window it supplies the lower bound used by stochastic oscillators and Donchian-style channels.
- Reproducible when the formula and data convention are fixed.
Weaknesses and limitations
- When the bar holding the minimum ages out of the window, the value steps upward in one move rather than drifting.
- A window minimum ignores how long price stayed near the floor, so a one-tick wick and a long base give the same reading.
- Correlated indicators can create false confidence by repeating the same underlying information.
Editorial and risk note
This page is educational content, not individualized investment advice. It should not imply guaranteed prediction, accuracy or outperformance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lowest Low a buy or sell signal?
No. It steps down when price makes a new low and otherwise stays flat until the old low leaves the window. A single outlier low sets the level until it leaves the window, and the lookback length changes what counts as recent. A trade built on it still needs a trigger, an invalidation rule, a position size and realistic execution assumptions.
What is the best setting for Lowest Low?
Lowest Low takes these inputs: low price of each bar; lookback length N. There is no universal best setting for the tunable ones, so test them across instruments, regimes and out-of-sample periods and favor stable parameter regions over one historical winner.
Can Lowest Low be used by itself?
A single outlier low sets the level until it leaves the window, and the lookback length changes what counts as recent. It describes past prices only. For that reason it is read next to measures of direction, participation, valuation, liquidity and risk, not alone.
Does Lowest Low work on every timeframe?
The calculation (Lowest low(N) = min(low_t, low_t-1, ..., low_t-N+1)) can be run on any bar size, but behavior is not portable: a reading on a five-minute chart describes a very different market window from the same reading on a daily chart. Validate the exact timeframe before relying on it.
Why does Lowest Low give false signals?
When the bar holding the minimum ages out of the window, the value steps upward in one move rather than drifting. A window minimum ignores how long price stayed near the floor, so a one-tick wick and a long base give the same reading. Lag, noise and regime changes add to this, because market participants react to new information after the reading is calculated.
How should Lowest Low be backtested?
Rebuild Lowest Low from low price of each bar using point-in-time data, write the rules before testing, include delisted securities where relevant, model realistic fills and costs, reserve a validation sample and compare with a simpler baseline.