All-Time High (ATH)
ATH means all-time high: the highest price an asset or index has ever reached. Closing vs intraday highs, crypto venues, and what price discovery means.
An all-time high (ATH) is the highest price an asset or index has ever reached since it began trading.
Explained simply
It is the high-water mark on a harbour wall: every tide is measured against it until a higher one replaces it. In trading chat, "ATH" is shorthand for that mark, as in "the index closed at a new ATH".
Key takeaways
- Sources can differ: an ATH may be quoted on closing prices or on the highest intraday trade. A crypto asset traded on many venues can show a slightly different ATH on each, and crypto data aggregators quote a volume-weighted average across venues, so their figure may not match any single venue's chart.
- Above the old high: an asset trading above its previous ATH is said to be "in price discovery", because no past trading at those prices exists to act as a reference.
- The yardstick for falls: falls are often measured as a drawdown from the ATH. A drop of 10% from a recent peak is commonly called a market correction.
- No signal on its own: a break above an ATH that quickly fails is a bull trap. Reaching an ATH says nothing about what comes next: a record can be followed by more records or by a correction, and the level itself does not tell you which.
Closing or intraday: one fall, two figures
The prices below are illustrative. During one session an index trades as high as 105 but closes at 102, the highest close in its history. Weeks later it closes at 89.25.
Measured from | ATH | Drawdown at 89.25 |
|---|---|---|
Closing ATH | 102 | (102 minus 89.25) ÷ 102 = 12.5% |
Intraday ATH | 105 | (105 minus 89.25) ÷ 105 = 15% |
Both figures are correct. They answer different questions, so check which high a chart or report uses before comparing two drawdowns. The formula is the one crypto data aggregators publish for the drop since an ATH: the ATH price minus the current price, divided by the ATH price. On either measure, this index is in correction territory, more than 10% below its peak.
A coin works the same way with one more layer. Each venue prints its own highest trade, so a chart from one venue and an aggregator's page can show two different ATHs for the same coin on the same day. Neither is wrong; they are measured on different prices.
Two more choices change an ATH for shares and indices. A price index leaves out dividends, while a total-return version adds them back, so the two can set records on different days. And an ATH is quoted in nominal terms: adjusted for inflation, a price at a record can still sit below an older peak.
On Ouinex
On Ouinex you can trade price moves around record highs through CFDs and crypto perpetuals, without owning the asset; Ouinex's rates on crypto perpetuals and CFDs are listed by market.
Want to understand bull markets fully? Read the full guide in the Ouinex Academy →
CFDs carry a high risk of loss and may not be suitable for all investors.
Sources
- CoinGecko: Methodology (aggregated price as a volume-weighted average of tickers; "% drop since ATH" formula). Cited once, for both claims.