Trend Strength Indicator

This is a Trend Strength Indicator that shows you the immediate trend and historical trend of price for up to 7 higher timeframes.

It shows the strength of each timeframe by showing a red or green dot based on where price is at compared to the previous higher timeframe candle. The brighter red or green the dot is, the stronger the trend is compared to that higher timeframe candle.

The colors and timeframes can be customized to suit your preference and you can also turn off as many timeframes as you’d like if you want less time frames to show up on the indicator.
It also includes alerts for when all timeframes are bullish or all timeframes are bearish.

Keep these timeframes set to higher time frames than your chart so you can trade in the direction of the overall higher timeframe trend.

Bullish Scoring & Colors
If the current candle close is above the midline of the higher time frame candle, it is given a score of 1 and a dark green dot. If the current candle close is above the higher timeframe candle body, then it is given a score of 2 and a medium green dot. If the current candle close is above the high of the higher time frame candle, it is given a score of 3 and a bright green dot.
The higher the score the stronger the bullish trend and the brighter green the dot will be.

Bearish Scoring & Colors
If the current candle close is below the midline of the higher timeframe candle, it is given a score of -1 and a dark red dot. If the current candle close is below the higher timeframe candle body, then it is given a score of -2 and a medium red dot. If the current candle close is below the low of the higher timeframe candle, it is given a score of -3 and a bright red dot.

The lower the score, the stronger the bearish trend and the brighter red the dot will be.

Trend Scoring Modes
We gave you the option to set the trend scoring mode to either score based on price above or below the midline for quick and easy trend identification, or using the midline, candle body and highs and lows to give you a more detailed view of the trend strength. You can switch between these modes by selecting your preferred mode in the settings panel. The default is Open, High, Low, Close + Midline.

Sending Trend Direction To External Indicators
We coded in the ability to use the trend strength score as a signal that you can use to filter other indicators. This feature is great for notifying signal generating indicators what direction the market is trending in so that the signal generating indicator only gives signals in the direction of the trend.

This feature works by providing a data output of 1, 0 or -1. 1 means the trend is bullish, 0 means the trend is neutral and -1 means the trend is bearish.

This score is calculated by using the score of each timeframe that is turned on and checking if all timeframes are in the same direction or not. So if 3 timeframes are turned on and they are all bullish, the indicator will provide a data output of 1. This tells your external indicators that the trend is bullish.

This data output can be found in the data window and is labeled Trend Direction To Send To External Indicators.

At the bottom of the settings panel, there is a setting called Trend Score Threshold For External Indicators. This setting is the score threshold that all timeframes will need to meet to allow a trend strength signal to go through. So if set to 1, then all timeframes must be scored 1 or higher for bullish or -1 or lower for bearish. If set to 2, then all timeframes must be 2 or higher for bullish or -2 or lower for bearish. If set to 3, then all timeframes must be 3 for bullish or -3 for bearish. If all timeframes have met this threshold, then a bullish or bearish signal can be sent to your external indicator as a trend filter.

Labels
There are labels to the right of each row of dots, telling you which timeframe is which so you can easily identify what timeframe each row is showing the trend for.

Alerts
You can set alerts for when all timeframes are bullish or when all timeframes are bearish. If you have some time frames turned off at the time of creating your alerts, then it will only require all timeframes that are on to be all bullish or bearish to generate an alert. Make sure to set your alerts to once per bar close to ensure you don’t get premature alerts that aren’t yet valid.

Backtesting
This indicator helps you quickly identify and backtest the trend direction, how strong that trend is on multiple timeframes and helps you spot reversals and trend continuations. Make sure you look back at a lot of historical data to see how price moves when trend changes take place and how well price continues in each direction compared to the overall trend. This will help you gain confidence in reading the indicator and using it to your advantage when trading.

Best Way To Use The Indicator
This indicator is designed to help you quickly identify the trend on various different timeframes. The brighter the green dots are, the stronger the bullish trend is. The brighter the red dots are, the stronger the bearish trend is.

Trade in the direction of the trend. If the colors are mixed green and red, then price is likely to chop back and forth, so only trade the extremes of the ranges when that happens.

When most of the lower timeframe dots are the same color, that means it is a strong trend and you should place trades in the direction of the trend to be safe. The lower timeframes will start trending before the higher timeframes, so take notice of the lower timeframe colors starting to agree with each other and then take advantage of the trend that is forming.

You can also spot reversals with this indicator by watching for the lower timeframes to start changing color after a strong trend in one direction. The lower timeframes will start to change color one by one, indicating that the trend is actually changing direction.

For best results, make sure you wait for the trend to show all bullish or all bearish at the same time before you place any trades. If you can be patient enough to do that, you will increase the probability of winning your trade because you are trading with the direction of the overall higher timeframe trend which is typically an easy way to win more trades. Of course wait for pullbacks during the trend so you can keep a tight stop loss after entering your trade.

If you are scalping, you can turn off the higher timeframes and just use the 1 hour through 1 day. This won’t be as reliable as using all timeframes and waiting for them to align, but it is suitable for scalping quick intraday movements.

Other Indicators To Pair This With
Use this in combination with our Higher Timeframe Candle Levels indicator so you can see all of these levels being used to calculate the trend strength scores and watch how price reacts to those levels. You should also use our Breakout Scanner to find other markets with strong trends so you always know which market is trending the strongest and can trade those. Trend Strength Indicator, Higher Timeframe Candle Levels and the Breakout Scanner all use the same levels and calculate the trend scores the same way so they are designed to work all together to help you quickly be able to read a chart and find what direction to trade in.