Docs  /  AI Studio Targets  /  ATR Stop/Target Race

AI Studio Answer Guide: ATR Stop / Target Race

Status: Per-family deep reference (companion to the consolidated Fusion AI Studio & ONNX User Guide) Audience: first-time AI Studio user Answer family: ATR Stop / Target Race Prediction style: Classification

1. The Plain-English Question

ATR Stop / Target Race asks:

“Starting from this bar, which gets hit first within the next N bars: an ATR-sized upside target or an ATR-sized downside stop?”

This is one of the most trader-shaped answer families in AI Studio because it does not ask:

It asks a much more tactical question:

“Which side wins first before the timeout?”

2. What Fusion Is Actually Building

Example:

Meaning:

H20   = look forward up to 20 bars
ATR14 = use ATR(14)
M1p0  = barriers are 1.0 ATR away

Fusion builds two future barriers from the current close:

upper barrier = Close[t] + 1.0 * ATR14[t]
lower barrier = Close[t] - 1.0 * ATR14[t]

Then it looks forward up to the time limit and assigns:

Plain-English translation:

3. The One Important Mental Model

This family is event-based, not score-based.

That means it is not trying to predict:

It is trying to predict:

“Which event happens first?”

That is why many traders may find it easier to reason about than raw Future Return.

4. Which Step 1 Settings Control This Family

This is the family where the Step 1 ATR section matters directly.

The controls are:

Important

For this family:

Those belong to other answer families.

This is one of the places where users can get confused today, because all the bar-count fields live in the same Step 1 area.

5. How Many Answer Columns Fusion Can Create

If you enable this family and enter:

Fusion can create:

So the workflow is:

Step 1: create several possible ATR race answer columns
Step 2: choose exactly one of them for one model

6. What The Model Output Means

This is a classification family.

The correct trader meaning is:

+1 = upper barrier / long side wins first
 0 = no winner before timeout
-1 = lower barrier / short side wins first

Important current product note

The model outputs an encoded class id (+1 / 0 / -1). The AI Studio model card and this guide tell you what each id means, so you read it as the barrier outcome directly.

So the correct mental model is:

treat this family as +1 / 0 / -1 event outcomes

not:

treat the raw plotted encoded number like a continuous score

7. What 0 Means Here

This is one of the most important clarifications.

For ATR Stop / Target Race, 0 does not mean:

It means:

And in one special case, it can also mean:

So 0 here means:

“No clean winner.”

That is very different from the meaning of 0 in:

8. Why Traders May Like This Family

This family often matches how traders already think:

That makes it more concrete than:

If your trading logic is already built around stop/target ideas, this family is often easier to understand than raw regression.

9. What Data This Family Needs

This family depends on:

In practice, the safest rule is:

Important

If High, Low, or Close are missing from the captured export, this family cannot be created correctly.

10. How This Differs From Direction (3-Class)

These two families can sound similar, but they answer different questions.

Direction (3-Class)

Asks:

“Was the forward move down, flat, or up by the end of the horizon?”

ATR Stop / Target Race

Asks:

“Which ATR-sized barrier got hit first before the timeout?”

That means Direction (3-Class) cares about the final directional outcome, while ATR Stop / Target Race cares about the first barrier event.

That is a major conceptual difference.

11. Step-By-Step ATR Stop / Target Race Walkthrough

Step A: Prepare the raw dataset

Open Export and make sure:

Step B: Turn on ATR race answer generation

In AI Studio Step 1:

Example first pass:

Step C: Create the prepared dataset

Click Create New Capture.

Now Fusion creates one or more answer columns such as:

This is where the future event labels are built.

Step D: Choose the actual training question

In Step 2:

Example:

Now the model is learning one specific event rule, not every ATR setup at once.

Step E: Choose the features

Pick the inputs that may help answer:

“Which side gets hit first?”

Useful first feature types often include:

Good first rule:

Step F: Train

Choose:

Good first algorithms:

Keep tuning off on the first pass unless you already have a stable workflow.

Step G: Read the result

Think of the output as an event decision:

+1 = upside barrier wins first
 0 = no winner in time
-1 = downside barrier wins first

Do not read it like a smooth oscillator centered around zero.

12. Good First Session

If you want a clean first experiment with this family:

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

This gives one of the clearest “which side wins first?” workflows in AI Studio.

13. What Not To Do

Do not assume Look-ahead Windows creates these labels

This family uses the ATR race section, not the normal look-ahead list.

Do not assume 0 means centerline

Here, 0 means no winner or ambiguous same-bar touch.

Do not assume this is a regression score

This is a classification/event family. The class meaning matters more than the raw plotted encoded number.

Do not assume it answers “how far price goes”

It answers “which barrier wins first,” which is a different question.

14. Current Product Notes From The ATR Stop / Target Race Guide Pass

These are the product improvements this guide exposes.

A. Step 1 needs family-scope labels next to the ATR section

Suggested note:

“These settings create ATR Stop / Target Race answer columns only. They do not control Future Return or ATR-Normalized Return.”

B. The UI should explain the meaning of 0 directly

Suggested note:

“For ATR Stop / Target Race, 0 means neither barrier wins before the timeout. If both sides would be touched in the same bar, Fusion also keeps that row neutral because OHLC does not reveal intrabar order.”

C. Step 2 should surface the fully resolved training answer column

For example:

“Current training answer: Target_ATRBarrierDirection_H20_ATR14_M1p0”

That would make the choice feel concrete instead of abstract.

15. One-Sentence Rule To Remember

ATR Stop / Target Race means:

“Predict whether the upside ATR barrier, the downside ATR barrier, or neither one wins first before the time limit.”

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