Donchian Channels
Calculate the Donchian Channels for a given price series.
Donchian Channels plot the highest high and lowest low over the window periods preceding the current one, with the middle line being the average of the two. They are used to identify breakouts and the overall volatility of the price range.
The formula is as follows:
\[\text{Upper Channel} = \text{Highest High over Window},\;\; \text{ending one period ago}\] \[\text{Lower Channel} = \text{Lowest Low over Window},\;\; \text{ending one period ago}\] \[\text{Middle Channel} = (\text{Upper Channel} + \text{Lower Channel}) / 2\]The current period is deliberately excluded from the lookback, per Donchian’s original breakout rule and StockCharts’ Price Channels definition - including it would make a channel break impossible by construction.
Also known as: Donchian Channels, price channel breakout.
Donchian Channels in Python or via the MCP
Install the Finance Toolkit with:
pip install financetoolkit -U
Then call get_donchian_channels as shown below.
from financetoolkit import Toolkit
toolkit = Toolkit(
tickers=["HGUSD"],
api_key="FINANCIAL_MODELING_PREP_KEY",
start_date="2021-01-01",
end_date="2025-12-31",
)
toolkit.technicals.get_donchian_channels().xs("HGUSD", level=1, axis="columns").tail(5)
Or, after setting up the Finance Toolkit MCP, ask:
What were the 20-day Donchian Channels of copper from 26 to 31 December 2025?
Which returns:
| Date | Lower Channel | Middle Channel | Upper Channel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-26 | 5.2425 | 5.4982 | 5.754 |
| 2025-12-28 | 5.281 | 5.5847 | 5.8885 |
| 2025-12-29 | 5.281 | 5.6002 | 5.9195 |
| 2025-12-30 | 5.281 | 5.6041 | 5.9272 |
| 2025-12-31 | 5.281 | 5.6041 | 5.9272 |
Parameters
get_donchian_channels accepts the following parameters.
| Parameter | Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
period | str | The time period to consider for historical data. Can be “intraday”, “daily”, “weekly”, “monthly”, “quarterly” or “yearly”. Defaults to “daily”. | "weekly" |
close_column | str | The column name for closing prices in the historical data. Defaults to “Adj Close”. | "Close" |
window | int | Number of periods for the Donchian Channels. Defaults to 20. | 55 |
rounding | int | None | The number of decimals to round the results to. Defaults to None, which uses the rounding of the Toolkit (4 unless set otherwise). | 2 |
growth | bool | Whether to calculate the growth of the channels. Defaults to False. | True |
lag | int | list[int] | The lag to use for the growth calculation. Defaults to 1. | 4 |
standardize | bool | Whether to standardize (Z-Score) the result. When combined with growth=True, standardizes the growth values instead of the raw values. Defaults to False. | True |