I would say my eyes are the most reliable tool. Other then that, trendlines, MA, Bollinger or Linear regression tools should do the work.
It would depend on your definition of 'volatile'. Compared to what? Itself or some other security? which period? say last month? 5 years?
For example, if you trade the S&P the open and close sessions are very busy and most tools such trendlines or MA... work pretty well. Some traders told me they use ATR or ADX to know the strengh of potential moves, so Im searching for indicators that can calculate how volatile or trendy a certain product is.. any advice would be helpful
Even functions that 'calculate' how trendy something is, are in most cases not that helpful in extracting a profit from it. For 1 thing, these indicators can't predict and secondly, they lag. Also, there's what I call 'good' volatility and 'bad' volatility. For me, the 'good' volatility will be trending in the same timeframe you're trying to exploit. The 'bad' volatility will be mostly random with no particular trend/pattern that can effectively be profitable without taking big risks. One could go on and on. Obviously this is a subject that requires a *lot* of time and effort has to be adjusted according to one's style of trading.
Day's high/atr is the best way to compare volatility between stocks. I came up with this 3 years a go and it has worked for me ever since. Don't even look at a stock with a v of greater than 60. Please send cash gifts or gold (if you are from U.S.) via Wells Fargo as a show of thanks for sharing this with you lot. Your Toronto connection
try momentum indicators .. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54170 <img src="http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4676/eur5ni.jpg" border="0" alt="">