The Strat Lite [rdjxyz]◆ OVERVIEW
The Strat Lite is a stripped down version of the Strat Assistant indicator by rickyzcarroll—focusing on visual simplicity and script performance. If you're new to The Strat, you may prefer the Strat Assistant as a learning aid.
◇ FEATURES REMOVED FROM THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT
Candle Numbering & Up/Down Arrows
Previous Week High & Low Lines
Previous Day High & Low Lines
Action Wick Percentage
Actionable Signals Plot
Strat Combo Plots
Extensive Alerts
◇ FEATURES KEPT FROM THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT
Full Timeframe Continuity
Candle Coloring
◇ FEATURES ADDED TO THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT
Failed 2 Down Classification
Failed 2 Up Classification
◆ DETAILS
The Strat is a trading methodology developed by Rob Smith that offers an objective approach to trading by focusing on the 3 universal scenarios regarding candle behavior:
SCENARIO ONE
The 1 Bar - Inside Bar: A candle that doesn't take out the highs or the lows of the previous candle; aka consolidation.
These are shown as gray candles by default.
SCENARIO TWO
The 2 Bar - Directional Bar: A candle that takes out one side of the previous candle; aka trending (or at least attempting to trend).
SCENARIO THREE
The 3 Bar - Outside Bar: A candle that takes out both sides of the previous candle; aka broadening formation.
In addition to Rob's 3 universal scenarios, this indicator identifies two variations of 2 bars:
Failed 2 up: A candle that takes out the high of the previous candle but closes bearish.
Failed 2 down: A candle that takes out the low of the previous candle but closes bullish.
◆ SETTINGS
◇ INPUTS
FTC (FULL TIMEFRAME CONTINUITY)
Show/hide FTC plots
Offset FTC plots from current bar
◇ STYLE
STRAT COLORS
Color 0 (Failed 2 Up) - Default is fuchsia
Color 1 (Failed 2 Down) - Default is teal
Color 2 (Inside 1) - Default is gray
Color 3 (Outside 3) - Default is dark purple
Color 4 (2 up) - Default is aqua
Color 5 (2 down) - Default is white
◆ USAGE
It's recommended to use The Strat Lite with a top down analysis so you can find lower timeframe positions with higher timeframe context.
◇ TOP DOWN ANALYSIS
MONTHLY LEVELS
Starting on a monthly chart, the previous month's high and low are manually plotted.
WEEKLY LEVELS
Dropping down to a weekly chart, the previous week's high and low are manually plotted.
DAILY LEVELS
Dropping down to a daily chart, the previous day's high and low are manually plotted.
12H LEVELS
Dropping down to a 12h chart, the previous 12h's high and low are manually plotted.
ANALYSIS
The monthly low was broken, creating a lower low (aka a broadening formation), signalling potential exhaustion risk, which can be a catalyst for reversals. The daily candle that tested the monthly low closed as a Failed 2 Down—potentially an early sign of a reversal. With these 2 confluences, it's reasonable to expect the next daily candle to be a 2 Up. Now it's time to look for a lower timeframe entry.
◇ LOWER TIMEFRAME POSITION
HOURLY PRICE ACTION
Dropping down to an hourly chart, we're anticipating a 2 Up on the daily timeframe, so we're looking for a bullish pattern to enter a position long. I personally like the 6:00 AM UTC-5 hourly candle, as it's the midpoint of the day (for futures).
In this specific example, we see the opening gap was filled and there's a potential 2-1-2 bullish reversal set up.
At this point, price can either do one of 5 things:
Form another 1 (inside) candle
Form a 2 up (directional) candle
Form a 2 down (directional) candle
Form a 2 up, fail, and potentially flip to form a bearish 3 (outside) candle
Form a 2 down, fail, and potentially flip to form a bullish 3 (outside) candle
Knowing the finite potential outcomes helps us set up our positions, manage them accordingly, and flip bias if needed.
POSITION SETUP
Here we can set up a position long AND short. To go long, we set a buy stop at the 1h high and stop loss just below the 50% level of the inside candle; to go short, we set a sell stop at 1h low and stop loss just above the 50% level of the inside candle.
If the short gets triggered first, we can wait for price to move in our favor before cancelling the buy order. If the short becomes a failed 2 down, potentially reversing to become a bullish 3, we can either wait for the stop loss to trigger and for the long position to trigger OR we can move the buy stop to our short stop loss and move the long stop loss to the low of the 1h candle.
POSITION REFINEMENT
For an even tighter risk-to-reward, we can drop to a lower timeframe and look for setups that would be an early trigger of the 1h entry. Just know, the lower you go the more noise there is—increasing risk of getting stopped out before the 1h trigger.
Above are 30m refined entries.
In this example, the long buy stop was triggered. It closed bullish, so the sell stop order can be cancelled.
◇ TARGETS & POSITION MANAGEMENT
TARGETS
These depend on whether you intend to scalp, day trade, or swing trade, but targets are typically the highs of previous candles (when bullish) and lows of previous candles (when bearish). It's advised to be cautious of swing pivots as there's a risk of exhaustion and reversal at these levels.
In this example, the nearest target was the previous 12h high and the next target was the previous day high; if you're a swing trader, you could target previous week's high and previous month's high.
POSITION MANAGEMENT
This largely depends on your risk tolerance, but it's common to either:
Move stop loss slightly into profit
Trail stop loss behind higher highs (bullish) or lower lows (bearish)
Scale out of positions at potential pivot points, leaving a runner
Scale into positions on pullbacks on the way to target
◆ WRAP UP
As demonstrated, The Strat Lite offers a stripped down version of the Strat Assistant—making it visually simple for more experienced Strat traders. By following a top-down approach with The Strat methodology, you can find high probability setups and manage risk with relative ease.
◆ DISCLAIMER
This indicator is a tool for visual analysis and is intended to assist traders who follow The Strat methodology. As with any trading methodology, there's no guarantee of profits; trading involves a high degree of risk and you could lose all of your invested capital. The example shown is of past performance and is not indicative of future results and does not constitute and should not be construed as investment advice. All trading decisions and investments made by you are at your own discretion and risk. Under no circumstances shall the author be liable for any direct, indirect, or incidental damages. You should only risk capital you can afford to lose.
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Today Range Calculator1. Indicator Name
Today (Today’s Volatility)
2. One-line Introduction
Displays real-time 30-day historical volatility (HV30) as a compact table on the chart, helping traders instantly assess market risk levels.
3. General Overview
Today ↑↓ is a lightweight informational widget that calculates and displays the 30-day Historical Volatility (HV30) of the asset in real time.
Using logarithmic returns over the past 30 periods, the script computes variance and then annualizes it to express volatility as a percentage (%) per year.
The result is shown in a clean 1x1 table cell, which can be positioned anywhere on the chart—top/bottom, left/right—depending on your preference.
This makes it easy to quickly evaluate whether the current market is high-risk (volatile) or stable, without cluttering the chart.
It’s especially useful for position sizing, risk management, volatility-based entry/exit decisions, and as a filter for breakout strategies.
Built with performance in mind, the script uses minimal system resources and can be used alongside any indicator or strategy without interference.
4. Key Advantages
📈 Real-time HV30 Display
Calculates and displays 30-day historical volatility using annualized log return variance.
📍 Custom Table Positioning
Place the volatility display in any corner of the chart for optimal visibility.
🧮 Accurate Log Return Calculation
Uses logarithmic returns to ensure precise volatility representation over time.
🎯 Quick Market Sentiment Read
Helps you determine at a glance whether the asset is in a calm or volatile environment.
🧼 Minimalist Design
Clean 1-cell table format keeps your chart readable and organized.
🚀 Ultra-Lightweight Script
Runs efficiently with negligible impact on chart performance.
📘 Indicator User Guide
📌 Basic Concept
Today ↑↓ calculates 30-day Historical Volatility (HV30) by analyzing the asset’s log returns over the past 30 bars.
The result is annualized and shown as a percentage to reflect volatility in standardized terms.
Useful for gauging risk levels and strategy suitability in current market conditions.
⚙️ Settings Explained
Table Position: Choose where the volatility table appears:
Top Left / Top Right / Bottom Left / Bottom Right
📈 High Volatility Example
HV30 > 50% indicates a volatile environment
Suggests wider stop-losses, cautious position sizing, or favoring breakout strategies
📉 Low Volatility Example
HV30 < 15% suggests a calm market or range-bound behavior
Useful as a signal for upcoming volatility expansions or breakout preparations
🧪 Recommended Use Cases
Position Sizing: Scale position size based on HV30 readings
Strategy Filter: Activate certain systems only when volatility meets predefined conditions
Breakout Timing: Identify low-volatility zones as potential breakout opportunities
🔒 Precautions
This indicator does not generate buy/sell signals; it is a volatility reference tool
HV thresholds vary across asset classes—adjust interpretation accordingly
Since HV30 is historical, it may lag during rapid market changes
Dynamic Fair-Value Ribbon Pro @darshakssc1. What This Indicator Is (In Simple Terms)
The Dynamic Fair-Value Ribbon Pro is a visual tool that helps you see how price behaves around a statistically derived “fair-value zone”:
A colored ribbon/cloud marks a central “fair” area.
Areas above the ribbon are labeled as “Unfair High Zone”.
Areas below the ribbon are labeled as “Unfair Low Zone”.
A small state panel tells you where price currently sits relative to this ribbon.
All calculations are based only on historical price, volume, and volatility.
It does not predict future price, does not give buy/sell signals, and is not financial advice.
2. Adding the Indicator
Open a chart on TradingView.
Click on Indicators .
Search for “Dynamic Fair-Value Ribbon Pro” .
Click to add it to your chart.
You will see:
A cloud/ribbon around price.
Colored bars when price is outside the ribbon.
A panel in the top right describing the current state.
3. Core Concept: Fair vs Unfair Zones (Analytical Only)
The indicator tries to answer a descriptive question:
“Where is price trading relative to a historically derived central area?”
It does this by:
Calculating a central value (“fair mid”).
Building a band around that mid.
Coloring the chart depending on whether price is inside or outside that band.
It is not claiming that:
Price “must” return to the band.
Price is “overvalued” or “undervalued”.
Any state is good or bad.
It is simply a visual classification tool .
4. Engine Modes — How the Ribbon Is Calculated
Under “Fair-Value Engine” you can choose:
4.1 Mode 1: Range
Looks back over a chosen number of bars (default: 100).
Finds the highest high and lowest low in that window.
Defines a central “slice” of that range as the fair-value ribbon :
Range Mode: Lower Percent → bottom boundary of the slice (e.g., 30%).
Range Mode: Upper Percent → top boundary of the slice (e.g., 70%).
Effect:
The ribbon represents a middle portion of the historical range .
Above the ribbon = “Unfair High Zone” (analytical label only).
Below the ribbon = “Unfair Low Zone”.
This is purely statistical — it does not mean price is wrong or will revert.
4.2 Mode 2: VWAP + Stdev
In this mode, the central value is based on VWAP :
VWAP (Volume-Weighted Average Price) is used as the midline.
A standard deviation envelope is built around VWAP:
VWAP Mode: Stdev Multiplier controls how wide that envelope is.
Effect:
The ribbon shows where price is trading relative to a volume-weighted average .
Again, areas above and below are just described as “unfair” zones in a visual, analytical sense , not a predictive one.
5. ATR Adaptive Width — Making the Ribbon React to Volatility
Under “ATR Adaptive Width” :
Use ATR Adaptive Width:
On: the band width scales with volatility.
Off: band width stays fixed based on Range or VWAP settings.
ATR Length: how many bars to use for ATR.
Reference ATR (% of price): a reference level for normal volatility.
Min Width Scale / Max Width Scale: clamps the scaling so that the band doesn’t get too narrow or too wide.
What this does (analytically):
When volatility (ATR) is higher than the reference, the band can become wider .
When volatility is lower , the band can become narrower .
This is a mathematical rescaling only and does not imply any optimal levels or performance.
6. Visual Elements — What You See on the Chart
6.1 Fair-Value Ribbon (Cloud)
The cloud between Fair Ribbon Low and Fair Ribbon High is the fair zone .
Color can be changed via “Fair Ribbon Color” .
6.2 Midline
If “Show Center Line” is enabled:
A line runs through the middle of the ribbon.
In Range mode, this is the average of the upper and lower band.
In VWAP mode, it’s essentially the VWAP-based mid.
This line is for visual reference only and makes no claims about support, resistance, or reversion.
6.3 Bar Colors
Unfair High Zone: bars are colored with Unfair High Bar Color.
Unfair Low Zone: bars are colored with Unfair Low Bar Color.
Inside the ribbon:
If “Fade Bars Inside Fair Zone” is ON, bars may be more faded/neutral.
These colors are simply classification highlights ; they do not tell you what to do.
6.4 State Panel (Top Right)
If “Show State Panel” is enabled, you’ll see a small box that displays:
Current engine:
Range or VWAP+Stdev.
Current price state:
Inside Ribbon (Fair Zone)
Above Ribbon (Unfair High Zone)
Below Ribbon (Unfair Low Zone)
This is a quick summary of where price sits relative to the computed ribbon.
7. Typical Ways to Use It (Informational Only)
The indicator can help you visually:
See when price is spending time inside a historically defined central zone.
Notice when price is frequently trading outside that zone.
Compare different timeframes (e.g., 5m vs 1h vs 4h) to see how the fair zone shifts.
Experiment with:
Range length (shorter vs longer lookback).
VWAP vs Range mode.
ATR adaptation on/off.
Important:
Any interpretation of these visuals is entirely up to the user.
The script does not tell you to buy, sell, hold, or do anything specific.
8. Limitations and Important Notes
All calculations use past data only (price, volume, volatility).
The ribbon does not guarantee:
that price will revert,
that zones will hold,
or that any outcome will occur.
There are no built-in signals such as “long/short” or automatic entries/exits.
The script is best used as a supporting, visual layer alongside other tools or methods you choose.
9. Disclaimer
This indicator is:
Strictly informational and educational.
Not a trading system or strategy.
Not financial advice or a recommendation.
Not guaranteed to be accurate, complete, or suitable for any specific purpose.
Users should always perform their own research and due diligence.
Past behavior of any visual pattern or zone does not guarantee future behavior.
Mirror Blocks: StrategyMirror Blocks is an educational structural-wave model built around a unique concept:
the interaction of mirrored weighted moving averages (“blocks”) that reflect shifts in market structure as price transitions between layered symmetry zones.
Rather than attempting to “predict” markets, the Mirror Blocks framework visualizes how price behaves when it expands away from, contracts toward, or flips across stacked WMA structures. These mirrored layers form a wave-like block system that highlights transitional zones in a clean, mechanical way.
This strategy version allows you to study how these structural transitions behave in different environments and on different timeframes.
The goal is understanding wave structure, not generating signals.
How It Works
Mirror Blocks builds three mirrored layers:
Top Block (Structural High Symmetry)
Base Block (Neutral Wave)
Bottom Block (Structural Low Symmetry)
The relative position of these blocks — and how price interacts with them — helps visualize:
Compression and expansion
Reversal zones
Wave stability
Momentum transitions
Structure flips
A structure is considered bullish-stack aligned when:
Top > Base > Bottom
and bearish-stack aligned when:
Bottom > Base > Top
These formations create the core of the Mirror Blocks wave engine.
What the Strategy Version Adds
This version includes:
Long Only, Short Only, or Long & Short modes
Adjustable symmetry distance (Mirror Distance)
Configurable WMA smoothing length
Optional trend filter using fast/slow MA comparison
ENTER / EXIT / LONG / SHORT labels for structural transitions
Fixed stop-loss controls for research
A clean, transparent structure with no hidden components
It is optimized for educational chart study, not automated signals.
Intended Purpose
Mirror Blocks is meant to help traders:
Study structural transitions
Understand symmetry-based wave models
Explore how price interacts with mirrored layers
Examine reversals and expansions from a mechanical perspective
Conduct long and short backtesting for research
Develop a deeper sense of market rhythm
This is not a prediction model.
It is a visual and structural framework for understanding movement.
Backtesting Disclaimer
Backtest results can vary depending on:
Slippage settings
Commission settings
Timeframe
Asset volatility
Structural sensitivity parameters
Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Use this as a research tool only.
Warnings & Compliance
This script is educational.
It is not financial advice.
It does not provide signals.
It does not promise profitability.
The purpose is to help visualize structure, not predict price.
The strategy features are simply here to help users study how structural transitions behave under various conditions.
License
Released under the Michael Culpepper Gratitude License (2025).
Use and modify freely for education and research with attribution.
No resale.
No promises of profitability.
Purpose is understanding, not signals.
FVG HTF# FVG HTF — Higher‑Timeframe Fair Value Gaps
## Summary
- Plots higher‑timeframe Fair Value Gap (FVG) zones directly on your current chart.
- Tracks fill progress using four methods: Any Touch, Midpoint Reached, Wick Sweep, Body Beyond.
- Shows optional labels with timeframe source and live fill percentage; label text color is configurable.
- Designed for clean overlays and efficient rendering with limits on graphics and bars processed.
## What It Does
- Detects bullish and bearish FVGs from a chosen timeframe (or the chart timeframe) and renders:
- Zone Top/Bottom lines and a dotted midpoint line
- Semi‑transparent area fill between the edges
- Optional label at the midpoint with a tooltip showing zone prices
- Continuously updates zones forward and removes them when the selected fill condition is met.
## Inputs
- `Enable FVG` (`fvgSH2`): Toggle detection/plotting on/off.
- `Timeframe` (`fvgTF2`): Choose `Chart` or HTFs (`5 Minutes`, `15 Minutes`, `1 Hour`, `4 Hours`, `1 Day`, `1 Week`, `1 Month`).
- `Fill Method` (`fvgFill2`):
- Any Touch — wick or body touches any part of the zone
- Midpoint Reached — price reaches at least the 50% of the zone
- Wick Sweep — wick fully travels past the far edge and back inside (conceptually stricter than touch)
- Body Beyond — candle body closes beyond the opposite edge (strong confirmation)
- `Zones` colors (`fvgCb2`, `fvgCs2`): Bullish/Bearish zone colors.
- `Labels` (`fvgLB2`): Show/Hide on‑chart labels.
- `Label Color` (`fvgLBc2`): Color picker for label text (default: white).
- `Max Bars Back` (`maxBars2`): Limits processing to recent bars for performance.
## Timeframe Rules
- The helper `htfTF` prevents selecting a timeframe lower than the chart. If an invalid lower TF is chosen, it falls back to `timeframe.period`.
- Supports minute, daily, weekly, and monthly aggregations that are safe for intraday/daily/weekly charts.
## Detection Logic
- Uses rolling higher‑timeframe bars constructed on the fly and checks 3‑bar displacement patterns:
- Bullish FVG: current HTF low above the high two bars ago AND previous HTF close above that high, with no direct gap condition.
- Bearish FVG: current HTF high below the low two bars ago AND previous HTF close below that low, with no direct gap condition.
- On detection, the script creates an FVG object with:
- Top/Bottom lines (`lnTop`, `lnBtm`) and midpoint line (`lnAvg`)
- Midpoint label (`lbTxt`) showing source timeframe and updating fill percentage
- Semi‑transparent fill (`linefill`) for visual clarity
## Fill Tracking
- Fill threshold depends on selected method:
- Any Touch: opposite edge
- Midpoint Reached: zone’s midpoint
- Wick Sweep: stricter condition conceptually (implemented as an opposite‑edge threshold)
- Body Beyond: requires close beyond the opposite edge
- Each bar updates label x‑position and line endpoints forward; the label text shows the best fill ratio achieved.
- When the threshold is reached, the FVG (label, lines, fill) is removed from the chart.
## Best Practices
- Start with `Any Touch` to visualize broad repairs; switch to `Body Beyond` for conservative confirmations.
- Use `1 Hour` or `4 Hours` overlays on 5m–15m charts for context; `1 Day` on 1H charts; `1 Week` on daily charts.
- Keep labels on when monitoring fills intraday; hide labels for clean higher‑level context.
- Adjust `Max Bars Back` if performance is impacted by many zones.
## Repainting Notes
- HTF zones are computed on `timeframe.change(tf)` and therefore confirm on HTF bar closes.
- Label endpoints extend each bar; detection itself avoids lookahead bias. For strict confirmation, align entries with HTF closes.
## Limitations
- “Wick Sweep” is treated as a stricter touch to the far edge; it does not enforce a separate “return inside” bar state.
- Label text color applies uniformly to bull/bear labels. If you need separate colors per side, contact the author.
## Credits & Version
- Pine Script v6; © rithsilanew2020
## Quick Start
1. Enable FVG and choose your HTF (e.g., `1 Hour`).
2. Pick a Fill Method (start with `Any Touch`).
3. Select zone colors and label text color.
4. Set `Max Bars Back` as needed for performance.
5. Use labels/tooltip values (Top/Mid/Bottom) to plan entries and manage risk.
Luxy Sector & Industry RS AnalyzerEver wonder why some stocks soar while others in the same sector barely move? Or why your perfectly timed entry still loses money? Possibly the answer can be found in Relative Strength.
The Luxy Sector & Industry RS Analyzer solves a critical problem that most traders overlook: picking strong stocks in strong sectors AND strong industries . It's not enough for a stock to go up - you want stocks that are crushing their competition at both the sector AND industry level. This indicator does the heavy lifting by automatically comparing your stock against its sector ETF, industry ETF, the broader market, sector leader, and industry leader, giving you a complete multi-level picture of relative performance.
What makes this different?
- Automatic sector AND industry detection - no manual setup required
- Multi-level hierarchy analysis: Market → Sector → Industry → Stock
- Multi-timeframe analysis (1 month to 1 year) in one glance
- Industry ETF mapping (30+ industries covered)
- Clear 0-100 scoring system with letter grades (A+ to F)
- Works on stocks, crypto, forex, and commodities
- Real-time updates with anti-repaint protection
Think of it as your performance dashboard - instantly showing you if you're trading a champion or a laggard at every level of the market hierarchy.
METHODOLOGY & ATTRIBUTION
This indicator is based on classical Relative Strength (RS) analysis principles from technical analysis. RS methodology compares an asset's price performance against a benchmark to identify relative outperformance or underperformance. This concept has been used by professional traders and institutions for decades.
Key Concepts Used:
Relative Strength (RS) - Classical technical analysis concept measuring comparative performance
Multi-Level Hierarchy Analysis - Market → Sector → Industry → Stock comparison
Sector Rotation Analysis - Identifying which sectors are leading or lagging the market
Industry Rotation Analysis - Identifying which industries are leading within their sectors
Multi-period Performance Analysis - Evaluating strength across multiple timeframes
Beta Calculation - Standard statistical measure of volatility relative to a benchmark
DISCLAIMER: This indicator is for educational and informational purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Always do your own research and consult with a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
with all rows visible - capture when stock has strong RS score (70+) so users can see what a "good" setup looks like]
WHAT THE INDICATOR SHOWS
1. AUTOMATIC ASSET TYPE DETECTION
The indicator automatically identifies what you're analyzing and adjusts accordingly:
Stocks - Compares to sector ETF (XLK, XLF, XLV, etc.) and SPY
Crypto - Compares to Total Crypto Market Cap and Bitcoin
Forex - Compares to relevant currency index (DXY, EXY, etc.)
Commodities - Compares to Gold (GLD) as benchmark
Indices - Compares to broader market indices
How it works: The indicator reads your chart's asset type and ticker, then automatically maps it to the correct sector or benchmark. For stocks, it uses intelligent sector detection (looking at the sector field) to match you with the right sector ETF. For example:
- Technology stocks get compared to XLK (Technology Select Sector SPDR)
- Financial stocks get compared to XLF (Financial Select Sector SPDR)
- Healthcare stocks get compared to XLV (Health Care Select Sector SPDR)
This happens instantly when you add the indicator to any chart - no configuration needed.
2. SECTOR & MARKET BENCHMARKS
What is a Sector ETF?
A sector ETF is an exchange-traded fund that tracks a specific industry group. For example, XLK contains all major technology companies. By comparing your stock to its sector ETF, you can see if your stock is outperforming or underperforming its peers.
The indicator shows three key comparison points:
Stock vs Sector (Benchmark)
This tells you how your stock performs compared to companies in the same industry. Positive numbers mean your stock is beating the sector average. Negative numbers mean it's lagging behind.
Stock vs Market (SPY)
This shows performance against the broader S&P 500 index. This is important because even if a stock beats its sector, the entire sector might be weak. You want stocks that beat both their sector AND the market.
Sector vs Market
This reveals "sector rotation" - whether money is flowing into or out of this sector. When this number is positive, the whole sector is hot and leading the market. This is powerful because strong sectors tend to lift all boats, making it easier to find winners.
3. MULTI-PERIOD PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
The indicator calculates performance across four timeframes simultaneously:
1 Month (1M) - Recent short-term momentum
3 Months (3M) - Medium-term trend strength
6 Months (6M) - Longer-term positioning
1 Year (1Y) - Full-cycle performance view
Why multiple periods matter:
A stock might look great over 1 month but terrible over 6 months - that's a red flag. The best stocks show consistent strength across all timeframes . When you see positive RS (Relative Strength) values across all four periods, you've found a stock with sustained outperformance.
Each row in the table shows:
- Raw performance percentage for that period
- RS value (the difference compared to benchmark)
- Color coding: Green for positive, red for negative, white for neutral
4. SECTOR LEADER COMPARISON
The indicator automatically identifies and compares your stock to the sector leader - the dominant stock in that industry.
Sector leaders by industry:
Technology: Apple (AAPL)
Healthcare: UnitedHealth (UNH)
Financial: JPMorgan Chase (JPM)
Energy: ExxonMobil (XOM)
Consumer Discretionary: Amazon (AMZN)
Consumer Staples: Walmart (WMT)
And more...
Why this matters:
Comparing to the leader shows you if you're trading a champion or a follower. If your stock consistently beats the sector leader, you've found something special. If it's lagging the leader, you might want to trade the leader instead.
Optional Custom Leader:
You can override the automatic leader and compare to any stock you choose. This is useful if you want to benchmark against a specific competitor or reference stock.
NEW! INDUSTRY ANALYSIS (STOCKS ONLY)
The indicator now provides multi-level analysis by automatically detecting and comparing your stock to its specific industry , not just the broad sector.
Why Industry matters:
Technology sector (XLK) contains many different industries: Software, Semiconductors, Hardware, etc. A software stock might beat the broad tech sector but lag behind other software companies. Industry analysis provides this granular view.
Industry ETF Mapping (30+ industries):
Software/Applications: IGV (iShares Software ETF)
Semiconductors: SMH (VanEck Semiconductor ETF)
Biotech: IBB (iShares Biotechnology ETF)
Pharmaceuticals: XPH (SPDR Pharmaceuticals ETF)
Banks: KBE (SPDR S&P Bank ETF)
Regional Banks: KRE (SPDR Regional Banking ETF)
Oil & Gas Exploration: XOP (SPDR Oil & Gas Exploration ETF)
Homebuilders: XHB (SPDR Homebuilders ETF)
Retail: XRT (SPDR S&P Retail ETF)
Aerospace & Defense: ITA (iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF)
And many more...
Industry Leader Mapping:
The indicator also identifies the leader within each industry:
Software: Microsoft (MSFT)
Semiconductors: NVIDIA (NVDA)
Biotech: Amgen (AMGN)
Pharmaceuticals: Eli Lilly (LLY)
Banks: JPMorgan (JPM)
Oil Exploration: ConocoPhillips (COP)
And more...
New Table Rows for Stocks:
Industry ETF Performance - How the specific industry performed (green background)
Industry Leader Performance - How the top stock in the industry performed
vs Industry RS - Your stock's outperformance vs its industry ETF
Industry vs Sector RS - Is this industry hot or cold within its sector?
vs Industry Leader RS - Your stock's performance vs the industry's best
Why this is powerful:
A stock that beats both its sector AND its industry is showing strength at every level. This indicates true relative strength, not just riding sector-wide momentum.
Optional Custom Industry:
You can override automatic detection for both Industry ETF and Industry Leader in settings.
5. RS SCORE & GRADING SYSTEM (0-100)
The heart of the indicator is the RS Score - a weighted calculation that distills all the performance data into one clear number from 0 to 100.
How the score is calculated:
FOR STOCKS (with Industry data):
The indicator splits the weight between Sector (60%) and Industry (40%):
SECTOR RS (60% of total weight):
1 Month RS: 24% weight (40% × 0.6)
3 Month RS: 18% weight (30% × 0.6)
6 Month RS: 12% weight (20% × 0.6)
1 Year RS: 6% weight (10% × 0.6)
INDUSTRY RS (40% of total weight):
1 Month RS: 16% weight (40% × 0.4)
3 Month RS: 12% weight (30% × 0.4)
6 Month RS: 8% weight (20% × 0.4)
1 Year RS: 4% weight (10% × 0.4)
FOR OTHER ASSETS (Crypto, Forex, Commodities):
Uses full 100% weight on benchmark:
1 Month RS: 40% weight
3 Month RS: 30% weight
6 Month RS: 20% weight
1 Year RS: 10% weight
It starts at 50 (neutral) and adds or subtracts points based on your asset's relative strength in each period.
Bonus points:
+5 points if the sector is outperforming the market (sector rotation is bullish)
+5 points if the industry is outperforming its sector (hot industry) - STOCKS ONLY
+5 points if RS momentum is improving (getting stronger over time)
-5 points if RS momentum is declining (getting weaker)
The final score is capped between 0-100.
Letter Grade System:
90-100: A+ - Elite performer, crushing the sector
85-89: A - Excellent, strong outperformer
80-84: A- - Very good, above average
75-79: B+ - Good, solid performer
70-74: B - Above average, decent strength
65-69: B- - Slightly above average
60-64: C+ - Average, neutral strength
55-59: C - Below average
50-54: C- - Weak, slight underperformance
45-49: D+ - Concerning weakness
40-44: D - Poor, significant underperformance
0-39: F - Failing, avoid this stock
What scores mean for trading:
- RS Score above 70: Strong stocks worth considering for long positions
- RS Score 50-70: Average stocks, better opportunities elsewhere
- RS Score below 50: Weak stocks, avoid or consider for shorts
6. CONSISTENCY SCORE
This metric shows what percentage of time periods show positive RS .
For STOCKS (with Industry data):
Counts both Sector RS periods AND Industry RS periods (up to 8 total periods):
- If a stock beats both sector and industry in all 4 periods each: Consistency = 100% (8/8)
- If it beats in 6 out of 8 total periods: Consistency = 75%
- If it beats in 4 out of 8 total periods: Consistency = 50%
For OTHER ASSETS:
Counts benchmark periods only (4 total):
- If it beats benchmark in all 4 periods (1M, 3M, 6M, 1Y): Consistency = 100%
- If it beats in 3 out of 4 periods: Consistency = 75%
- If it beats in 2 out of 4 periods: Consistency = 50%
Why consistency matters:
A high RS Score with low consistency might indicate a recent spike that could fade. The best stocks show both high RS Score AND high consistency - they're strong now AND have been strong historically at both the sector AND industry level.
Look for stocks with:
Consistency above 75%: Very reliable strength across all levels
Consistency 50-75%: Decent but check other metrics
Consistency below 50%: Weak or erratic, proceed with caution
7. BETA CALCULATION (Volatility Measure)
Beta measures how much more volatile your stock is compared to its sector.
Beta > 1.2 : High volatility - stock moves more aggressively than sector (marked as "High")
Beta 0.8-1.2 : Normal volatility - moves roughly in line with sector
Beta < 0.8 : Low volatility - stock is more stable than sector (marked as "Low")
Formula used:
Beta = Correlation(Stock, Sector) × (Standard Deviation of Stock / Standard Deviation of Sector)
This uses a 20-period calculation for reliability.
How to use Beta:
- High Beta stocks offer bigger gains but also bigger risks - good for aggressive traders
- Low Beta stocks are more defensive - good for conservative positions
- Match Beta to your risk tolerance and strategy
8. DAYS ABOVE/BELOW SECTOR
This tracks consecutive periods (bars) where your stock outperforms or underperforms its sector.
Days Above Sector:
Counts how many bars in a row your stock has beaten the sector.
10+ days: Strong sustained strength (shown in bright green)
5-9 days: Building momentum (shown in yellow)
1-4 days: Early strength (shown in white)
0 days: Not currently outperforming
Days Below Sector:
Counts how many bars in a row your stock has lagged the sector.
10+ days: Sustained weakness (shown in bright red)
5-9 days: Losing momentum (shown in orange)
1-4 days: Minor weakness (shown in white)
0 days: Not underperforming (this is good!)
Why this matters:
Long streaks show trend persistence. A stock with 15+ days above sector is riding strong momentum. A stock with 15+ days below sector is in a sustained downtrend relative to peers.
9. PRICE VS 52-WEEK HIGH
Shows where current price sits relative to its 52-week high (or equivalent for your timeframe).
95%+ (green) : Stock is near all-time highs - strong positioning
80-94% (yellow) : Stock is in a pullback but still relatively strong
Below 80% : Stock has pulled back significantly from highs
Why this matters:
The strongest stocks stay near their highs. When you see a stock with high RS Score AND price near 52W high, you've found a stock with institutional support and strong buying pressure.
10. RELATIVE VOLUME
Compares current volume to the 20-period average volume.
1.5x+ (green) : High volume - significant interest and participation
Around 1.0x : Average volume - normal trading activity
Below 1.0x : Low volume - less interest or inactive period
Why volume matters:
High relative volume confirms price moves. When a stock makes a strong move on 2x or 3x normal volume, it's more likely to sustain. Low volume moves are often just noise.
11. AVERAGE RS STRENGTH
This calculates the average absolute value of all RS readings across the four timeframes.
It shows the magnitude of divergence from the sector, regardless of direction. A high number means the stock moves very differently from its sector (could be much stronger or much weaker). A low number means it tracks closely with the sector.
High Average RS: Stock has strong character, moves independently
Low Average RS: Stock follows sector closely, lacks individual strength
12. SECTOR ROTATION SIGNAL
This indicator automatically detects when a sector is experiencing bullish rotation - meaning money is flowing into the sector and it's outperforming the broader market.
Condition for bullish rotation:
Sector must be beating SPY (market) in both 1-month AND 3-month periods.
Why this matters:
Stocks in hot sectors tend to perform better because they have tailwinds from sector-wide buying. When sector rotation is bullish and your stock has a high RS Score, you've found an ideal setup.
The indicator adds +5 bonus points to the RS Score when sector rotation is bullish.
13. MOMENTUM DETECTION
The indicator compares 1-month RS to 3-month RS to detect if momentum is improving or declining.
RS Momentum Improving: 1M RS is better than 3M RS - stock is getting stronger (adds +5 to score)
RS Momentum Declining: 1M RS is worse than 3M RS - stock is getting weaker (subtracts -5 from score)
Why momentum matters:
You want to catch stocks as momentum is building, not after it's already peaked. Improving momentum suggests the strength is accelerating, not fading.
14. OVERALL ASSESSMENT & RECOMMENDATION
The indicator provides two quick summary rows:
Overall Rating:
Based on grade and RS Score, you get an instant quality rating:
Strong Leader (A/A+) - Top tier stock, crushing it
Above Average (A-/B+) - Solid performer, better than most
Average (B/B-) - Middle of the pack
Below Average (C/C+) - Struggling, watch carefully
Underperformer (D/F) - Weak stock, underperforming badly
Trading Signal:
Combines multiple factors to give setup quality:
STRONG BUY SETUP - RS Score 70+, Consistency 75+, AND sector rotation bullish. This is the perfect storm - strong stock, consistent strength, hot sector.
BULLISH - RS Score 60+, Consistency 50+. Good quality stock worth considering.
NEUTRAL - RS Score 50+. Okay but not exciting, better opportunities exist.
WEAK - RS Score 40-49. Below average, risky.
AVOID - RS Score below 40. Stay away, too weak.
IMPORTANT: These are educational signals only, not financial advice. Always do your own analysis and risk management.
KEY FEATURES
1. AUTOMATIC EVERYTHING
- Auto-detects asset type (stock, crypto, forex, commodity, index)
- Auto-maps stocks to correct sector ETF (11 sectors covered)
- Auto-maps stocks to correct industry ETF (30+ industries covered)
- Auto-identifies sector leader AND industry leader
- Auto-selects appropriate market benchmark
- Zero configuration required - just add to chart
2. MULTI-ASSET SUPPORT
Works on all asset classes:
US Stocks - Compares to sector ETFs (XLK, XLF, XLV, etc.)
Crypto - Compares to Total Crypto Market Cap
Forex - Compares to currency indices (DXY, EXY, etc.)
Commodities - Compares to Gold (GLD)
Indices - Compares to broader market benchmarks
3. FLEXIBLE DISPLAY
9 table positions (top/middle/bottom, left/center/right)
4 size options (tiny, small, normal, large)
Show/hide table completely
Real-time indicator toggle
4. TIMEFRAME FLEXIBILITY
Choose your analysis timeframe:
Chart Timeframe (default) - Uses whatever timeframe your chart is on
Fixed: 1 Hour, 4 Hours, Daily, Weekly - Forces calculations to specific timeframe
This means you can be on a 5-minute chart but analyze RS on Daily timeframe if you prefer.
5. RS SCORE FILTERING
Set a minimum RS Score threshold to only see strong stocks:
Set to 0 - Shows all stocks
Set to 70 - Only displays stocks with RS Score 70+ (strong stocks only)
Warning message displays if stock doesn't meet threshold
Perfect for screening - quickly scan multiple charts and the indicator only shows tables for stocks that pass your quality filter.
6. CUSTOM LEADER COMPARISON
Override automatic leader detection:
Compare to any ticker you choose
Benchmark against specific competitors
Use your own reference stocks
7. COMPREHENSIVE TOOLTIPS
Every input parameter and every table row has detailed tooltips explaining:
What the metric measures
How to interpret the values
What thresholds indicate strength/weakness
Why it matters for trading
Hover over any element to learn - it's like having a trading coach built in.
8. SMART ALERTS
Built-in alert system for key events:
Divergence Alerts:
Get notified when your stock diverges significantly from its sector.
Bullish Divergence: Stock beating sector by threshold percentage
Bearish Divergence: Stock losing to sector by threshold percentage
Set your threshold (default 5%) - this determines how big a divergence triggers the alert.
RS Score Alerts:
Get notified when RS Score crosses your threshold:
Crossed Above: RS Score went from below to above your threshold (bullish)
Crossed Below: RS Score dropped from above to below threshold (bearish)
Set your threshold (default 70) to focus on strong stocks.
Sector Rotation Alert:
Fires when sector shows bullish rotation (outperforming market).
HOW TO USE THE INDICATOR
FOR SWING TRADERS:
1. Add indicator to your watchlist stocks
2. Look for RS Score 70+ with Consistency 75%+
3. Check if sector rotation is bullish (bonus!)
4. Verify price is near 52W high (95%+)
5. Wait for entry setup on your chart
6. Use stop loss below key support
Example Setup:
Stock shows:
- RS Score: 82 (Grade: A-)
- Consistency: 100% (strong across all periods)
- Sector Rotation: Bullish
- Price vs 52W High: 96%
- Days Above Sector: 12 days
- Relative Volume: 1.8x
This is a textbook strong stock in a hot sector near highs - ideal for swing long.
FOR POSITION TRADERS:
1. Focus on 6-month and 1-year RS values
2. Look for sustained outperformance (Consistency 75%+)
3. Prefer lower Beta stocks (less volatility)
4. Check Days Above Sector for trend persistence
5. Monitor RS Score monthly, exit if drops below 60
FOR ACTIVE TRADERS:
1. Use on intraday timeframes (1H or 4H)
2. Set RS Score filter to 60+ for quick screening
3. Enable Divergence Alerts
4. Watch for momentum improving signal
5. Higher Beta stocks offer more movement
FOR SHORT SELLERS:
1. Look for RS Score below 40 (Grade: D or F)
2. Check for declining momentum
3. Verify Days Below Sector is increasing (10+)
4. Sector rotation should be bearish
5. Price should be well off 52W high
WHAT MAKES A PERFECT SETUP:
The holy grail combination:
RS Score: 75+ (A- or better)
Consistency: 80%+ (strong across time - beats sector AND industry)
Sector Rotation: Bullish (hot sector)
Industry vs Sector: Positive (hot industry within sector)
Days Above Sector: 10+ (sustained strength)
Momentum: Improving (getting stronger)
Price vs 52W High: 90%+ (near highs)
Relative Volume: 1.5x+ (volume confirmation)
When you find this combination, you've located a stock with every advantage in its favor - strong at the stock level, industry level, AND sector level. That's multi-level confirmation of relative strength.
IMPORTANT NOTES
Data Reliability:
All calculations use lookahead=off for anti-repaint protection
Historical values will never change
Real-time indicator toggle only affects the visual clock icon, not data reliability
All security requests are properly configured to prevent future data leakage
Sector Mapping Notes:
Sector detection uses TradingView's sector field
Some stocks may not have sector data - indicator will adapt
Sector ETFs used: XLK, XLF, XLV, XLE, XLY, XLP, XLI, XLB, XLRE, XLU, XLC
Major market ETFs (SPY, QQQ, DIA) are treated as market benchmarks, not stocks
Multi-Asset Notes:
Crypto compares to CRYPTOCAP:TOTAL (total crypto market cap)
Forex compares to relevant currency index based on base currency
Commodities compare to Gold (GLD) as primary commodity benchmark
Custom leaders can be set for any asset type
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What does RS Score of 75 actually mean?
A: It means your stock is strongly outperforming its sector across multiple timeframes. The score is weighted toward recent performance (1-month gets 40% weight), so 75 indicates sustained relative strength with emphasis on current momentum.
Q: My stock has high RS Score but is going down. Why?
A: RS Score measures relative performance (vs sector/market), not absolute price direction. A stock can fall 5% while its sector falls 10% - that's still positive relative strength. In bear markets or sector corrections, high RS stocks often fall less than peers.
Q: Should I only trade stocks with RS Score above 70?
A: For long positions, yes - focus on 70+ scores. These stocks have proven they can beat their sector. However, for pairs trading or relative value plays, you might also short stocks with scores below 40 while longing stocks above 70.
Q: What if my stock doesn't have a sector?
A: The indicator handles this gracefully. If no sector is detected, it will compare directly to the market (SPY for stocks). Some rows may show N/A, but the indicator will still provide useful market-relative data.
Q: Why does the sector sometimes show N/A?
A: This happens when: 1) Your asset has no sector classification, 2) The stock IS the sector ETF itself, 3) You're analyzing a non-stock asset (crypto, forex, commodity). The indicator adapts by focusing on market-relative metrics instead.
Q: Can I use this on cryptocurrencies?
A: Yes! The indicator automatically detects crypto and compares to the Total Crypto Market Cap (CRYPTOCAP:TOTAL). You can also set a custom leader like Bitcoin (BTCUSD) to compare against the dominant crypto.
Q: What's the difference between RS Score and Consistency?
A: RS Score is the weighted average of how much you're beating the sector (magnitude). Consistency is what percentage of time periods show outperformance (reliability). You want both high - that means strong AND consistent.
Q: Do the alerts repaint?
A: No. All alerts fire only on bar close (barstate.isconfirmed) and use properly configured data with lookahead=off. Once an alert fires, it's final and won't change.
Q: What timeframe should I use?
A: For swing trading: Daily or Weekly. For day trading: 1H or 4H. For position trading: Weekly. Use "Chart Timeframe" mode and switch your chart timeframe to change the analysis period easily.
Q: Why is Days Above Sector showing 0?
A: This means your stock is not currently outperforming its sector. If Days Below Sector is also 0, it means the RS is exactly neutral (very rare). Check the actual RS values to see current standing.
Q: Can I compare to a different market benchmark than SPY?
A: Currently the indicator uses SPY (S&P 500) as the default US stock market benchmark. For crypto it uses CRYPTOCAP:TOTAL, for forex it uses currency indices, etc. The benchmark auto-adjusts based on asset type.
Q: What's a good Beta value?
A: It depends on your strategy. Aggressive traders prefer Beta above 1.2 (more volatility = bigger moves). Conservative traders prefer Beta 0.8-1.0 (more stable). Beta is neutral - it's about matching your risk tolerance.
Q: How often does the table update?
A: With Real-time Indicator enabled: Every tick (constant updates). With it disabled: Only on bar close. Either way, the underlying data is identical and non-repainting - the toggle only affects update frequency and the clock icon display.
Q: My stock is showing "AVOID" but it's up 50% this year. Is the indicator wrong?
A: Not necessarily. The indicator measures RELATIVE performance. If your stock is up 50% but the sector is up 100%, your stock is actually underperforming by 50%. The indicator helps you identify when you should switch to stronger stocks in the same sector.
Q: What does "Strong Buy Setup" really mean?
A: It means three things aligned: 1) RS Score above 70 (strong stock), 2) Consistency above 75% (reliable strength), 3) Sector rotation is bullish (hot sector). This combination historically correlates with stocks that continue outperforming. However, this is NOT financial advice - always do your own analysis.
Q: Can I use this for options trading?
A: Yes! High RS Score stocks make good candidates for call options (bullish bets) while low RS Score stocks may work for puts (bearish bets). Higher Beta stocks will have more volatile options (higher premiums but more movement).
Q: Why is my crypto showing N/A for sector?
A: Cryptocurrencies don't have "sectors" like stocks do. Instead, the indicator compares crypto to the total crypto market cap. This is normal and expected behavior.
Q: What happens if I'm analyzing an ETF?
A: If you're analyzing a sector ETF (like XLK), it will compare to SPY (market). If you're analyzing SPY itself, some comparisons won't be available (can't compare SPY to itself). The indicator intelligently adapts to avoid circular comparisons.
Q: What if my stock doesn't have industry data?
A: Not all stocks are mapped to specific industries (only 30+ major industries are covered). If no industry is detected, the indicator will still work using only sector analysis. The RS Score calculation will use 100% sector weight instead of the 60%/40% split.
Q: Why does Industry vs Sector matter?
A: Industry vs Sector shows if your specific industry is hot or cold within its broader sector. For example, Semiconductors (SMH) might be outperforming Technology sector (XLK) even though both are up. This helps you find not just strong sectors, but the strongest industries within those sectors.
Q: Can I disable Industry analysis?
A: Yes! In the "Industry Analysis" settings group, you can toggle off "Show Industry Analysis in Table" to hide all industry rows. However, even when hidden, industry data still contributes to the RS Score calculation for stocks.
Q: Why is my Consistency Score lower for stocks than other assets?
A: For stocks with industry data, Consistency counts 8 periods (4 Sector + 4 Industry periods) instead of just 4. This means the bar is higher - your stock needs to beat both sector AND industry consistently. A stock that beats sector in all 4 periods but lags industry in 2 periods will show 75% consistency (6/8), not 100%.
BEST PRACTICES
Use as a screening tool - Set RS Score filter to 70+ and quickly scan your watchlist. Only strong stocks will show the table.
Combine with technical analysis - RS Score tells you WHAT to trade, your chart tells you WHEN to enter.
Check multiple timeframes - Switch between Daily and Weekly to see if strength holds across different time horizons.
Monitor sector rotation - When sector goes from bearish to bullish rotation, it's often a great time to enter stocks in that sector.
Watch Industry vs Sector - Stocks in hot industries within hot sectors have double tailwinds. Prioritize Industry vs Sector positive values.
Pay attention to consistency - High RS Score with low consistency might be a spike that fades. Look for 70%+ consistency across BOTH sector and industry.
Use the leader comparison - If your stock consistently beats both sector leader AND industry leader, you may have found the next champion.
Watch days above/below sector - Long streaks (15+ days) indicate strong trends. Look for these in conjunction with high RS Score.
Set alerts on key stocks - Enable RS Score alerts at 70 threshold to get notified when watchlist stocks become strong.
Consider Beta for position sizing - Size smaller positions in high Beta stocks, larger in low Beta stocks for balanced risk.
Exit when RS Score drops - If a stock's RS Score falls below 60, consider reducing or exiting - the strength may be fading.
Leverage industry-level insight - If Industry ETF is weak but stock is strong, that's standout strength. If Industry is hot but stock is lagging, consider switching to the industry leader instead.
SETTINGS EXPLAINED
Display Settings:
Show Performance Table - Master on/off switch for the table
Table Position - 9 positions available (corners, edges, center)
Table Size - 4 sizes (tiny, small, normal, large) for different screen sizes
Timeframe Settings:
Chart Timeframe (recommended) - Dynamic, uses whatever chart TF you're on
Fixed Timeframes - Locks analysis to 1H, 4H, Daily, or Weekly regardless of chart
Filtering Settings:
Minimum RS Score - Set threshold (0-100) for displaying table
Show Warning - When enabled, displays message if stock doesn't meet filter
Alert Settings:
Divergence Alerts - Enable alerts when stock diverges from sector
Threshold (%) - How big a divergence triggers alert (default 5%)
RS Score Alerts - Enable alerts when RS Score crosses threshold
Threshold - What RS Score level triggers alert (default 70)
Sector Analysis Settings:
Use Custom Sector ETF - Override automatic sector ETF detection
Sector ETF Symbol - Enter any sector ETF to compare against
Use Custom Sector Leader - Override automatic sector leader detection
Sector Leader Symbol - Enter any ticker as sector leader
Industry Analysis Settings:
Use Custom Industry ETF - Override automatic industry ETF detection
Industry ETF Symbol - Enter specific industry ETF (e.g., IGV, SMH)
Use Custom Industry Leader - Override automatic industry leader detection
Industry Leader Symbol - Enter specific industry leader
Show Industry Analysis - Toggle all industry rows on/off
Display Settings:
Show Real-time Indicator - Toggle clock icon in header (doesn't affect data)
WHAT THIS INDICATOR DOESN'T DO
To set proper expectations:
Does NOT provide entry/exit signals - this is a strength analyzer, not a trading system
Does NOT predict future price movement - shows current and historical relative strength
Does NOT guarantee profits - strong RS stocks can still decline
Does NOT replace your own analysis - use as one tool among many
Does NOT work on stocks with no sector data - will adapt but some rows show N/A
This indicator is a decision support tool . It helps you identify which stocks are showing relative strength so you can make more informed trading decisions. You still need your own entry strategy, risk management, and position sizing rules.
SUPPORT & CONTACT
Questions or feedback? Use the comments section below or send me a message.
If you find this indicator useful, please give it a boost and share with other traders who might benefit from relative strength analysis.
FINAL REMINDER
This indicator is a tool for analyzing relative strength - it shows you which stocks are outperforming their sector and market. It does NOT provide financial advice or trade signals. Always conduct your own research, manage your risk appropriately, and consult with a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
Past performance of relative strength does not guarantee future results. Strong stocks can become weak, and sectors rotate in and out of favor. Use this indicator as part of a comprehensive trading strategy, not as a standalone decision-making system.
Trade smart, manage risk, and may your RS Scores stay high!
If you got till here and you like my work a BOOST and a COMMENT would make me happy
Michael's Custom Watermark🔷 MICHAEL'S CUSTOM WATERMARK INDICATOR
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📊 OVERVIEW
A comprehensive chart watermark overlay that displays essential fundamental and technical information for stocks in a clean, customizable table format. Perfect for traders who want quick access to key metrics without cluttering their charts.
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✨ KEY FEATURES
📊 Fundamental Data Display — Shows Industry, Sector, Market Cap, and P/E Ratio
📅 Earnings Information — Displays next earnings date with countdown timer
📈 ATR Volatility Indicator — 14-day ATR with color-coded visual alerts (🔴🟡🟢)
🎨 Auto Theme Detection — Automatically adjusts text color based on chart background
⚙️ Fully Customizable — Position, colors, size, and displayed metrics all adjustable
🏢 GICS Sector Mapping — Heuristic-based sector classification aligned with industry standards
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🎯 WHAT MAKES THIS INDICATOR UNIQUE?
Unlike basic watermarks, this indicator provides:
Real-time fundamental data integration
Smart theme-aware color adaptation for both light and dark charts
Configurable volatility alerts using ATR thresholds
Earnings countdown feature to never miss important dates
Optimized display that only shows relevant data for the current symbol type
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📖 HOW TO USE
1. BASIC SETUP
Add the indicator to your chart. By default, it displays in the top-left corner with all features enabled.
2. POSITIONING
Vertical Location: Top, Middle, or Bottom
Horizontal Location: Left, Center, or Right
Vertical Offset: Fine-tune position with 0-50 pixel offset from top
3. CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS
TEXT APPEARANCE:
Auto Text Color — Enable to automatically adapt text color to your chart theme
Manual Color — Set a fixed text color if auto-color is disabled
Text Size — Choose from Huge, Large, Normal, or Small
Theme Colors — Customize text color for light and dark backgrounds separately
DATA DISPLAY TOGGLES:
Show Industry & Sector — Display heuristic-based GICS-aligned sector and industry classification
Show Market Cap — View market capitalization in T/B/M format
Show P/E Ratio — Display Price-to-Earnings ratio (stocks only)
Show ATR (14-Day) — Display Average True Range with percentage and visual indicator
Show Next Earnings — Display upcoming earnings information
Show Earnings Countdown — Show days remaining until next earnings (requires earnings display)
4. ATR VOLATILITY ALERTS
Configure custom thresholds to monitor volatility:
Red Threshold — ATR percentage that triggers red alert 🔴 (default: 6%)
Yellow Threshold — ATR percentage that triggers yellow alert 🟡 (default: 3%)
Green — Shows automatically when ATR is below yellow threshold 🟢
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📐 UNDERSTANDING THE DISPLAY
🏢 SECTOR & INDUSTRY
Shows the GICS sector classification followed by the specific industry. The indicator uses heuristic-based mapping to align TradingView sectors with standard GICS classifications. Note that this mapping is based on keyword detection and industry analysis, so while generally accurate, it may not perfectly match official GICS classifications in all cases.
💰 MARKET CAP
Displays market capitalization using standard abbreviations:
T = Trillion
B = Billion
M = Million
📊 P/E RATIO
Shows the trailing twelve-month Price-to-Earnings ratio. Only displayed for stocks when enabled. Shows "N/A" if data is unavailable.
📈 ATR (14-DAY)
Displays the 14-period Average True Range in both absolute value and percentage terms, with a color-coded indicator:
🔴 Red: High volatility (above red threshold)
🟡 Yellow: Moderate volatility (between yellow and red thresholds)
🟢 Green: Low volatility (below yellow threshold)
📅 EARNINGS
Shows earnings information in three formats:
"X days remaining" — When countdown is enabled and earnings date is known
"Upcoming" — When date is in the future but countdown is disabled
"Recently Reported" — When earnings just occurred
"N/A" — When no earnings data is available
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⚙️ TECHNICAL DETAILS
SUPPORTED INSTRUMENTS:
Optimized for stocks with full fundamental data
Works with other instruments (crypto, forex, futures) but only displays applicable metrics
Automatically suppresses irrelevant data (e.g., P/E for non-stocks)
PERFORMANCE:
Lightweight overlay with minimal resource usage
Updates only on last bar for efficiency
No historical recalculation needed
COMPATIBILITY:
Pine Script v6
Works on all timeframes
Compatible with all chart types
Auto-adapts to theme changes
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💡 TIPS & BEST PRACTICES
Enable Auto Text Color for seamless theme switching between light and dark modes
Adjust vertical offset to avoid overlap with price action in high-volatility periods
Use ATR thresholds appropriate to your trading style and asset class
Disable features you don't use to keep the watermark clean and focused
Position in corners to maximize chart viewing space
Use smaller text size for multi-panel layouts
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🔧 TROUBLESHOOTING
"N/A" SHOWING FOR P/E RATIO:
This is normal for non-stock instruments
May occur for stocks with negative earnings
Check if fundamental data is available for the symbol
EARNINGS SHOWING "N/A":
Earnings data may not be available for all stocks
Check TradingView's data coverage for your symbol
TEXT COLOR NOT VISIBLE:
Enable Auto Text Color feature
Manually set text color to contrast with your chart background
Adjust custom light/dark text colors in settings
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⚠️ DISCLAIMER
This indicator is for informational purposes only. The fundamental data displayed is sourced from TradingView's data providers. Always verify critical information before making trading decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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If you find this indicator helpful, please give it a boost 🚀 and share your feedback in the comments!
Version: 1.0
Pine Script Version: v6
Created by: Michael
Multi-Confluence Signal System📊 OPTIMIZED MULTI-CONFLUENCE SIGNAL SYSTEM
A professional-grade trading indicator that combines multiple technical analysis methods to generate high-probability buy and sell signals. Designed for daily timeframe Bitcoin/crypto trading with optimized parameters based on real market backtesting.
🎯 KEY FEATURES:
- Multi-Confluence Scoring (8 components) - Each signal shows strength rating
- Smart Top & Bottom Detection - Catches reversals using price action patterns
- Ichimoku Cloud Integration - Dynamic support/resistance visualization
- Dual EMA System (20/50) - Clear trend identification
- RSI + MACD + Volume Confirmation - Multi-indicator validation
- Signal Alternation - Only shows directional changes (no repeated signals)
- Minimal Bar Spacing - Prevents signal clustering and overtrading
✅ OPTIMIZED FOR:
- Catching parabolic tops with rejection wicks
- Identifying capitulation bottoms in downtrends
- Avoiding false signals during consolidation
- 4-8 quality signals per 4-month period on daily charts
- Works in both trending and volatile markets
🔧 TECHNICAL COMPONENTS:
- EMA 20/50 trend system
- RSI (14) with adjusted overbought/oversold levels (68/32)
- MACD for momentum confirmation
- Ichimoku Cloud for trend context
- Volume analysis (1.3x threshold)
- Candlestick pattern recognition (engulfing, hammers, shooting stars)
- Capitulation detection for extreme moves
- Price extension filters (±5-10% from EMAs)
⚠️ BEST PRACTICES:
- Optimized for Daily timeframe
- Combine with your own risk management
- Higher scores = higher probability trades
- Wait for signal confirmation on candle close
- Use in conjunction with key support/resistance levels
💡 SIGNAL LOGIC:
BUY signals trigger on: Capitulation candles, extreme oversold + reversal patterns, MACD turnarounds in downtrends, or high confluence scores with bullish patterns
SELL signals trigger on: Rejection wicks at tops, bearish engulfings with overbought RSI, parabolic extensions, MACD reversals, or high confluence scores with bearish patterns
📈 Created through iterative backtesting and optimization on Bitcoin price action from 2024-2025.
⭐ Free to use • Leave feedback • Happy trading!
NQ Scalping WMAThis indicator plots two Weighted Moving Averages (WMAs) derived from the high and close to visualize short-term momentum extremes on NQ (Nasdaq futures). I built it for myself for scalping reversals on the 1-minute timeframe.
The area between the upper WMA (“Top-Source”) and lower WMA (“Bot-Source”) is filled with contextual color: green when price is above the top WMA, red when price is below the bottom WMA, and neutral gray otherwise. This makes it easy to spot overextensions, potential snap-back zones, and quick mean-reversion opportunities. Inputs include WMA length, line color, and separate sources for top/bottom WMAs, allowing fast tuning for changing intraday volatility.
The original code I used to make this is from PlayBit EMA by FFriZz
Higher Timeframe Candle LevelsThis is an indicator that shows higher time frame candle levels from various preset timeframes. These higher time frame candles act as support and resistance levels, so look for reversals and continuations off of these levels. When price exceeds the high or low of these levels, you should look for breakouts in the same direction and trade with the trend.
It includes candle levels for the following timeframes: 1 hour, 4 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 quarter and 1 year. The indicator also includes a trend candle coloring feature, trend strength scoring table, stop loss feature, line identification labels, alerts for trend changes, alerts for level touches and full customization of all options.
How To Trade With This Indicator
These higher timeframe candle levels will act as support and resistance levels, so look for price to react at any of the levels you have turned on and then look for potential bounce or reversal signs at those levels so you can trade those direction changes. Price outside of the higher timeframe candle highs and low typically signals a breakout as well, so look for price to continue after passing the highs or lows.
You can use the direction of the higher timeframe candles as your trend as well. Try to only trade in the direction of the trend of the higher timeframes to increase the likelihood of your trade going in your favor.
The highs and lows of daily and up levels are excellent levels to find quick reversal off of. Watch for price action to struggle to break through these levels and then trade the reversal. If price breaks through these levels easily, watch for price to retest the level and then continue beyond that level. Trade the retest in the direction of the trend.
The open, close and midline levels are excellent for trading bounces. Watch for price to form wicks beyond these levels and close on the other side and use that as a sign that price may bounce there. Use that with price action to confirm your trade and then take trades off of those level bounces.
Use the alerts for daily and up timeframe level touches across all of your favorite markets so that way you are always notified in real time when price is at a level that could provide a potential trading opportunity.
Higher Time Frame Candle Levels
The indicator shows the current candle open, previous open, previous high, previous low, previous close and previous candle body midline levels of each candle for each time frame. This helps you easily see what is going on with the higher time frame candles and read the price action from your lower time frame charts.
Each candle level will paint red if it was a down candle or green if it was an up candle, except the midlines and current candle open lines, those are a different color for easy differentiation. The line colors can be customized to your preferences in the settings and you can also toggle the candle body coloring on or off, as well as change the color of the candle body background.
Each timeframe can be adjusted to your preferences, allowing you to turn all of the levels on or off. You can also adjust how many previous candles show up on your chart so you can backtest it and see for yourself how accurate these levels are.
When adjusting the number of candles, you will get a notification if you have more than 500 lines turned on, so just turn down the number of levels for whatever timeframe you can’t see on your chart to lower that number below 500. The notification will go away once you are under 500 lines again. Each candle has 6 lines if all levels are turned on for that timeframe: open, current candle open, close, high, low and midline. The default settings keep you under 500 lines total, so just be aware of that limitation when adjusting those numbers and adjust the number of levels down on the timeframes that are not useful on the current chart bar.
You can also extend the levels right on any time frame from the daily levels and above. This is useful when price is breaking above or below all levels and you need to know if there are any other previous candle levels in the way as price moves away from the most recent higher time frame candles.
To understand the intraday trend of each higher time frame, look to see where price is at according to each higher time frame candle. If the price is above the midline of the candle, it is bullish. If the price is above the candle body it is more bullish. If the price is above the high, it is very bullish. If the price is below the midline of the candle, it is bearish. If the price is below the candle body it is more bearish. If the price is below the low, it is very bearish. Make sure you backtest this yourself and go through lots of historical data to get a feel for how price reacts to these levels and establishes the trend. Then use that trend information to your advantage and trade in the direction of the trend.
Since users are limited to a certain amount of historical bars based on which Tradingview plan you have, some longer timeframe levels won’t show up because the start of that candle is too far back in history. You will get a notification at the top of that chart if that happens. It will tell you to lower the display timeframe for that timeframe until that notification goes away, which means it was able to plot the most recent candle for that timeframe on your chart.
Trend Candle Coloring
The indicator includes a feature that paints the candles based on whether the current time frame candles are above or below the most recent midline, candle body or high & low of a higher time frame candle of your choice. This helps you see the overall trend of the higher timeframe so you can trade with the trend.
The candle coloring will have an up color, down color and neutral color which can all be customized to suit your preferences. If the current time frame candle close is above the setting you choose, it will show the up color. If the current time frame candle close is below the setting you choose, it will show the down color. If the current time frame candle close is equal to or in the middle of the setting you chose, it will show the neutral color.
So, for example if you set it to candle body, then it will show the up color if the current candle is above the top of the candle body, down color if it is below the bottom of the candle body and neutral color if it is inside the candle body. This helps you wait for price action to move beyond the inside of the previous higher time frame candle before taking a position when price is breaking out of that previous candle so you can trade the momentum of that move. The candle coloring is fully customizable, but make sure to turn off your candle coloring on other indicators and your chart settings for it to show up properly.
Trend Strength Scoring Table
The trend strength scoring table displays a table at the bottom of the screen(table position is customizable), showing a score for the trend strength of each higher time frame. If the current candle close is above the midline, its strength is 1. If the current candle close is above the midline, but below the top of the candle body, its strength is 2. If the current candle close is above the high, its strength is 3. The same goes for below the midline, bottom of the candle body and below the low, but the scores would be negative 1, 2 or 3 instead.
This trend strength table allows you to quickly identify the trend on each higher time frame so you can wait until the trend is the same across all time frames before placing a trade in the direction of the trend. It also shows a total score on the far right side that adds all of the current trend scores together to give you a total strength score. Try to only trade when that number is very high compared to how many time frames you have turned on. Each time frame can have up to a maximum score of 3 if bullish and -3 if bearish. Each time frame in the table can be turned on or off to suit your preferences.
Stop Loss Feature
There is also a stop loss feature that you can set to whatever time frame you choose and whatever direction you chose, such as long or short. It will follow the most recent higher time frame candle’s trend using one of the following settings: candle body, high & low or midline. Once a new higher time frame candle is created, the stop loss will update to the most recent candle’s levels so you can use these levels as a trailing stop loss to maximize your wins.
If you have it set to use the candle body and it is set to long mode, then the stop loss will use the previous higher time frame candle’s lowest candle body level. So if it was an up candle previously, it will use the open. If it was a down candle previously, it will use the close. The opposite is true for short positions.
The stop loss will start working once you turn it on in the settings and will update automatically as new higher time frame candles are formed. It also shows a line of where the stop loss was previously since it was turned on.
I recommend using the high & low setting, especially when the market starts trending.
Candle Level Identification Labels
There are labels for each level starting with the 4 hour time frame and above so you can easily tell what level of each candle you are looking at, even if the rest of the candle is not showing within the chart pane. You can customize the label coloring for up candles and down candles and midlines as well as adjust the number of bars that the labels are offset from the current bar so they are visible on your chart without overlapping the current price action or other indicator labels. Labels for each time frame can be turned on or off as needed. The 1 hour labels were not included because it clogs up the chart, but it has labels for all time frames from the 4 hour candles and up.
Alerts
The indicator includes alerts for when the trend has changed to the opposite direction. The trend change alert is based on your settings for the Trend Candle Coloring. Whatever settings you have the trend candle coloring set to, will be used to set up your alerts. The Trend Candle Coloring setting must be turned on as well when creating your alerts for it to work properly. Make sure to backtest your settings and then create your alerts.
It also has alerts for when price is touching an open or close, high or low, midline or any of those levels for each timeframe. This allows you to be notified when price touches one of these levels so you can check the chart and look for potential trade opportunities if price wants to bounce off of that level. To make it easy for you to get alerts on many different tickers, just use the alert for any level touch on whatever timeframes you want.
Other Indicators To Pair This With
Use this in combination with our Trend Strength Indicator so you can visually see the historic and current trend for all of these 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 together to help you quickly be able to read a chart and find what direction to trade in.
TopBot [CHE] TopBot — Structure pivots with buffered acceptance and gradient trend visualization
Summary
TopBot detects swing structure from confirmed pivot highs and lows, derives support and resistance levels, and switches trend only after a buffered and accepted break. It renders labels for recent structure points, maintains dynamic support and resistance lines that freeze on contact, and colors candles using a gradient that reflects consecutive trend persistence. The gradient communicates strength without extra panels, while the buffered acceptance reduces fragile flips around key levels. Everything runs in the main chart for immediate context.
Motivation: Why this design?
Classical swing tools often flip on single-bar spikes and produce lines that extend forever without acknowledging when price invalidates them. This script addresses that by requiring a user-controlled buffer and a run of consecutive closes before changing trend, while also freezing lines once price interacts with them. The gradient color layer communicates regime persistence so users can quickly judge whether a move is maturing or just starting.
What’s different vs. standard approaches?
Baseline reference: Simple pivot labeling and unbuffered break-of-structure tools.
Architecture differences:
Buffered level testing using ticks, percent, or ATR.
Acceptance logic that requires multiple consecutive closes.
Synchronized structure labeling with a single Top and Bottom within the active set.
Progressive support and resistance management that freezes lines on first contact.
Gradient candle and wick coloring driven by consecutive trend counts with windowed normalization and gamma control.
Practical effect: Fewer whipsaw flips, clearer status of active levels, and visual feedback about trend persistence without a secondary pane.
How it works (technical)
The script confirms swing points using left and right bar pivots, then forms a current structure window to classify each pivot as higher high, lower high, higher low, or lower low. Recent labels are trimmed to a user cap, and a postprocess step ensures one highest and one lowest label while preserving side information for the others. Support updates on higher low events, resistance on lower high events. Trend flips only after the close has moved beyond the active level by a chosen buffer and this condition holds for a chosen number of consecutive bars. Lines for new levels extend to the right and freeze once price touches them. A running count of consecutive trend bars produces a strength score, which is normalized over a rolling window, shaped by gamma, and mapped to user-defined dark and neon colors for both up and down regimes. Wick coloring uses `plotcandle`; fallback bar coloring uses `barcolor`. No higher-timeframe data is requested. Signals confirm only after the right-bar lookback of the pivot function.
Parameter Guide
Left Bars / Right Bars (default five each): Pivot sensitivity. Larger values confirm later and reduce noise; smaller values respond faster with more noise.
Draw S/R Lines (default true): Enables support and resistance line creation and updates.
Support / Resistance Colors (lime, red): Line colors for each side.
Line Style (Solid, Dashed, Dotted; default Dotted) and Width (default three): Visual style of S/R lines.
Max Labels & Lines (default ten): Cap for objects to control clutter and resource usage.
Change Bar Color (default true), Up/Down colors (blue, black): Fallback bar coloring when gradients or wick coloring are disabled.
Show Neutral Candles (default false): Optional coloring when no trend is active.
Enable Gradient Bar Colors (default true): Turns on gradient body coloring from the strength score.
Enable Wick Coloring (default true): Colors wicks and borders using `plotcandle`.
Collection Period (default one hundred): Rolling window used to scale the strength score. Shorter windows react faster but vary more.
Gamma Bars / Gamma Plots (defaults zero point seven and zero point eight): Shapes perceived contrast of bar and wick gradients. Lower values brighten early; higher values compress until stronger runs appear.
Gradient Transparency / Wick Transparency (default zero): Visual transparency for bodies and wicks.
Up/Down Trend Dark and Neon Colors: Endpoints for gradient mapping in each regime.
Acceptance closes (n) (default two): Number of consecutive closes beyond a level required before trend flips. Larger values reduce false breaks but react later.
Break buffer (None, Ticks, Percent, ATR; default ATR) and Value (default zero point five) and ATR Len (default fourteen): Defines the safety margin beyond the level. ATR mode adapts to volatility; Percent and Ticks are static.
Reading & Interpretation
Labels: “Top” and “Bottom” mark the most extreme points in the active set; “LT” and “HB” indicate side labels for lower top and higher bottom.
Lines: New support or resistance is drawn when structure confirms. A line freezes once price touches it, signaling that the dynamic phase ended.
Trend: Internal state switches to up or down only after buffered acceptance.
Colors: Brighter neon tones indicate stronger and more persistent runs; darker tones suggest early or weakening runs. When gradients are off, fallback bar colors indicate trend sign.
Practical Workflows & Combinations
Trend following: Wait for a buffered and accepted break through the most recent level, then use gradient intensity to stage entries or scale-ins.
Structure-first filtering: Trade only in the direction of the last accepted trend while price remains above support or below resistance.
Exits and stops: Consider exiting on loss of gradient intensity combined with a return through the most recent structure level.
Multi-asset / Multi-timeframe: Works on liquid symbols across common timeframes. Use larger pivot bars and higher acceptance on lower timeframes. No built-in higher-timeframe aggregation is used.
Behavior, Constraints & Performance
Repaint/confirmation: Pivot confirmation waits for the right bar window; trend acceptance is based on closes and can change during a live bar. Final signals stabilize on bar close.
security/HTF: Not used. No cross-timeframe data.
Resources: Arrays and loops are used for labels, lines, and structure search up to a capped historical span. Object counts are clamped by user input and platform limits.
Known limits: Delayed confirmation at sharp turns due to pivot windows; rapid gaps can jump over buffers; gradient scaling depends on the chosen collection period.
Sensible Defaults & Quick Tuning
Start with the defaults: pivot windows at five, ATR buffer with value near one half, acceptance at two, collection period near one hundred, gamma near zero point seven to zero point eight.
Too many flips: increase acceptance, increase buffer value, or increase pivot windows.
Too sluggish: reduce acceptance, reduce buffer value, or reduce pivot windows.
Colors too flat: lower gamma or shorten the collection period.
Visual clutter: reduce the max labels and lines cap or disable wicks.
What this indicator is—and isn’t
This is a visualization and signal layer that encodes swing structure, level state, and regime persistence. It is not a complete trading system, not predictive, and does not manage orders. Use it with broader context such as higher timeframe structure, session behavior, and defined risk controls.
Disclaimer
The content provided, including all code and materials, is strictly for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as, and should not be interpreted as, financial advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument, or an offer of any financial product or service. All strategies, tools, and examples discussed are provided for illustrative purposes to demonstrate coding techniques and the functionality of Pine Script within a trading context.
Any results from strategies or tools provided are hypothetical, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Trading and investing involve high risk, including the potential loss of principal, and may not be suitable for all individuals. Before making any trading decisions, please consult with a qualified financial professional to understand the risks involved.
By using this script, you acknowledge and agree that any trading decisions are made solely at your discretion and risk.
Do not use this indicator on Heikin-Ashi, Renko, Kagi, Point-and-Figure, or Range charts, as these chart types can produce unrealistic results for signal markers and alerts.
Best regards and happy trading
Chervolino
Acknowledgment
Thanks to LonesomeTheBlue for the fantastic and inspiring "Higher High Lower Low Strategy" .
Original script:
Credit for the original concept and implementation goes to the author; any adaptations or errors here are mine.
Smart VWAP FVG SystemSmart VWAP FVG System - Professional Multi-Filter Trading Indicator
📊 OVERVIEW
The Smart VWAP FVG System is an advanced multi-layered trading indicator that combines institutional volume analysis, multi-timeframe VWAP trend confirmation, and Fair Value Gap detection to identify high-probability trade entries. This indicator uses a sophisticated filtering mechanism where signals appear only when multiple independent confirmation criteria align simultaneously.
Recommended Timeframe: 5-minute (M5) or higher. The indicator works best on M5, M15, and M30 charts for intraday trading.
🎯 ORIGINALITY & PURPOSE
This indicator is original because it combines three distinct analytical methods into a unified decision-making system:
Market Profile Volume Analysis - Identifies institutional accumulation/distribution zones
Dual VWAP Filtering - Confirms trend direction using two independent VWAP calculations
Fair Value Gap Detection - Validates institutional interest through price inefficiency zones
The key innovation is the directional filter system: the primary Market Profile generates BUY-ONLY or SELL-ONLY states based on higher timeframe value area reversals, which then controls which signals from the main system are displayed. This creates a multi-timeframe confluence that significantly reduces false signals.
Unlike simple indicator mashups, each component serves a specific purpose:
Market Profile → Direction bias (trend filter)
Primary VWAP (Session) → Short-term trend confirmation
Secondary VWAP (Week) → Medium-term trend confirmation
FVG Detection → Institutional activity validation
🔧 HOW IT WORKS
1. Primary Market Profile Filter (Higher Timeframe)
The indicator calculates Market Profile on a higher timeframe (default: 1 hour) to determine the overall market structure:
Value Area High (VAH): Top 70% of volume distribution
Value Area Low (VAL): Bottom 70% of volume distribution
Point of Control (POC): Price level with highest volume
When price reaches VAH and reverses down → SELL-ONLY mode activated
When price reaches VAL and reverses up → BUY-ONLY mode activated
This higher timeframe filter ensures you're trading in the direction of institutional flow.
2. Dual VWAP System
Two independent VWAP calculations provide multi-timeframe trend confirmation:
Primary VWAP (Session-based): Resets daily, tracks intraday momentum
Secondary VWAP (Week-based): Resets weekly, confirms longer-term trend
Filter Logic:
BUY signals require: Price > Primary VWAP AND Price > Secondary VWAP
SELL signals require: Price < Primary VWAP AND Price < Secondary VWAP
This dual confirmation prevents counter-trend trades during ranging conditions.
3. Fair Value Gap (FVG) Detection
FVG zones identify price inefficiencies where institutional orders were executed rapidly:
Bullish FVG: Gap between candle .high and candle .low (upward imbalance)
Bearish FVG: Gap between candle .high and candle .low (downward imbalance)
The indicator monitors recent FVG formation (lookback: 50 bars) and requires:
Bullish FVG present for BUY signals
Bearish FVG present for SELL signals
FVG zones are displayed as colored boxes and automatically marked as "mitigated" when price fills the gap.
4. Main Trading Signal Logic
The secondary Market Profile (default: 1 hour) generates the actual trading signals:
BUY Signal Conditions:
Price reaches Value Area Low
Reversal pattern confirmed (minimum 1 bar)
Price > Primary VWAP
Price > Secondary VWAP (if filter enabled)
Recent Bullish FVG detected (if filter enabled)
Primary MP Filter = BUY-ONLY or NEUTRAL
SELL Signal Conditions:
Price reaches Value Area High
Reversal pattern confirmed (minimum 1 bar)
Price < Primary VWAP
Price < Secondary VWAP (if filter enabled)
Recent Bearish FVG detected (if filter enabled)
Primary MP Filter = SELL-ONLY or NEUTRAL
All conditions must be TRUE simultaneously for a signal to appear.
📈 VISUAL ELEMENTS
On Chart:
🟢 Green Triangle (▲) = BUY Signal
🔴 Red Triangle (▼) = SELL Signal
🟦 Blue horizontal lines = Value Area zones
🟡 Yellow line = Point of Control (POC)
🟩 Green boxes = Bullish FVG zones
🟥 Red boxes = Bearish FVG zones
🔵 Blue line = Primary VWAP (Session)
⚪ White line = Secondary VWAP (Week)
Info Panel (Top Right):
Real-time status display showing:
Filter Direction (BUY ONLY / SELL ONLY / NEUTRAL)
Active timeframes for both MP filters
FVG filter status and count
VWAP positions (ABOVE/BELOW)
Signal enablement status
Alert status
⚙️ KEY SETTINGS
MP/TPO Filter Settings (Primary Indicator)
MP Filter Time Frame: 60 minutes (controls directional bias)
Filter Value Area %: 70% (standard Market Profile calculation)
Filter Alert Distance: 1 bar
Filter Min Bars for Reversal: 1 bar
Filter Alert Zone Margin: 0.01 (1%)
FVG Filter Settings
Use FVG Filter: Enabled (toggle on/off)
FVG Timeframe: 60 minutes (1 hour)
FVG Filter Mode: Both (require bullish FVG for BUY, bearish for SELL)
FVG Lookback Period: 50 bars (how far back to search)
Show FVG Formation Signals: Optional visual markers
Max FVG on Chart: 50 zones
Show Mitigated FVG: Display filled gaps
Market Profile Settings
Higher Time Frame: 60 minutes (for main signals)
Percent for Value Area: 70%
Show POC Line: Enabled
Keep Old MPs: Enabled (maintain historical profiles)
Primary VWAP Filter
Use Primary VWAP Filter: Enabled
Primary VWAP Anchor Period: Session (resets daily)
Primary VWAP Source: HLC3 (typical price)
Secondary VWAP Filter
Use Secondary VWAP Filter: Enabled
Secondary VWAP Anchor Period: Week (resets weekly)
Secondary VWAP Filter Mode: Both
Secondary VWAP Line Color: White
Trading Signals
Show Trading Signals on Chart: Enabled
Show SELL Signals: Enabled
Show BUY Signals: Enabled
Alert Distance: 1 bar
Min Bars for Reversal: 1 bar
Alert Zone Margin: 0.01 (1%)
Retest Search Period: 20 bars
Min Bars Between Retests: 5 bars
Show Only Retests: Disabled
Alert Settings
Enable Trading Notifications: Enabled
VAH Reversal Alert: Enabled (SELL signals)
VAL Reversal Alert: Enabled (BUY signals)
Time Filter Settings
Filter Alerts By Time: Optional (exclude specific hours)
⚠️ IMPORTANT WARNINGS & LIMITATIONS
1. Repainting Behavior
CRITICAL: This indicator uses lookahead=barmerge.lookahead_on to access higher timeframe data immediately for FVG detection. This is necessary to provide real-time FVG zone visualization but has the following implications:
FVG zones may shift slightly until the higher timeframe candle closes
FVG detection signals are preliminary until HTF bar confirmation
The main trading signals (triangles) appear on confirmed bars and do not repaint
Best Practice: Always wait for the current timeframe bar to close before acting on signals. The filter status and FVG zones are informational but may adjust as new data arrives.
2. Minimum Timeframe
Do NOT use on timeframes below 5 minutes (M5)
Recommended: M5, M15, M30 for intraday trading
Higher timeframes (H1, H4) can also be used but will generate fewer signals
3. Multiple Filters Can Block Signals
By design, this indicator is conservative. When all filters are enabled:
Signals appear ONLY when all conditions align
You may see extended periods with no signals
This is intentional to reduce false positives
If you see no signals:
Check the Info Panel to see which filters are failing
Consider adjusting FVG lookback period
Temporarily disable FVG filter to test
Verify VWAP filters match current market trend
4. Market Profile Limitations
Market Profile requires sufficient volume data
Low-volume instruments may produce unreliable profiles
Value Areas update only on higher timeframe bar close
Works best on liquid markets (major forex pairs, indices, crypto)
📖 HOW TO USE
Step 1: Add to Chart
Apply indicator to M5 or higher timeframe chart
Ensure chart shows volume data
Use standard candles (NOT Heikin Ashi, Renko, etc.)
Step 2: Configure Settings
Primary MP Filter TF: Set to 60 (1 hour) minimum, or 240 (4 hour) for swing trading
Main MP TF: Set to 60 (1 hour) for intraday signals
FVG Timeframe: Match or exceed main MP timeframe
Leave other settings at default initially
Step 3: Understand the Info Panel
Monitor the top-right panel:
FILTER STATUS: Shows current directional bias
NEUTRAL = Both signals allowed
BUY ONLY = Only green triangles will appear
SELL ONLY = Only red triangles will appear
FVG Filter: Shows if bullish/bearish gaps detected recently
VWAP positions: Confirms trend alignment
Step 4: Take Signals
For BUY Signal (Green Triangle ▲):
Wait for green triangle to appear
Check Info Panel shows ✓ for BUY signals
Confirm current bar has closed
Enter long position
Stop loss: Below recent VAL or swing low
Target: Previous Value Area High or 1.5-2× risk
For SELL Signal (Red Triangle ▼):
Wait for red triangle to appear
Check Info Panel shows ✓ for SELL signals
Confirm current bar has closed
Enter short position
Stop loss: Above recent VAH or swing high
Target: Previous Value Area Low or 1.5-2× risk
Step 5: Risk Management
Risk per trade: Maximum 1-2% of account equity
Position sizing: Adjust based on stop loss distance
Avoid trading: During major news events or time filter periods
Multiple confirmations: Look for confluence with price action (support/resistance, trendlines)
🎓 UNDERLYING CONCEPTS
Market Profile Theory
Developed by J. Peter Steidlmayer in the 1980s, Market Profile organizes price and volume data to identify:
Value Areas: Where 70% of trading activity occurred
POC: Price level with highest acceptance (most volume)
Imbalances: When price moves away from value quickly
This indicator uses TPO (Time Price Opportunity) calculation method to build the volume profile distribution.
VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price)
VWAP represents the average price weighted by volume, showing where institutional traders are positioned:
Price above VWAP = Bullish (institutions accumulated lower)
Price below VWAP = Bearish (institutions distributed higher)
Using dual VWAP (Session + Week) creates multi-timeframe trend alignment.
Fair Value Gaps (FVG)
Also known as "imbalance" or "inefficiency," FVG occurs when:
Price moves so rapidly that a gap forms in the candlestick structure
Indicates institutional order flow (large market orders)
Price often returns to "fill" these gaps (rebalance)
The 3-candle FVG pattern (gap between candle and candle ) is widely used in ICT (Inner Circle Trader) methodology and Smart Money Concepts.
🔍 CREDITS & CODE ATTRIBUTION
This indicator builds upon established technical analysis concepts and combines multiple methodologies:
1. Market Profile / TPO Calculation
Concept Origin: J. Peter Steidlmayer (Chicago Board of Trade, 1980s)
Code Inspiration: TradingView's public domain Market Profile examples
Modifications: Custom filtering logic for directional bias, dual timeframe implementation
2. VWAP Calculation
Concept Origin: Standard financial instrument (widely used since 1980s)
Code Base: TradingView built-in ta.vwap() function (public domain)
Modifications: Dual VWAP system with independent anchor periods, custom filtering modes
3. Fair Value Gap Detection
Concept Origin: Inner Circle Trader (ICT) / Smart Money Concepts methodology
Code Implementation: Original implementation based on 3-candle gap pattern
Features: Multi-timeframe detection, automatic mitigation tracking, visual zone display
4. Pine Script Framework
Language: Pine Script v6 (TradingView)
Built-in Functions Used:
ta.vwap() - Volume weighted average price
request.security() - Higher timeframe data access
ta.change() - Period detection
ta.cum() - Cumulative volume
time() - Timestamp functions
Note: All code is original implementation. While concepts are based on established trading methodologies, the combination, filtering logic, and execution are unique to this indicator.
📊 RECOMMENDED INSTRUMENTS
Best Performance:
Major Forex Pairs (EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY)
Stock Indices (ES, NQ, SPX, DAX)
Major Cryptocurrencies (BTCUSD, ETHUSD)
Liquid Stocks (high daily volume)
Avoid:
Low-volume altcoins
Illiquid stocks
Exotic forex pairs with wide spreads
⚡ PERFORMANCE TIPS
Start Conservative: Enable all filters initially
Reduce Filters Gradually: If too few signals, disable Secondary VWAP filter first
Match Timeframes: Keep MP Filter TF and FVG TF at same value
Backtest First: Review historical performance on your preferred instrument/timeframe
Combine with Price Action: Look for support/resistance confluence
Use Time Filter: Avoid low-liquidity hours (optional setting)
🚫 WHAT THIS INDICATOR DOES NOT DO
Does not guarantee profits - No trading system is 100% accurate
Does not predict the future - Based on historical patterns
Does not replace risk management - Always use stop losses
Does not work on all instruments - Requires volume data and liquidity
Does not provide exact entry/exit prices - Signals are zones, not precise levels
Does not account for fundamentals - Purely technical analysis
📜 DISCLAIMER
This indicator is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not financial advice, and past performance does not guarantee future results.
Trading Risk Warning:
All trading involves risk of loss
You can lose more than your initial investment (leverage products)
Only trade with capital you can afford to lose
Always use appropriate position sizing and risk management
Consider seeking advice from a licensed financial advisor
Technical Limitations:
Indicator may repaint FVG zones until HTF bar closes
Signals are based on historical patterns that may not repeat
Market conditions change and no system works in all environments
Volume data quality varies by exchange/broker
By using this indicator, you acknowledge these risks and agree that the author bears no responsibility for trading losses.
📞 SUPPORT & UPDATES
Questions? Comment on this publication
Issues? Describe the problem with chart screenshot
Feature Requests? Suggest improvements in comments
Updates: Will be published as new versions using TradingView's update feature
📝 VERSION HISTORY
Version 1.0 (Current)
Initial public release
Multi-filter system: MP + Dual VWAP + FVG
Directional bias filter
Real-time info panel
Comprehensive alert system
Time-based filtering
Thank you for using Smart VWAP FVG System!
Happy Trading! 📈
Analog Flow [KedArc Quant]Overview
AnalogFlow is an advanced analogue based market projection engine that reconstructs future price tendencies by matching current price behavior to historical analogues in the same instrument. Instead of using traditional indicators such as moving averages, RSI, or regression, AnalogFlow applies pattern vector similarity analysis - a data driven technique that identifies historically similar sequences and aggregates their subsequent movements into a smooth, forward looking curve.
Think of it as a market memory system:
If the current pattern looks like one we have seen before, how did price move afterward?
Why AnalogFlow Is Unique
1. Pattern centric - it does not rely on any standard indicator formula; it directly analyzes price movement vectors.
2. Adaptive - it learns from the same instrument's past behavior, making it self calibrating to volatility and regime shifts.
3. Non repainting - the projection is generated on the latest completed bar and remains fixed until new data is available.
4. Noise resistant - the EMA Blend engine smooths the projected trajectory, reducing random variance between analogues.
Inputs and Configuration
Pattern Bars
Number of bars in the reference pattern window: 40
Projection Bars
Number of bars forward to project: 30
Search Depth
Number of bars back to look for matching analogues: 600
Distance Metric
Comparison method: Euclidean, Manhattan, or Cosine (default Euclidean)
Matches
Number of top analogues to blend (1-5): Top 3
Build Mode
Projection type: Cumulative, MeanStep, or EMA Blend (default EMA Blend)
EMA Blend Length
Smoothness of the projected path: 15
Normalize Pattern
Enable Z score normalization for shape matching: true
Dissimilarity Mode
If true, finds inverse analogues for mean reversion analysis: false
Line Color and Width
Style settings for projection curve: Blue, width 2
How It Works with Past Data
1. The system builds a memory bank of patterns from the last N bars based on the scanDepth value.
2. It compares the latest Pattern Bars segment to each historical segment.
3. It selects the Top K most similar or dissimilar analogues.
4. For each analogue, it retrieves what happened after that pattern historically.
5. It averages or smooths those forward moves into a single composite forecast curve.
6. The forecast (blue line) is drawn ahead of the current candle using line.new with no repainting.
Output Explained
Blue Path
The weighted mean future trajectory based on historical analogues.
Smoother when EMA Blend mode is enabled.
Flat Section
Indicates low directional consensus or equilibrium across analogues.
Upward or Downward Slope
Represents historical tendency toward continuation or reversal following similar conditions.
Recommended Timeframes
Scalping / Short Term
1m - 5m : Short winLen (20-30), small ahead (10-15)
Swing Trading
15m - 1h : Balanced settings (winLen 40-60, ahead 20-30)
Positional / Multi Day
4h - 1D : Large windows (winLen 80-120, ahead 30-50)
Instrument Compatibility
Works seamlessly on:
Stocks and ETFs
Indices
Cryptocurrency
Commodities (Gold, Crude, etc.)
Futures and F&O (both intraday and positional)
Forex
No symbol specific calibration needed. It self adapts to volatility.
How Traders Can Use It
Forecast Context
Identify likely short term price path or drift direction.
Reversal Detection
Flip seekOpp to true for mean reversion pattern analysis.
Scenario Comparison
Observe whether the current regime tends to continue or stall.
Momentum Confirmation
Combine with trend tools such as EMA or MACD for directional bias.
Backtesting Support
Compare projected path versus realized price to evaluate reliability.
FAQ
Q1. Does AnalogFlow repaint?
No. It calculates only once per completed bar and projects forward. The future path remains static until a new bar closes.
Q2. Is it a neural network or AI model?
Not in the machine learning sense. It is a deterministic analogue matching engine using statistical distance metrics.
Q3. Why does the projection sometimes flatten?
That means similar historical setups had no clear consensus in direction (neutral expectation).
Q4. Can I use it for live trading signals?
AnalogFlow is not a signal generator. It provides probabilistic context for upcoming movement.
Q5. Does higher scanDepth improve accuracy?
Up to a point. More depth gives more analogues, but too much can dilute recency. Try 400 to 800.
Glossary
Analogue
A past pattern similar to the current price behavior.
Distance Metric
Mathematical formula for pattern similarity.
Step Vector
Difference between consecutive closing prices.
EMA Blend
Exponential smoothing of the projected path.
Cumulative Mode
Adds sequential historical deltas directly.
Z Score Normalization
Rescaling to mean 0 and variance 1 for shape comparison.
Summary
AnalogFlow converts the market's historical echoes into a structured, statistically weighted forward projection. It gives traders a contextual roadmap, not a signal, showing how similar past setups evolved and allowing better informed entries, exits, and scenario planning across all asset classes.
Disclaimer
This script is provided for educational purposes only.
Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Trading involves risk, and users should exercise caution and proper risk management when applying this strategy.
BK AK-13⚔️ BK AK-13 — The Mentor’s 13. Revealed on 11. Command the Band. Punish the Extremes. ⚔️
This is my 11th release—and that matters. 11 is a sacred number to me, so for release eleven I’m doing something I never planned to do: I’m putting my mentor’s secret 13 MA into the open.
For years, this 13-based MA framework was part of our private playbook—quietly doing work behind the scenes. Now I’m handing it to you fully armed, because I believe in karma in, karma out: I took years of wisdom from the market. I took years of wisdom from the men who taught me. This is one of the ways I give back—with structure, respect, and intent.
🎖 Full Credit — Respect the Origin
The core architecture of BK AK-13 is not mine. It stands firmly on the work of DZIV.
What comes from DZIV:
The Heikin Ashi MA engine (MA calculated on HA Open/High/Low/Close)
The multi-MA engine on the HA feed (ALMA / HMA / SMA / RMA / VWMA / WMA / ZLEMA / EMA)
The Body / Wick / Band zone classification for price
The dynamic body & wick clouds that give this structure its clean visual form
If this framework changes the way you see trend and price location, remember the name: DZIV.
On top of his backbone, I forged the BK AK-13 enhancement layer: trend-strength regimes, background modes, structured band-reversal arrows, momentum acceleration dots, extreme pivot markers, historical band-touch rails, the info panel, and a complete alert suite.
And as always, the “AK” in the name is not branding—it’s honor. It belongs to my mentor A.K. His secret 13 MA is the spine of this system, and his obsession with clarity, patience, and zero shortcuts sits behind every decision in this tool. Above that, all glory and gratitude to Gd—the real source of any wisdom, edge, or endurance we have in this game.
🧠 Why “BK AK-13”?
BK — my mark, the house I’m building.
AK — my mentor, the standard I’m still chasing.
13 — his secret moving average, the length that quietly shaped how I see trend, location, and pressure.
For years, 13 stayed off the public record—used, not discussed. Now, on indicator number 11, I’m putting that weapon in the open: 11th release. Sacred number. Secret 13 revealed, not for hype—but as karmic give-back. Karma in. Karma out.
🧱 What BK AK-13 Actually Is
BK AK-13 is a Heikin Ashi MA battle band with a brain and a conscience.
It does three big things:
Builds a smoothed HA-MA band using Heikin Ashi OHLC to create a cleaner, truer band around price.
Maps price into zones: Body, Upper Wick, Lower Wick, Above Band, Below Band—so every bar has a role.
Assigns a trend regime by computing a normalized trend-strength %, classifying the environment as Weak / Normal / Strong / Extreme.
You’re never guessing: Is this real trend or just drift? Am I in the spine, the wick, or off the rails? Is this where I press, fade, or stand down? The band, zones, and regimes answer that for you.
🎨 Visual Architecture — Band, Clouds, Regimes
Body & Wick Clouds (DZIV’s craft)
Body cloud between HA-MA Open & Close.
Wick clouds between body and HA-MA High/Low.
Color follows trend: bull, bear, or neutral.
You’re not decoding noisy candles—you’re reading the spine and skin of the move.
Background Regime Modes (BK layer)
Standard – background always on, soft trend-follow color.
Hybrid (Extreme + Breaks) – lights only on extreme trend states or reversal break events.
Hybrid (Strong/Extreme + Breaks) – shows strong & extreme regimes, darker tone on true extremes.
Breaks Only – background flashes only on reversal arrows.
When the background goes quiet, you’re in ordinary flow. When it lights up, something is strategic, not cosmetic.
🎯 Weapons Inside BK AK-13
⭐ Trend Change Stars
Stars appear when the internal band trend crosses zero: bull star when it flips negative → positive, bear star from positive → negative. They’re your pivot flags for swing shifts when aligned with your higher timeframe bias.
🔁 Band Reversal Arrows — Edge Flip Logic
Not every band tap—only structured reversals:
Reversal Down (short idea): first a break of the upper band, then later, for the first time, a break of the lower band.
Reversal Up (long idea): first a break of the lower band, then later, for the first time, a break of the upper band.
You can require a close outside the band and set a minimum break distance (% of band range) so only real punches count. These arrows mark campaign flips, not noise.
💡 Momentum Acceleration Dots
In strong trend regimes only:
Green dot = trend accelerating in its own direction (uptrend steepening, downtrend deepening).
Red dot = trend decelerating, even if direction hasn’t flipped yet.
They protect you from chasing late when the engine is dying and from staying stubborn when momentum is bleeding out.
⚠ Extreme Pivot Markers
Pivot highs/lows are found with a configurable lookback and only marked when trend strength at that pivot bar is above your threshold. You’ll see ⚠ above likely exhaustion tops in strong bulls and ⚠ below likely exhaustion lows in strong bears—perfect for final scale-outs, countertrend scouts, and knowing where campaigns commonly run out of blood.
📏 Historical Band-Touch Rails
Over your lookback window, BK AK-13 tracks the highest upper band touch and lowest lower band touch, drawing them as dashed rails. They’re dynamic SR built from real band extremes—ideal for trend targets, fade zones, and stop/scale-out context.
🧭 Info Panel — On-Chart War Room
The Info Panel compresses everything into a single strip: direction + strength codes (BULL STR, BEAR EXT, NEUT WEAK), four segments that brighten as |trend| climbs from weak → normal → strong → extreme, and a zone + deviation label (BDY/UW/LW/AB/BL × OK/AL/EX).
Hover and you get a full tactical brief: trend, momentum change, acceleration, band levels, distances to upper/lower/nearest band in ticks, outer-band streaks, strategic state, plus “Action” guidance and a “What-if” forward scenario. It doesn’t just tell you where you are—it pushes you toward a structured thought process on each bar.
🕹 How to Use BK AK-13 with Intent
1️⃣ Trend-Rider Mode
In Strong/Extreme bull with price in Body or Lower Wick: buy dips into the band (mid/lower) instead of chasing tops; target the upper band / upper rail while structure holds.
In Strong/Extreme bear with price in Body or Upper Wick: sell rallies into the band; target lower band / lower rail while acceleration stays healthy.
The band defines where you’re allowed to do business.
2️⃣ Extreme Snapback Hunter
Prime conditions: trend tagged Extreme, price pressed into the outer band in trend direction, strategic state lit + Hybrid background active. That’s where pressing fresh risk often flips from reward to punishment. Use it to stop adding, start harvesting, or launch controlled mean-reversion probes back to the midline—if your system and risk rules allow it.
3️⃣ Exhaustion & Turn Zones
Watch for confluence: red momentum dots, extreme pivot ⚠ markers, a reversal arrow, and a nearby historical rail or your own key level (Fibs, VWAP, volume structure, etc.). That’s where campaigns often end, traps are set, and new campaigns begin.
🔔 Alerts — The Chart Calls You
Included alerts: Bullish/Bearish Trend Change, Strategic Extreme at Outer Band, Reversal Up/Down, Extreme Pivot High/Low, and Body Zone Entry during Strong Trend. Use them so you respond to events, not impulses.
🔧 Tuning the Extremes — Help Me Perfect the Advanced Side
The extreme thresholds and advanced features are powerful but sensitive, and there is no single perfect universal setting. I’m still tuning them myself across instruments and timeframes: strong/extreme trend thresholds, extreme background thresholds, momentum acceleration threshold, pivot lookback + pivot trend filter, band-touch lookback, and minimum break distance for reversals.
Different markets and timeframes breathe differently.
If you find killer settings for a specific symbol + timeframe, please share:
Instrument & timeframe
Your tuned values for extremes and advanced modules
A few charts showing why they work
Experiment. Dial it in. Then share your best settings for the extremes and advanced features. Let this become a crowd-forged battle manual: I gave you the engine, you tune it to your battleground, and we all benefit from what’s discovered in live fire. Karma in. Karma out.
🤝 Pay It Forward
If BK AK-13 sharpens your read, don’t just flex screenshots—teach structure. Show newer traders body vs wick vs edge. Talk about when you didn’t take a trade because the band said “danger,” not just the wins. Share your settings, charts, and lessons—especially around the extremes and advanced modules. I’m sharing a mentor’s secret on release 11 for a reason. If it blesses you, don’t let it stop with you.
📜 King Solomon’s Lens
King Solomon said: “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”
BK AK-13 is built exactly around that dividing line: the simple chase candles at the outer band in extreme regimes and get punished; the prudent see danger in the structure, hide their size, hedge, or reverse with intent.
This indicator won’t make you prudent. It just removes your excuse for being simple.
⚔️ BK AK-13 — The mentor’s secret 13, revealed on 11. Let the band define the field. Let wisdom define your strike.
May Gd bless your eyes, your patience, your settings, and every decision you make at the edge. 🙏
Advanced Psychological Levels with Dynamic Spacing═══════════════════════════════════════
ADVANCED PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVELS WITH DYNAMIC SPACING
═══════════════════════════════════════
A comprehensive psychological price level indicator that automatically identifies and displays round number levels across multiple timeframes. Features dynamic ATR-based spacing, smart crypto detection, distance tracking, and customizable alert system.
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WHAT THIS INDICATOR DOES
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This indicator automatically draws psychological price levels (round numbers) that often act as support and resistance:
- Dynamic ATR-Based Spacing - Adapts level spacing to market volatility
- Multiple Level Types - Major (250 pip), Standard (100 pip), Mid, and Intraday levels
- Smart Asset Detection - Automatically adjusts for Forex, Crypto, Indices, and CFDs
- Crypto Price Adaptation - Intelligent level spacing based on cryptocurrency price magnitude
- Distance Information Table - Real-time percentage distance to nearest levels
- Combined Level Labels - Clear identification when multiple level types coincide
- Performance Optimized - Configurable visible range and label limits
- Comprehensive Alerts - Notifications when price crosses any level type
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HOW IT WORKS
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PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVELS CONCEPT:
Psychological levels are round numbers where traders tend to place orders, creating natural support and resistance zones. These include:
- Forex: 1.0000, 1.0100, 1.0050 (pips)
- Crypto: $100, $1,000, $10,000 (whole numbers)
- Indices: 10,000, 10,500, 11,000 (points)
Why They Matter:
- Traders naturally gravitate to round numbers
- Stop losses cluster at these levels
- Take profit orders concentrate here
- Institutional algorithmic trading often targets these levels
DYNAMIC ATR-BASED SPACING:
Traditional Method:
- Fixed spacing regardless of volatility
- May be too tight in volatile markets
- May be too wide in quiet markets
Dynamic Method (Recommended):
- Uses ATR (Average True Range) to measure volatility
- Automatically adjusts level spacing
- Tighter levels in low volatility
- Wider levels in high volatility
Calculation:
1. Calculate ATR over specified period (default: 14)
2. Multiply by ATR multiplier (default: 2.0)
3. Round to nearest psychological level
4. Generate levels at dynamic intervals
Benefits:
- Adapts to market conditions
- More relevant levels in all volatility regimes
- Reduces clutter in trending markets
- Provides more detail in ranging markets
LEVEL TYPES:
Major Levels (250 pip/point):
- Highest significance
- Primary support/resistance zones
- Color: Red (default)
- Style: Solid lines
- Spacing: 2.5x standard step
Standard Levels (100 pip/point):
- Secondary importance
- Common psychological barriers
- Color: Blue (default)
- Style: Dashed lines
- Spacing: Standard step
Mid Levels (50% between major):
- Optional intermediate levels
- Halfway between major levels
- Color: Gray (default)
- Style: Dotted lines
- Usage: Additional confluence points
Intraday Levels (sub-100 pip):
- For intraday traders
- Fine-grained precision
- Color: Yellow (default)
- Style: Dotted lines
- Only shown on intraday timeframes
SMART ASSET DETECTION:
Forex Pairs:
- Detects major currency pairs automatically
- Uses pip-based calculations
- Standard: 100 pips (0.0100)
- Major: 250 pips (0.0250)
- Intraday: 20, 50, 80 pip subdivisions
Cryptocurrencies:
- Automatic price magnitude detection
- Adaptive spacing based on price:
* Under $0.10: Levels at $0.01, $0.05
* $0.10-$1: Levels at $0.10, $0.50
* $1-$10: Levels at $1, $5
* $10-$100: Levels at $10, $50
* $100-$1,000: Levels at $100, $500
* $1,000-$10,000: Levels at $1,000, $5,000
* Over $10,000: Levels at $5,000, $10,000
Indices & CFDs:
- Fixed point-based system
- Major: 500 point intervals (with 250 sub-levels)
- Standard: 100 point intervals
- Suitable for stock indices like SPX, NASDAQ
COMBINED LEVEL LABELS:
When multiple level types coincide at the same price:
- Single line drawn (highest priority color)
- Combined label shows all types
- Priority: Major > Standard > Mid > Intraday
Example Label Formats:
- "1.1000 Major" - Major level only
- "1.1000 Std + Major" - Both standard and major
- "50000 Intra + Mid + Std" - Three levels coincide
Benefits:
- Cleaner chart appearance
- Clear identification of confluence
- Reduced visual clutter
- Easy to spot high-importance levels
DISTANCE INFORMATION TABLE:
Real-time tracking of nearest levels:
Table Contents:
- Nearest major level above (price and % distance)
- Nearest standard level above (price and % distance)
- Nearest standard level below (price and % distance)
Display:
- Top right corner (configurable)
- Color-coded by level type
- Real-time percentage calculations
- Helpful for position management
Usage:
- Identify proximity to key levels
- Set realistic profit targets
- Gauge potential move magnitude
- Monitor approaching resistance/support
ALERT SYSTEM:
Comprehensive crossing alerts:
Alert Types:
- Major Level Crosses
- Standard Level Crosses
- Intraday Level Crosses
Alert Modes:
- First Cross Only: Alert once when level is crossed
- All Crosses: Alert every time level is crossed
Alert Information:
- Level type crossed
- Specific price level
- Direction (above/below)
- One alert per bar to prevent spam
Configuration:
- Enable/disable by level type
- Choose alert frequency
- Customize for your trading style
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HOW TO USE
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INITIAL SETUP:
General Settings:
1. Enable "Use Dynamic ATR-Based Spacing" (recommended)
2. Set ATR Period (14 is standard)
3. Adjust ATR Multiplier (2.0 is balanced)
Visibility Settings:
1. Set Visible Range % (10% recommended for clarity)
2. Adjust Label Offset for readability
3. Configure performance limits if needed
Level Selection:
1. Enable/disable level types based on trading style
2. Adjust line counts for each type
3. Choose line styles and colors for visibility
TRADING STRATEGIES:
Breakout Trading:
1. Wait for price to approach major or standard level
2. Monitor for consolidation near level
3. Enter on confirmed break above/beyond level
4. Stop loss just beyond the broken level
5. Target: Next major or standard level
Rejection Trading:
1. Identify major psychological level
2. Wait for price to test the level
3. Look for rejection signals (wicks, bearish/bullish candles)
4. Enter in direction of rejection
5. Stop beyond the level
6. Target: Previous level or mid-level
Range Trading:
1. Identify range between two major levels
2. Buy at lower psychological level
3. Sell at upper psychological level
4. Use standard and mid-levels for position management
5. Exit if major level breaks with volume
Confluence Trading:
1. Look for combined levels (Std + Major)
2. These represent high-probability zones
3. Use as primary support/resistance
4. Increase position size at confluence
5. Expect stronger reactions at these levels
Session-Based Trading:
1. Note opening level at session start (Asian/London/NY)
2. Trade breakouts of major levels during high-volume sessions
3. London/NY sessions: More likely to break levels
4. Asian session: More likely to respect levels (range trading)
RISK MANAGEMENT WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVELS:
Stop Loss Placement:
- Place stops just beyond psychological levels
- Add buffer (5-10 pips for forex)
- Avoid exact round numbers (stop hunting risk)
- Use previous major level as maximum stop
Take Profit Strategy:
- First target: Next standard level (partial profit)
- Second target: Next major level (remaining position)
- Trail stops to breakeven at first target
- Use distance table to calculate risk/reward
Position Sizing:
- Larger positions at major levels (higher probability)
- Smaller positions at intraday levels (lower probability)
- Scale in at standard levels between major levels
- Reduce size when multiple levels are close together
TIMEFRAME CONSIDERATIONS:
Higher Timeframes (4H, Daily, Weekly):
- Focus on Major and Standard levels only
- Disable Intraday and Mid levels
- Wider level spacing expected
- Use for swing trading and position trading
Lower Timeframes (5m, 15m, 1H):
- Enable all level types
- Use Intraday levels for precision
- Tighter level spacing acceptable
- Good for day trading and scalping
Multi-Timeframe Approach:
- Identify major levels on Daily/4H charts
- Refine entries using 15m/1H intraday levels
- Trade in direction of higher timeframe bias
- Use lower timeframe levels for position management
───────────────────────────────────────
CONFIGURATION GUIDE
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GENERAL SETTINGS:
Dynamic ATR-Based Spacing:
- Enabled: Recommended for most markets
- Disabled: Fixed psychological levels
- ATR Period: 14 (standard), 10 (responsive), 20 (smooth)
- ATR Multiplier: 1.0-5.0 (2.0 is balanced)
VISIBILITY SETTINGS:
Visible Range %:
- 5%: Very tight range, minimal clutter
- 10%: Balanced view (recommended)
- 20%: Wide range, more context
- 50%: Maximum range, all levels visible
Label Offset:
- 10-20 bars: Close to current price
- 30-50 bars: Moderate distance
- 50-100 bars: Far from price action
Performance Limits:
- Max Historical Bars: Reduce if indicator loads slowly
- Max Labels: Reduce for cleaner chart (20-30 recommended)
LEVEL CUSTOMIZATION:
Line Count:
- Lower (1-3): Cleaner chart, fewer levels
- Medium (4-6): Balanced view
- Higher (7-10): More context, busier chart
Line Styles:
- Solid: High importance, easy to see
- Dashed: Medium importance, clear but subtle
- Dotted: Low importance, minimal visual weight
Colors:
- Use contrasting colors for different level types
- Red/Blue/Yellow default works well
- Adjust based on chart background and personal preference
DISTANCE TABLE:
Position:
- Top Right: Doesn't interfere with price action
- Top Left: Good for right-side price scale
- Bottom positions: Less common but available
Colors:
- Default (white text, dark background) works for most charts
- Match your chart theme for consistency
- Ensure text is readable against background
ALERT CONFIGURATION:
Alert by Level Type:
- Major: Most important, fewer false signals
- Standard: Balance of frequency and importance
- Intraday: Many signals, best for active traders
Alert Frequency:
- First Cross Only: Cleaner, less noise (recommended for swing trading)
- All Crosses: Every touch, good for scalping
Alert Setup in TradingView:
1. Configure desired alert types in indicator settings
2. Right-click chart → Add Alert
3. Select this indicator
4. Choose "Any alert() function call"
5. Set delivery method (mobile, email, webhook)
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ASSET-SPECIFIC TIPS
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FOREX (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, etc.):
- Major levels at x.x000, x.x500
- Standard levels at x.xx00
- Intraday levels at 20/50/80 pips
- Most effective during London/NY sessions
- Watch for "figure" levels (1.0000, 1.1000)
CRYPTOCURRENCIES (BTC, ETH, etc.):
- Enable dynamic spacing for volatile markets
- Levels adjust automatically based on price
- Watch major $1,000 increments for BTC
- $100 levels important for ETH
- Smaller caps: Use standard levels
- High volatility: Increase ATR multiplier to 3.0
STOCK INDICES (SPX, NASDAQ, etc.):
- 100-point levels most important
- 500-point levels for major S/R
- 50-point mid-levels for refinement
- Watch end-of-day for level reactions
- Futures often lead spot on level breaks
GOLD/COMMODITIES:
- Major levels at $50 increments ($1,900, $1,950)
- Standard levels at $10 increments
- Very reactive to psychological levels
- Watch for false breaks during low volume
- Best reactions during active trading hours
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BEST PRACTICES
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Chart Setup:
- Use clean price action charts
- Avoid too many indicators
- Ensure psychological levels are clearly visible
- Match colors to your chart theme
Level Selection:
- Start with Major and Standard levels only
- Add Mid and Intraday as needed
- Less is more - avoid chart clutter
- Adjust based on timeframe
Combining with Other Tools:
- Volume profile for confluence
- Trendlines intersecting psychological levels
- Moving averages near round numbers
- Fibonacci levels coinciding with psychological levels
Common Mistakes to Avoid:
- Trading every level touch (be selective)
- Ignoring volume confirmation
- Setting stops exactly at levels (stop hunting)
- Forgetting to adjust for different assets
- Over-relying on levels without price action confirmation
Performance Optimization:
- Reduce visible range for faster loading
- Lower max historical bars on lower timeframes
- Limit labels to 30-50 for clarity
- Disable unused level types
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EDUCATIONAL DISCLAIMER
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This indicator identifies psychological price levels based on round numbers that tend to act as support and resistance. The methodology includes:
- Round number detection algorithms
- ATR-based dynamic spacing calculations
- Asset-specific level determination
- Distance percentage calculations
Psychological levels are a recognized concept in technical analysis, studied by traders and institutions. However, they do not guarantee price reactions and should be used as part of a comprehensive trading strategy including proper risk management, volume analysis, and price action confirmation.
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USAGE DISCLAIMER
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This tool is for educational and analytical purposes. Psychological levels can act as support or resistance but price reactions are not guaranteed. Dynamic spacing may generate different levels in different market conditions. Always conduct independent analysis, use proper risk management, and never risk capital you cannot afford to lose. Past performance does not indicate future results.
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CREDITS & ATTRIBUTION
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Original Concept: Sonar Lab
Retail vs Banker Net Positions – Symmetry BreakRetail vs Banker Net Positions – Symmetry Break (Institution Focus)
Description:
This advanced indicator is a volume-proxy-based positioning tool that separates institutional vs. retail behavior using bar structure, trend-following logic, and statistical analysis. It identifies net position flows over time, detects institutional aggression spikes, and highlights symmetry breaks—those moments when institutional action diverges sharply from retail behavior. Designed for intraday to swing traders, this is a powerful tool for gauging smart money activity and retail exhaustion.
What It Does:
Separates Volume into Two Groups:
Institutional Proxy: Volume on large bars in trend direction
Retail Proxy: Volume on small or counter-trend bars
Calculates Net Positions (%):
Smooths cumulative buying vs. selling behavior for each group over time.
Highlights Symmetry Breaks:
Alerts when institutions make statistically abnormal moves while retail is quiet or doing the opposite.
Detects Extremes in Institutional Activity:
Flags major tops/bottoms in institutional positioning using swing pivots or rolling windows.
Retail Sentiment Flips:
Marks when the retail line crosses the zero line (e.g., flipping from net short to net long).
How to Use It:
Interpreting the Two Lines:
Aqua/Orange Line (Institutional Proxy):
Rising above zero = Net buying bias
Falling below zero = Net selling bias
Lime/Red Line (Retail Proxy):
Green = Retail buying; Red = Retail selling
Watch for crosses of zero for sentiment shifts
Spotting Symmetry Breaks:
Pink Circle or Background Highlight =
Institutions made a sharp, outsized move while retail was:
Quiet (low ROC), or
Moving in the opposite direction
These often precede explosive directional moves or stop hunts.
Institutional Extremes:
Marked with aqua (top) or orange (bottom) dots
Based on swing pivot logic or rolling highs/lows in institutional positioning
Optional filter: Only show extremes that coincide with a symmetry break
Settings You Can Tune:
Lookback lengths for trend, z-scores, smoothing
Z-Score thresholds to control sensitivity
Retail quiet filters to reduce false positives
Cool-down timer to avoid rapid repeat signals
Toggle visual aids like shading, markers, and threshold lines
Alerts Included:
-Retail flips (green/red)
- Institutional symmetry breaks
- Institutional extreme tops/bottoms
Strategy Tip:
Use this indicator to track institutional accumulation or distribution phases and catch asymmetric inflection points where the "smart money" acts decisively. Confluence with price structure or FVGs (Fair Value Gaps) can further enhance signal quality.
Trend Pullback System```{"variant":"standard","id":"36492","title":"Trend Pullback System Description"}
Trend Pullback System is a price-action trend continuation model that looks to enter on pullbacks, not breakouts. It’s designed to find high-quality long/short entries inside an already established trend, place the stop at meaningful structure, trail that stop as structure evolves, and warn you when the trade thesis is no longer valid.
Developed by: Mohammed Bedaiwi
---------------------------------
HOW IT WORKS
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1. Trend Detection
• The strategy defines overall bias using moving averages.
• Bullish environment (“uptrend”): price above the slower MA, fast MA above slow MA, and the slow MA is sloping up.
• Bearish environment (“downtrend”): price below the slower MA, fast MA below slow MA, and the slow MA is sloping down.
This prevents trading against chop and focuses on continuation moves in the dominant direction.
2. Pullback + Re-entry Logic
• The script waits for price to pull back into structure (support in an uptrend, resistance in a downtrend), and then push back in the direction of the main trend.
• That “push back” is the setup trigger. We don’t chase the first breakout candle — we buy/sell the retest + resume.
3. Structural Levels (“Diamonds”)
• Green diamond (below bar): bullish pivot low formed while the trend is bullish. This marks defended support.
- Use it as a re-entry zone for longs.
- Use it to trail a stop higher when you’re already long.
- Shorts can take profit here because buyers stepped in.
• Red diamond (above bar): bearish pivot high formed while the trend is bearish. This marks defended resistance.
- Use it as a re-entry zone for shorts.
- Use it to trail a stop lower when you’re already short.
- Longs can take profit here because sellers stepped in.
4. Entry Signals
• BUY arrow (green triangle up under the candle, text like “BUY” / “BUY Zone”):
- LongSetup is true.
- Trend is bullish or turning bullish.
- Price just bounced off recent defended support (green diamond) and reclaimed short-term momentum.
Meaning: enter long here or cover/exit shorts.
• SELL arrow (red triangle down above the candle):
- ShortSetup is true.
- Trend is bearish or turning bearish.
- Price just rolled down from defended resistance (red diamond) and lost short-term momentum.
Meaning: enter short here or take profit on longs.
These are the primary trade entries. They are meant to be actionable.
5. Weak Setups (“W” in yellow)
• Yellow triangle with “W”:
- A possible long/short idea is trying to form, BUT the higher-timeframe confirmation is not fully there yet.
- Think of it as early pressure / early caution, not a full signal.
• You usually watch these areas rather than jumping in immediately.
6. Exit Warning (orange “EXIT” label above a bar)
• The strategy will raise an EXIT marker when you’re in a trade and the *opposite* side just produced a confirmed setup.
- You’re short and a valid longSetup appears → EXIT.
- You’re long and a valid shortSetup appears → EXIT.
• This is basically: “Close or reduce — the other side just took control.”
• It’s not just a trailing stop hit; it’s a regime flip warning.
7. Stop, Target, and Trailing
• On every new setup, the script records:
- Initial stop: recent swing beyond the defended level (below support for longs, above resistance for shorts).
- Initial target: recent opposing swing.
• While you’re in position, if new confirming diamonds print in your favor, the stop can trail toward the new defended level.
• This creates structure-based risk management (not just fixed % or ATR).
8. Reference Levels
• The strategy also plots prior higher-timeframe closes (last week’s close, last month’s close, last year’s close). These can behave as magnets or stall points.
• They’re helpful for take-profit timing and for reading “are we trading above or below last month’s close?”
9. Momentum Panel (hidden by default)
• Internally, the script calculates an SMI-style momentum oscillator with overbought/oversold zones.
• This is optional visual confirmation and does not drive the core entry/exit logic.
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WHAT A TRADE LOOKS LIKE IN REAL PRICE ACTION
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Early warning
• Yellow W + red diamonds + red down arrows = “This is getting weak. Short setups are here.”
• You may also see something like “My Short Entry Id.” That’s where the short side actually engages.
Bearish follow-through, then exhaustion
• Price bleeds down.
• Then the orange EXIT appears.
→ Translation: “If you’re still short, close it. Buyers are stepping in hard. Risk of reversal is now high.”
Regime flip
• Right after EXIT, multiple green BUY arrows fire together (“BUY”, “BUYZone”).
• That’s the true long trigger.
→ This is where you either enter long or flip from short to long.
Expansion leg
• After that flip, price rips up for multiple candles / days / weeks.
• While it runs:
- Green diamonds appear under pullbacks → “dip buy zones / trail stop up here.”
- More BUY arrows show on minor pullbacks → continuation long / scale adds.
Distribution / topping
• Later, you start seeing new yellow W triangles again near local highs. That’s your “careful, this might be topping” warning.
• You finally get a hard red candle, and green diamonds stop stacking.
→ That’s where you tighten risk, scale out, or assume the move is mature.
In plain terms, the model is doing the following for you:
• It puts you short during weakness.
• It tells you when to get OUT of the short.
• It flips you long right as control changes.
• It gives you a structure-based trail the whole way up.
• It warns you again when momentum at the top starts cracking.
That is exactly how the logic was designed.
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QUICK INTERPRETATION CHEAT SHEET
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🔻 Red triangle + “Short Entry” near a red diamond
→ Short entry zone (or take profit on a long).
🟥 Red diamond above bar
→ Sellers defended here. Treat it as resistance. Good place to trail short stops just above that level. Avoid chasing longs straight into it.
🟨 Yellow W
→ Attention only. Early pressure / possible turn. Not fully confirmed.
🟧 EXIT (orange label)
→ The opposite side just printed a real setup. Close the old idea (cover shorts if you’re short, exit longs if you’re long). Thesis invalid.
🟩 Burst of green BUY triangles after EXIT
→ Long entry. Also a “cover shorts now” alert. This is the core money entry in bullish reversals.
💎 Green diamond below bar
→ Bulls defended that level. Good for trailing your long stop up, and good “buy the dip in trend” locations.
📈 Blue / teal MAs stacked and rising
→ Confirmed bullish structure. You’re in trend continuation mode, so dips are opportunities, not automatic exits.
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COLOR / SHAPE KEY
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• Green triangle up (“BUY”, “BUY Zone”):
Long entry / cover shorts / continuation long trigger.
• Red triangle down:
Short entry / take profit on longs / continuation short trigger.
• Orange “EXIT” label:
Opposite side just fired a real setup. The previous trade thesis is now invalid.
• Green diamond below price:
Bullish defended support in an uptrend. Use for dip buys, trailing stops on longs, and objective cover zones for shorts.
• Red diamond above price:
Bearish defended resistance in a downtrend. Use for re-entry shorts, trailing stops on shorts, and objective scale-out zones for longs.
• Yellow “W”:
Weak / early potential setup. Watch it, don’t blindly trust it.
• Moving average bands (fast MA, slow MA, Hull MA):
When stacked and rising, bullish control. When stacked and falling, bearish control.
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INTENT
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This system is built to:
• Trade with momentum, not against it.
• Enter on pullbacks into proven structure, not chase stretched breakouts.
• Automate stop/target logic around actual defended swing levels.
• Warn you when the other side takes over so you don’t give back gains.
Typical usage:
1. In an uptrend, wait for price to pull back, print a green diamond (support proved), then take the first BUY arrow that fires.
2. In a downtrend, wait for a bounce into resistance, print a red diamond (sellers proved), then take the first SELL arrow that fires.
3. Respect EXIT when it appears — that’s the model saying “this trade is done.”
---------------------------------
DISCLAIMER
---------------------------------
This script is for educational and research purposes only. It is not financial advice, investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security, cryptoasset, or derivative. Markets carry risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results. You are fully responsible for your own decisions, position sizing, risk management, and compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
Session Streaks [LuxAlgo]The Session Streaks tool allows traders to identify whether a session is bullish or bearish on the chart. It also shows the current session streak, or the number of consecutive bullish or bearish sessions.
The tool features a dashboard with information about the session streaks of the underlying product on the chart.
🔶 USAGE
Analyzing session streaks is commonly used for market timing by studying the number of consecutive sessions over time and how long they last before the market changes direction.
We identify a bullish session as one in which the closing price is equal to or greater than the opening price, and a bearish session as one in which the closing price is below the opening price.
Each session is labeled according to its bias (bullish or bearish) and the number of consecutive sessions of the same type that conform the current streak.
🔹 Dashboard
The dashboard at the top shows information about the current session.
Under the "Streaks" header, historical information about session streaks is displayed, divided into bullish and bearish categories.
Number: Total number of streaks.
Median: The average duration of those streaks. We chose the median over the mean to avoid misrepresentation due to outliers.
Mode: The most common streak duration.
As the image shows, for this particular market, there are more bullish streaks than bearish ones. Bullish streaks have an average duration that is longer than that of bearish streaks, and both have the same most common streak duration.
If the current session is bullish and the median streak duration for bullish sessions is three, then we could consider scenarios in which the next two sessions are bullish.
🔶 DETAILS
🔹 Streaks On Larger Timeframes
On timeframes lower than or equal to Daily, the tool identifies each consecutive session, but this behavior changes on larger timeframes.
On timeframes larger than daily, the tool identifies the last session of each bar. Let's use the chart in the image as a reference.
At the top of the image, there is a daily chart where each session corresponds to each candle. One candle equals one day.
In the middle, we have a weekly chart where each session is the last session of each week, which is usually Friday for the Nasdaq 100 futures contract. The levels and labels displayed correspond to the last session within each candle, which is the last day of each week.
The levels and labels on the monthly chart correspond to the last session of each month, which is the last day of each month.
🔹 Gradient Style
Traders can choose between two different color gradients for the session background. Each gradient provides different information about price behavior within each session.
Horizontal: Green indicates prices at the top of the session range and red indicates prices at the bottom.
Vertical: Green indicates prices that are equal to or greater than the open price and red indicates prices that are below the open price of the session.
🔶 SETTINGS
🔹 Dashboard
Dashboard: Enable or disable the dashboard.
Position: Select the location of the dashboard.
Size: Select the dashboard size.
🔹 Style
Bullish: Select a color for bullish sessions.
Bearish: Select a color for bearish sessions.
Transparency: Select a transparency level from 100 to 0.
Gradient: Select a horizontal or vertical gradient.
Auto Fibonacci LevelsAuto Fibonacci Momentum Zones with Visible Range Table
Overview and Originality
The Auto Fibonacci Momentum Zones indicator offers a streamlined, static overlay of Fibonacci retracement levels inspired by extreme RSI momentum thresholds, enhanced with a dynamic table displaying the high and low of the currently visible chart range. This isn't a repackaged RSI oscillator or basic Fib drawer—common in TradingView's library—but a purposeful fusion of geometric harmony (Fibonacci ratios) with momentum psychology (RSI extremes at 35/85), projected as fixed horizontal reference lines on the price chart. The addition of the visible range table, powered by PineCoders' VisibleChart library, provides real-time context for the chart's current view, enabling traders to quickly assess range compression or expansion relative to these zones.
This script's originality stems from its "static momentum mapping": by hardcoding Fib levels on a dynamic chart, it creates universal psychological support/resistance lines that transcend specific assets or timeframes.
Unlike dynamic Fib tools that auto-adjust to price swings (risking noise in ranging markets) or standalone RSI plots (confined to panes), this delivers clean, bias-adjustable overlays for confluence analysis. The visible range table justifies the library integration—it's not a gratuitous add-on but a complementary tool that quantifies the "screen real estate" of price action, helping users correlate Fib touches with actual volatility. Drawn from original code (no auto-generation or public templates), it builds TradingView's body of knowledge by simplifying multi-tool workflows into one indicator, ideal for discretionary traders who value visual efficiency over algorithmic complexity.
How It Works: Underlying Concepts
Fibonacci retracements, derived from the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio (≈0.618), identify potential reversal points based on the idea that markets retrace prior moves in predictable proportions: shallow (23.6%, 38.2%), mid (50%), and deep (61.8%, 78.6%).
Adjustable Outputs
1. The "Invert Fibs" toggle (default: true) for bearish/topping bias, can be flipped aligning with trend context.
2. Fibonacci Levels: Seven semi-transparent horizontal lines are drawn using `hline()`:
- 0.0 at high (gray).
- 0.236: high - (range × 0.236) (light cyan, shallow pullback).
- 0.382: high - (range × 0.382) (teal, common retracement).
- 0.5: midpoint average (green, equilibrium).
- 0.618: high - (range × 0.618) (amber, golden pocket for reversals).
- 0.786: high - (range × 0.786) (orange, deep support).
- 1.0 at low (gray).
Colors progress from cool (shallow) to warm (deep) for intuitive scanning.
3. Optional Fib Labels: Right-edge text labels (e.g., "0.618") appear only if enabled, positioned at the last bar + offset for non-cluttering visibility.
4. Visible Range Table: Leveraging the VisibleChart library's `visible.high()` and `visible.low()` functions, a compact 2x2 table (top-right corner) updates on the last bar to show the extrema of bars currently in view. This mashup enhances utility: Fib zones provide fixed anchors, while the table's dynamic values reveal if price is "pinned" to a zone (e.g., visible high hugging 0.382 signals resistance). The library is invoked sparingly for performance, adding value by bridging static geometry with viewport-aware data—unavailable in built-ins without custom code.
How to Use It
1. Setup:
Add to any chart (e.g., 15M for scalps, Daily for swings). As an overlay, lines appear directly on price candles—adjust chart scaling if needed.
2. Input Tweaks:
Invert Fibs: Enable for downtrends (85 top), disable for uptrends (35 bottom).
Show Fibs: Toggle labels for ratio callouts (off for clean charts).
Show Table: Display/hide the visible high/low summary (red for high, green for low, formatted to 2 decimals).
3. Trading Application:
Zone Confluence: Seek price reactions at each fibonacci level—e.g., a doji at 0.618 + rising volume suggests entry; use 0.0/1.0 as invalidation.
Range Context: Check the table: If visible high/low spans <20% of the Fib arc (e.g., both near 0.5), anticipate breakout; wider spans signal consolidation.
Multi-Timeframe: Overlay on higher TF for bias, lower for precision—e.g., Daily Fibs guide 1H entries.
Enhancements: Pair with volume or candlesticks; set alerts on line crosses via TradingView's built-in tools. Backtest on your symbols to validate (e.g., equities favor 0.382, forex the 0.786).
This indicator automates advanced Fibonacci synthesis dynamically, eliminating manual measurement and calculations.
published by ozzy_livin
Candle Size MonitorCandle Size Monitor – Description
Update 27.10.25
Objective Volatility Assessment
The Candle Size Monitor helps traders assess actual market movement—regardless of whether candles appear visually large or small on the chart. It supports evaluating whether your planned trade structure (e.g., stop-loss, take-profit) aligns with current volatility.
Key Features
Volatility Analysis:
Calculates the average candle size (difference between high and low) over a user-defined number of candles.
Identifies the largest candle in the selected period.
Displays results in a compact table on the chart.
Exchange Rate Integration (optional):
Shows the current USD-EUR exchange rate (formatted with German-style comma and four decimal places).
Useful for traders in USD-denominated markets who apply EUR-based risk management rules.
Customizable Display:
Text Size: Small, medium, or large.
Colors: Customizable text and background colors.
Table Position: Top/bottom left/right.
Number of Candles: User-defined (default: 20).
Dynamic Updates:
The table updates with each new bar.
The exchange rate is fetched in real-time from OANDA:EURUSD.
Settings and Translations
Settings
Anzahl Kerzen → Number of Candles (Number of candles for calculation, default: 20).
Textgröße → Text Size (Text size in the table: small, medium, large).
Textfarbe → Text Color (Text color, default: white).
Hintergrundfarbe → Background Color (Background color of the table, default: black).
Position → Position (Table position: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right).
Wechselkurs anzeigen (USD → EUR) → Show Exchange Rate (USD → EUR) (Option to display the exchange rate).
Table Contents and Translations
The table displays the following information (with German formatting):
Ø Größe (N):
English: "Avg Size (N): " (Average candle size over the last N candles).
Example: "Ø Größe (20): 15,3" → "Avg Size (20): 15.3".
Größte Kerze:
English: "Largest Candle: " (Largest candle size in the selected period).
Example: "Größte Kerze: 42,7" → "Largest Candle: 42.7".
1 USD = € (only if enabled)
English: "1 USD = EUR" (Current USD-EUR exchange rate, formatted with a comma).
Example: "1 USD = 0,9234 €" → "1 USD = 0.9234 EUR".
COT IndexTHE HIDDEN INTELLIGENCE IN FUTURES MARKETS
What if you could see what the smartest players in the futures markets are doing before the crowd catches on? While retail traders chase momentum indicators and moving averages, obsess over Japanese candlestick patterns, and debate whether the RSI should be set to fourteen or twenty-one periods, institutional players leave footprints in the sand through their mandatory reporting to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. These footprints, published weekly in the Commitment of Traders reports, have been hiding in plain sight for decades, available to anyone with an internet connection, yet remarkably few traders understand how to interpret them correctly. The COT Index indicator transforms this raw institutional positioning data into actionable trading signals, bringing Wall Street intelligence to your trading screen without requiring expensive Bloomberg terminals or insider connections.
The uncomfortable truth is this: Most retail traders operate in a binary world. Long or short. Buy or sell. They apply technical analysis to individual positions, constrained by limited capital that forces them to concentrate risk in single directional bets. Meanwhile, institutional traders operate in an entirely different dimension. They manage portfolios dynamically weighted across multiple markets, adjusting exposure based on evolving market conditions, correlation shifts, and risk assessments that retail traders never see. A hedge fund might be simultaneously long gold, short oil, neutral on copper, and overweight agricultural commodities, with position sizes calibrated to volatility and portfolio Greeks. When they increase gold exposure from five percent to eight percent of portfolio allocation, this rebalancing decision reflects sophisticated analysis of opportunity cost, risk parity, and cross-market dynamics that no individual chart pattern can capture.
This portfolio reweighting activity, multiplied across hundreds of institutional participants, manifests in the aggregate positioning data published weekly by the CFTC. The Commitment of Traders report does not show individual trades or strategies. It shows the collective footprint of how actual commercial hedgers and large speculators have allocated their capital across different markets. When mining companies collectively increase forward gold sales to hedge thirty percent more production than last quarter, they are not reacting to a moving average crossover. They are making strategic allocation decisions based on production forecasts, cost structures, and price expectations derived from operational realities invisible to outside observers. This is portfolio management in action, revealed through positioning data rather than price charts.
If you want to understand how institutional capital actually flows, how sophisticated traders genuinely position themselves across market cycles, the COT report provides a rare window into that hidden world. But understand what you are getting into. This is not a tool for scalpers seeking confirmation of the next five-minute move. This is not an oscillator that flashes oversold at market bottoms with convenient precision. COT analysis operates on a timescale measured in weeks and months, revealing positioning shifts that precede major market turns but offer no precision timing. The data arrives three days stale, published only once per week, capturing strategic positioning rather than tactical entries.
If you need instant gratification, if you trade intraday moves, if you demand mechanical signals with ninety percent accuracy, close this document now. COT analysis rewards patience, position sizing discipline, and tolerance for being early. It punishes impatience, overleveraging, and the expectation that any single indicator can substitute for market understanding.
The premise is deceptively simple. Every Tuesday, large traders in futures markets must report their positions to the CFTC. By Friday afternoon, this data becomes public. Academic research spanning three decades has consistently shown that not all market participants are created equal. Some traders consistently profit while others consistently lose. Some anticipate major turning points while others chase trends into exhaustion. Bessembinder and Chan (1992) demonstrated in their seminal study that commercial hedgers, those with actual exposure to the underlying commodity or financial instrument, possess superior forecasting ability compared to speculators. Their research, published in the Journal of Finance, found statistically significant predictive power in commercial positioning, particularly at extreme levels. This finding challenged the efficient market hypothesis and opened the door to a new approach to market analysis based on positioning rather than price alone.
Think about what this means. Every week, the government publishes a report showing you exactly how the most informed market participants are positioned. Not their opinions. Not their predictions. Their actual money at risk. When agricultural producers collectively hold their largest short hedge in five years, they are not making idle speculation. They are locking in prices for crops they will harvest, informed by private knowledge of weather conditions, soil quality, inventory levels, and demand expectations invisible to outside observers. When energy companies aggressively hedge forward production at current prices, they reveal information about expected supply that no analyst report can capture. This is not technical analysis based on past prices. This is not fundamental analysis based on publicly available data. This is behavioral analysis based on how the smartest money is actually positioned, how institutions allocate capital across portfolios, and how those allocation decisions shift as market conditions evolve.
WHY SOME TRADERS KNOW MORE THAN OTHERS
Building on this foundation, Sanders, Boris and Manfredo (2004) conducted extensive research examining the behaviour patterns of different trader categories. Their work, which analyzed over a decade of COT data across multiple commodity markets, revealed a fascinating dynamic that challenges much of what retail traders are taught. Commercial hedgers consistently positioned themselves against market extremes, buying when speculators were most bearish and selling when speculators reached peak bullishness. The contrarian positioning of commercials was not random noise but rather reflected their superior information about supply and demand fundamentals. Meanwhile, large speculators, primarily hedge funds and commodity trading advisors, exhibited strong trend-following behaviour that often amplified market moves beyond fundamental values. Small traders, the retail participants, consistently entered positions late in trends, frequently near turning points, making them reliable contrary indicators.
Wang (2003) extended this research by demonstrating that the predictive power of commercial positioning varies significantly across different commodity sectors. His analysis of agricultural commodities showed particularly strong forecasting ability, with commercial net positions explaining up to fifteen percent of return variance in subsequent weeks. This finding suggests that the informational advantages of hedgers are most pronounced in markets where physical supply and demand fundamentals dominate, as opposed to purely financial markets where information asymmetries are smaller. When a corn farmer hedges six months of expected harvest, that decision incorporates private observations about rainfall patterns, crop health, pest pressure, and local storage capacity that no distant analyst can match. When an oil refinery hedges crude oil purchases and gasoline sales simultaneously, the spread relationships reveal expectations about refining margins that reflect operational realities invisible in public data.
The theoretical mechanism underlying these empirical patterns relates to information asymmetry and different participant motivations. Commercial hedgers engage in futures markets not for speculative profit but to manage business risks. An agricultural producer selling forward six months of expected harvest is not making a bet on price direction but rather locking in revenue to facilitate financial planning and ensure business viability. However, this hedging activity necessarily incorporates private information about expected supply, inventory levels, weather conditions, and demand trends that the hedger observes through their commercial operations (Irwin and Sanders, 2012). When aggregated across many participants, this private information manifests in collective positioning.
Consider a gold mining company deciding how much forward production to hedge. Management must estimate ore grades, recovery rates, production costs, equipment reliability, labor availability, and dozens of other operational variables that determine whether locking in prices at current levels makes business sense. If the industry collectively hedges more aggressively than usual, it suggests either exceptional production expectations or concern about sustaining current price levels or combination of both. Either way, this positioning reveals information unavailable to speculators analyzing price charts and economic data. The hedger sees the physical reality behind the financial abstraction.
Large speculators operate under entirely different incentives and constraints. Commodity Trading Advisors managing billions in assets typically employ systematic, trend-following strategies that respond to price momentum rather than fundamental supply and demand. When crude oil rallies from sixty dollars to seventy dollars per barrel, these systems generate buy signals. As the rally continues to eighty dollars, position sizes increase. The strategy works brilliantly during sustained trends but becomes a liability at reversals. By the time oil reaches ninety dollars, trend-following funds are maximally long, having accumulated positions progressively throughout the rally. At this point, they represent not smart money anticipating further gains but rather crowded money vulnerable to reversal. Sanders, Boris and Manfredo (2004) documented this pattern across multiple energy markets, showing that extreme speculator positioning typically marked late-stage trend exhaustion rather than early-stage trend development.
Small traders, the retail participants who fall below reporting thresholds, display the weakest forecasting ability. Wang (2003) found that small trader positioning exhibited negative correlation with subsequent returns, meaning their aggregate positioning served as a reliable contrary indicator. The explanation combines several factors. Retail traders often lack the capital reserves to weather normal market volatility, leading to premature exits from positions that would eventually prove profitable. They tend to receive information through slower channels, entering trends after mainstream media coverage when institutional participants are preparing to exit. Perhaps most importantly, they trade with emotion, buying into euphoria and selling into panic at precisely the wrong times.
At major turning points, the three groups often position opposite each other with commercials extremely bearish, large speculators extremely bullish, and small traders piling into longs at the last moment. These high-divergence environments frequently precede increased volatility and trend reversals. The insiders with business exposure quietly exit as the momentum traders hit maximum capacity and retail enthusiasm peaks. Within weeks, the reversal begins, and positions unwind in the opposite sequence.
FROM RAW DATA TO ACTIONABLE SIGNALS
The COT Index indicator operationalizes these academic findings into a practical trading tool accessible through TradingView. At its core, the indicator normalizes net positioning data onto a zero to one hundred scale, creating what we call the COT Index. This normalization is critical because absolute position sizes vary dramatically across different futures contracts and over time. A commercial trader holding fifty thousand contracts net long in crude oil might be extremely bullish by historical standards, or it might be quite neutral depending on the context of total market size and historical ranges. Raw position numbers mean nothing without context. The COT Index solves this problem by calculating where current positioning stands relative to its range over a specified lookback period, typically two hundred fifty-two weeks or approximately five years of weekly data.
The mathematical transformation follows the methodology originally popularized by legendary trader Larry Williams, though the underlying concept appears in statistical normalization techniques across many fields. For any given trader category, we calculate the highest and lowest net position values over the lookback period, establishing the historical range for that specific market and trader group. Current positioning is then expressed as a percentage of this range, where zero represents the most bearish positioning ever seen in the lookback window and one hundred represents the most bullish extreme. A reading of fifty indicates positioning exactly in the middle of the historical range, suggesting neither extreme optimism nor pessimism relative to recent history (Williams and Noseworthy, 2009).
This index-based approach allows for meaningful comparison across different markets and time periods, overcoming the scaling problems inherent in analyzing raw position data. A commercial index reading of eighty-five in gold carries the same interpretive meaning as an eighty-five reading in wheat or crude oil, even though the absolute position sizes differ by orders of magnitude. This standardization enables systematic analysis across entire futures portfolios rather than requiring market-specific expertise for each contract.
The lookback period selection involves a fundamental tradeoff between responsiveness and stability. Shorter lookback periods, perhaps one hundred twenty-six weeks or approximately two and a half years, make the index more sensitive to recent positioning changes. However, it also increases noise and produces more false signals. Longer lookback periods, perhaps five hundred weeks or approximately ten years, create smoother readings that filter short-term noise but become slower to recognize regime changes. The indicator settings allow users to adjust this parameter based on their trading timeframe, risk tolerance, and market characteristics.
UNDERSTANDING CFTC DATA STRUCTURES
The indicator supports both Legacy and Disaggregated COT report formats, reflecting the evolution of CFTC reporting standards over decades of market development. Legacy reports categorize market participants into three broad groups: commercial traders (hedgers with underlying business exposure), non-commercial traders (large speculators seeking profit without commercial interest), and non-reportable traders (small speculators below reporting thresholds). Each category brings distinct motivations and information advantages to the market (CFTC, 2020).
The Disaggregated reports, introduced in September 2009 for physical commodity markets, provide finer granularity by splitting participants into five categories (CFTC, 2009). Producer and merchant positions capture those actually producing, processing, or merchandising the physical commodity. Swap dealers represent financial intermediaries facilitating derivative transactions for clients. Managed money includes commodity trading advisors and hedge funds executing systematic or discretionary strategies. Other reportables encompasses diverse participants not fitting the main categories. Small traders remain as the fifth group, representing retail participation.
This enhanced categorization reveals nuances invisible in Legacy reports, particularly distinguishing between different types of institutional capital and their distinct behavioural patterns. The indicator automatically detects which report type is appropriate for each futures contract and adjusts the display accordingly.
Importantly, Disaggregated reports exist only for physical commodity futures. Agricultural commodities like corn, wheat, and soybeans have Disaggregated reports because clear producer, merchant, and swap dealer categories exist. Energy commodities like crude oil and natural gas similarly have well-defined commercial hedger categories. Metals including gold, silver, and copper also receive Disaggregated treatment (CFTC, 2009). However, financial futures such as equity index futures, Treasury bond futures, and currency futures remain available only in Legacy format. The CFTC has indicated no plans to extend Disaggregated reporting to financial futures due to different market structures and participant categories in these instruments (CFTC, 2020).
THE BEHAVIORAL FOUNDATION
Understanding which trader perspective to follow requires appreciation of their distinct trading styles, success rates, and psychological profiles. Commercial hedgers exhibit anticyclical behaviour rooted in their fundamental knowledge and business imperatives. When agricultural producers hedge forward sales during harvest season, they are not speculating on price direction but rather locking in revenue for crops they will harvest. Their business requires converting volatile commodity exposure into predictable cash flows to facilitate planning and ensure survival through difficult periods. Yet their aggregate positioning reveals valuable information because these hedging decisions incorporate private information about supply conditions, inventory levels, weather observations, and demand expectations that hedgers observe through their commercial operations (Bessembinder and Chan, 1992).
Consider a practical example from energy markets. Major oil companies continuously hedge portions of forward production based on price levels, operational costs, and financial planning needs. When crude oil trades at ninety dollars per barrel, they might aggressively hedge the next twelve months of production, locking in prices that provide comfortable profit margins above their extraction costs. This hedging appears as short positioning in COT reports. If oil rallies further to one hundred dollars, they hedge even more aggressively, viewing these prices as exceptional opportunities to secure revenue. Their short positioning grows increasingly extreme. To an outside observer watching only price charts, the rally suggests bullishness. But the commercial positioning reveals that the actual producers of oil find these prices attractive enough to lock in years of sales, suggesting skepticism about sustaining even higher levels. When the eventual reversal occurs and oil declines back to eighty dollars, the commercials who hedged at ninety and one hundred dollars profit while speculators who chased the rally suffer losses.
Large speculators or managed money traders operate under entirely different incentives and constraints. Their systematic, momentum-driven strategies mean they amplify existing trends rather than anticipate reversals. Trend-following systems, the most common approach among large speculators, by definition require confirmation of trend through price momentum before entering positions (Sanders, Boris and Manfredo, 2004). When crude oil rallies from sixty dollars to eighty dollars per barrel over several months, trend-following algorithms generate buy signals based on moving average crossovers, breakouts, and other momentum indicators. As the rally continues, position sizes increase according to the systematic rules.
However, this approach becomes a liability at turning points. By the time oil reaches ninety dollars after a sustained rally, trend-following funds are maximally long, having accumulated positions progressively throughout the move. At this point, their positioning does not predict continued strength. Rather, it often marks late-stage trend exhaustion. The psychological and mechanical explanation is straightforward. Trend followers by definition chase price momentum, entering positions after trends establish rather than anticipating them. Eventually, they become fully invested just as the trend nears completion, leaving no incremental buying power to sustain the rally. When the first signs of reversal appear, systematic stops trigger, creating a cascade of selling that accelerates the downturn.
Small traders consistently display the weakest track record across academic studies. Wang (2003) found that small trader positioning exhibited negative correlation with subsequent returns in his analysis across multiple commodity markets. This result means that whatever small traders collectively do, the opposite typically proves profitable. The explanation for small trader underperformance combines several factors documented in behavioral finance literature. Retail traders often lack the capital reserves to weather normal market volatility, leading to premature exits from positions that would eventually prove profitable. They tend to receive information through slower channels, learning about commodity trends through mainstream media coverage that arrives after institutional participants have already positioned. Perhaps most importantly, retail traders are more susceptible to emotional decision-making, buying into euphoria and selling into panic at precisely the wrong times (Tharp, 2008).
SETTINGS, THRESHOLDS, AND SIGNAL GENERATION
The practical implementation of the COT Index requires understanding several key features and settings that users can adjust to match their trading style, timeframe, and risk tolerance. The lookback period determines the time window for calculating historical ranges. The default setting of two hundred fifty-two bars represents approximately one year on daily charts or five years on weekly charts, balancing responsiveness with stability. Conservative traders seeking only the most extreme, highest-probability signals might extend the lookback to five hundred bars or more. Aggressive traders seeking earlier entry and willing to accept more false positives might reduce it to one hundred twenty-six bars or even less for shorter-term applications.
The bullish and bearish thresholds define signal generation levels. Default settings of eighty and twenty respectively reflect academic research suggesting meaningful information content at these extremes. Readings above eighty indicate positioning in the top quintile of the historical range, representing genuine extremes rather than temporary fluctuations. Conversely, readings below twenty occupy the bottom quintile, indicating unusually bearish positioning (Briese, 2008).
However, traders must recognize that appropriate thresholds vary by market, trader category, and personal risk tolerance. Some futures markets exhibit wider positioning swings than others due to seasonal patterns, volatility characteristics, or participant behavior. Conservative traders seeking high-probability setups with fewer signals might raise thresholds to eighty-five and fifteen. Aggressive traders willing to accept more false positives for earlier entry could lower them to seventy-five and twenty-five.
The key is maintaining meaningful differentiation between bullish, neutral, and bearish zones. The default settings of eighty and twenty create a clear three-zone structure. Readings from zero to twenty represent bearish territory where the selected trader group holds unusually bearish positions. Readings from twenty to eighty represent neutral territory where positioning falls within normal historical ranges. Readings from eighty to one hundred represent bullish territory where the selected trader group holds unusually bullish positions.
The trading perspective selection determines which participant group the indicator follows, fundamentally shaping interpretation and signal meaning. For counter-trend traders seeking reversal opportunities, monitoring commercial positioning makes intuitive sense based on the academic research discussed earlier. When commercials reach extreme bearish readings below twenty, indicating unprecedented short positioning relative to recent history, they are effectively betting against the crowd. Given their informational advantages demonstrated by Bessembinder and Chan (1992), this contrarian stance often precedes major bottoms.
Trend followers might instead monitor large speculator positioning, but with inverted logic compared to commercials. When managed money reaches extreme bullish readings above eighty, the trend may be exhausting rather than accelerating. This seeming paradox reflects their late-cycle participation documented by Sanders, Boris and Manfredo (2004). Sophisticated traders thus use speculator extremes as fade signals, entering positions opposite to speculator consensus.
Small trader monitoring serves primarily as a contrary indicator for all trading styles. Extreme small trader bullishness above seventy-five or eighty typically warns of retail FOMO at market tops. Extreme small trader bearishness below twenty or twenty-five often marks capitulation bottoms where the last weak hands have sold.
VISUALIZATION AND USER INTERFACE
The visual design incorporates multiple elements working together to facilitate decision-making and maintain situational awareness during active trading. The primary COT Index line plots in bold with adjustable line width, defaulting to two pixels for clear visibility against busy price charts. An optional glow effect, controlled by a simple toggle, adds additional visual prominence through multiple plot layers with progressively increasing transparency and width.
A twenty-one period exponential moving average overlays the index line, providing trend context for positioning changes. When the index crosses above its moving average, it signals accelerating bullish sentiment among the selected trader group regardless of whether absolute positioning is extreme. Conversely, when the index crosses below its moving average, it signals deteriorating sentiment and potentially the beginning of a reversal in positioning trends.
The EMA provides a dynamic reference line for assessing positioning momentum. When the index trades far above its EMA, positioning is not only extreme in absolute terms but also building with momentum. When the index trades far below its EMA, positioning is contracting or reversing, which may indicate weakening conviction even if absolute levels remain elevated.
The data table positioned at the top right of the chart displays eleven metrics for each trader category, transforming the indicator from a simple index calculation into an analytical dashboard providing multidimensional market intelligence. Beyond the COT Index itself, users can monitor positioning extremity, which measures how unusual current levels are compared to historical norms using statistical techniques. The extremity metric clarifies whether a reading represents the ninety-fifth or ninety-ninth percentile, with values above two standard deviations indicating genuinely exceptional positioning.
Market power quantifies each group's influence on total open interest. This metric expresses each trader category's net position as a percentage of total market open interest. A commercial entity holding forty percent of total open interest commands significantly more influence than one holding five percent, making their positioning signals more meaningful.
Momentum and rate of change metrics reveal whether positions are building or contracting, providing early warning of potential regime shifts. Position velocity measures the rate of change in positioning changes, effectively a second derivative providing even earlier insight into inflection points.
Sentiment divergence highlights disagreements between commercial and speculative positioning. This metric calculates the absolute difference between normalized commercial and large speculator index values. Wang (2003) found that these high-divergence environments frequently preceded increased volatility and reversals.
The table also displays concentration metrics when available, showing how positioning is distributed among the largest handful of traders in each category. High concentration indicates a few dominant players controlling most of the positioning, while low concentration suggests broad-based participation across many traders.
THE ALERT SYSTEM AND MONITORING
The alert system, comprising five distinct alert conditions, enables systematic monitoring of dozens of futures markets without constant screen watching. The bullish and bearish COT signal alerts trigger when the index crosses user-defined thresholds, indicating the selected trader group has reached extreme positioning worthy of attention. These alerts fire in real-time as new weekly COT data publishes, typically Friday afternoon following the Tuesday measurement date.
Extreme positioning alerts fire at ninety and ten index levels, representing the top and bottom ten percent of the historical range, warning of particularly stretched readings that historically precede reversals with high probability. When commercials reach a COT Index reading below ten, they are expressing their most bearish stance in the entire lookback period.
The data staleness alert notifies users when COT reports have not updated for more than ten days, preventing reliance on outdated information for trading decisions. Government shutdowns or federal holidays can interrupt the normal Friday publication schedule. Using stale signals while believing them current creates dangerous false confidence.
The indicator's watermark information display positioned in the bottom right corner provides essential context at a glance. This persistent display shows the symbol and timeframe, the COT report date timestamp, days since last update, and the current signal state. A trader analyzing a potential short entry in crude oil can glance at the watermark to instantly confirm positioning context without interrupting analysis flow.
LIMITATIONS AND REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Practical application requires understanding both the indicator's considerable strengths and inherent limitations. COT data inherently lags price action by three days, as Tuesday positions are not published until Friday afternoon. This delay means the indicator cannot catch rapid intraday reversals or respond to surprise news events. Traders using the COT Index for timing entries must accept this latency and focus on swing trading and position trading timeframes where three-day lags matter less than in day trading or scalping.
The weekly publication schedule similarly makes the indicator unsuitable for short-term trading strategies requiring immediate feedback. The COT Index works best for traders operating on weekly or longer timeframes, where positioning shifts measured in weeks and months align with trading horizon.
Extreme COT readings can persist far longer than typical technical indicators suggest, testing the patience and capital reserves of traders attempting to fade them. When crude oil enters a sustained bull market driven by genuine supply disruptions, commercial hedgers may maintain bearish positioning for many months as prices grind higher. A commercial COT Index reading of fifteen indicating extreme bearishness might persist for three months while prices continue rallying before finally reversing. Traders without sufficient capital and risk tolerance to weather such drawdowns will exit prematurely, precisely when the signal is about to work (Irwin and Sanders, 2012).
Position sizing discipline becomes paramount when implementing COT-based strategies. Rather than risking large percentages of capital on individual signals, successful COT traders typically allocate modest position sizes across multiple signals, allowing some to take time to mature while others work more quickly.
The indicator also cannot overcome fundamental regime changes that alter the structural drivers of markets. If gold enters a true secular bull market driven by monetary debasement, commercial hedgers may remain persistently bearish as mining companies sell forward years of production at what they perceive as favorable prices. Their positioning indicates valuation concerns from a production cost perspective, but cannot stop prices from rising if investment demand overwhelms physical supply-demand balance.
Similarly, structural changes in market participation can alter the meaning of positioning extremes. The growth of commodity index investing in the two thousands brought massive passive long-only capital into futures markets, fundamentally changing typical positioning ranges. Traders relying on COT signals without recognizing this regime change would have generated numerous false bearish signals during the commodity supercycle from 2003 to 2008.
The research foundation supporting COT analysis derives primarily from commodity markets where the commercial hedger information advantage is most pronounced. Studies specifically examining financial futures like equity indices and bonds show weaker but still present effects. Traders should calibrate expectations accordingly, recognizing that COT analysis likely works better for crude oil, natural gas, corn, and wheat than for the S&P 500, Treasury bonds, or currency futures.
Another important limitation involves the reporting threshold structure. Not all market participants appear in COT data, only those holding positions above specified minimums. In markets dominated by a few large players, concentration metrics become critical for proper interpretation. A single large trader accounting for thirty percent of commercial positioning might skew the entire category if their individual circumstances are idiosyncratic rather than representative.
GOLD FUTURES DURING A HYPOTHETICAL MARKET CYCLE
Consider a practical example using gold futures during a hypothetical but realistic market scenario that illustrates how the COT Index indicator guides trading decisions through a complete market cycle. Suppose gold has rallied from fifteen hundred to nineteen hundred dollars per ounce over six months, driven by inflation concerns following aggressive monetary expansion, geopolitical uncertainty, and sustained buying by Asian central banks for reserve diversification.
Large speculators, operating primarily trend-following strategies, have accumulated increasingly bullish positions throughout this rally. Their COT Index has climbed progressively from forty-five to eighty-five. The table display shows that large speculators now hold net long positions representing thirty-two percent of total open interest, their highest in four years. Momentum indicators show positive readings, indicating positions are still building though at a decelerating rate. Position velocity has turned negative, suggesting the pace of position building is slowing.
Meanwhile, commercial hedgers have responded to the rally by aggressively selling forward production and inventory. Their COT Index has moved inversely to price, declining from fifty-five to twenty. This bearish commercial positioning represents mining companies locking in forward sales at prices they view as attractive relative to production costs. The table shows commercials now hold net short positions representing twenty-nine percent of total open interest, their most bearish stance in five years. Concentration metrics indicate this positioning is broadly distributed across many commercial entities, suggesting the bearish stance reflects collective industry view rather than idiosyncratic positioning by a single firm.
Small traders, attracted by mainstream financial media coverage of gold's impressive rally, have recently piled into long positions. Their COT Index has jumped from forty-five to seventy-eight as retail investors chase the trend. Television financial networks feature frequent segments on gold with bullish guests. Internet forums and social media show surging retail interest. This retail enthusiasm historically marks late-stage trend development rather than early opportunity.
The COT Index indicator, configured to monitor commercial positioning from a contrarian perspective, displays a clear bearish signal given the extreme commercial short positioning. The table displays multiple confirming metrics: positioning extremity shows commercials at the ninety-sixth percentile of bearishness, market power indicates they control twenty-nine percent of open interest, and sentiment divergence registers sixty-five, indicating massive disagreement between commercial hedgers and large speculators. This divergence, the highest in three years, places the market in the historically high-risk category for reversals.
The interpretation requires nuance and consideration of context beyond just COT data. Commercials are not necessarily predicting an imminent crash. Rather, they are hedging business operations at what they collectively view as favorable price levels. However, the data reveals they have sold unusually large quantities of forward production, suggesting either exceptional production expectations for the year ahead or concern about sustaining current price levels or combination of both. Combined with extreme speculator positioning indicating a crowded long trade, and small trader enthusiasm confirming retail FOMO, the confluence suggests elevated reversal risk even if the precise timing remains uncertain.
A prudent trader analyzing this situation might take several actions based on COT Index signals. Existing long positions could be tightened with closer stop losses. Profit-taking on a portion of long exposure could lock in gains while maintaining some participation. Some traders might initiate modest short positions as portfolio hedges, sizing them appropriately for the inherent uncertainty in timing reversals. Others might simply move to the sidelines, avoiding new long entries until positioning normalizes.
The key lesson from case study analysis is that COT signals provide probabilistic edges rather than deterministic predictions. They work over many observations by identifying higher-probability configurations, not by generating perfect calls on individual trades. A fifty-five percent win rate with proper risk management produces substantial profits over time, yet still means forty-five percent of signals will be premature or wrong. Traders must embrace this probabilistic reality rather than seeking the impossible goal of perfect accuracy.
INTEGRATION WITH TRADING SYSTEMS
Integration with existing trading systems represents a natural and powerful use case for COT analysis, adding a positioning dimension to price-based technical approaches or fundamental analytical frameworks. Few traders rely exclusively on a single indicator or methodology. Rather, they build systems that synthesize multiple information sources, with each component addressing different aspects of market behavior.
Trend followers might use COT extremes as regime filters, modifying position sizing or avoiding new trend entries when positioning reaches levels historically associated with reversals. Consider a classic trend-following system based on moving average crossovers and momentum breakouts. Integration of COT analysis adds nuance. When large speculator positioning exceeds ninety or commercial positioning falls below ten, the regime filter recognizes elevated reversal risk. The system might reduce position sizing by fifty percent for new signals during these high-risk periods (Kaufman, 2013).
Mean reversion traders might require COT signal confluence before fading extended moves. When crude oil becomes technically overbought and large speculators show extreme long positioning above eighty-five, both signals confirm. If only technical indicators show extremes while positioning remains neutral, the potential short signal is rejected, avoiding fades of trends with underlying institutional support (Kaufman, 2013).
Discretionary traders can monitor the indicator as a continuous awareness tool, informing bias and position sizing without dictating mechanical entries and exits. A discretionary trader might notice commercial positioning shifting from neutral to progressively more bullish over several months. This trend informs growing positive bias even without triggering mechanical signals.
Multi-timeframe analysis represents another powerful integration approach. A trader might use daily charts for trade execution and timing while monitoring weekly COT positioning for strategic context. When both timeframes align, highest-probability opportunities emerge.
Portfolio construction for futures traders can incorporate COT signals as an additional selection criterion. Markets showing strong technical setups AND favorable COT positioning receive highest allocations. Markets with strong technicals but neutral or unfavorable positioning receive reduced allocations.
ADVANCED METRICS AND INTERPRETATION
The metrics table transforms simple positioning data into multidimensional market intelligence. Position extremity, calculated as the absolute deviation from the historical mean normalized by standard deviation, helps identify truly unusual readings versus routine fluctuations. A reading above two standard deviations indicates ninety-fifth percentile or higher extremity. Above three standard deviations indicates ninety-ninth percentile or higher, genuinely rare positioning that historically precedes major events with high probability.
Market power, expressed as a percentage of total open interest, reveals whose positioning matters most from a mechanical market impact perspective. Consider two scenarios in gold futures. In scenario one, commercials show a COT Index reading of fifteen while their market power metric shows they hold net shorts representing thirty-five percent of open interest. This is a high-confidence bearish signal. In scenario two, commercials also show a reading of fifteen, but market power shows only eight percent. While positioning is extreme relative to this category's normal range, their limited market share means less mechanical influence on price.
The rate of change and momentum metrics highlight whether positions are accelerating or decelerating, often providing earlier warnings than absolute levels alone. A COT Index reading of seventy-five with rapidly building momentum suggests continued movement toward extremes. Conversely, a reading of eighty-five with decelerating or negative momentum indicates the positioning trend is exhausting.
Position velocity measures the rate of change in positioning changes, effectively a second derivative. When velocity shifts from positive to negative, it indicates that while positioning may still be growing, the pace of growth is slowing. This deceleration often precedes actual reversal in positioning direction by several weeks.
Sentiment divergence calculates the absolute difference between normalized commercial and large speculator index values. When commercials show extreme bearish positioning at twenty while large speculators show extreme bullish positioning at eighty, the divergence reaches sixty, representing near-maximum disagreement. Wang (2003) found that these high-divergence environments frequently preceded increased volatility and reversals. The mechanism is intuitive. Extreme divergence indicates the informed hedgers and momentum-following speculators have positioned opposite each other with conviction. One group will prove correct and profit while the other proves incorrect and suffers losses. The resolution of this disagreement through price movement often involves volatility.
The table also displays concentration metrics when available. High concentration indicates a few dominant players controlling most of the positioning within a category, while low concentration suggests broad-based participation. Broad-based positioning more reliably reflects collective market intelligence and industry consensus. If mining companies globally all independently decide to hedge aggressively at similar price levels, it suggests genuine industry-wide view about price valuations rather than circumstances specific to one firm.
DATA QUALITY AND RELIABILITY
The CFTC has maintained COT reporting in various forms since the nineteen twenties, providing nearly a century of positioning data across multiple market cycles. However, data quality and reporting standards have evolved substantially over this long period. Modern electronic reporting implemented in the late nineteen nineties and early two thousands significantly improved accuracy and timeliness compared to earlier paper-based systems.
Traders should understand that COT reports capture positions as of Tuesday's close each week. Markets remain open three additional days before publication on Friday afternoon, meaning the reported data is three days stale when received. During periods of rapid market movement or major news events, this lag can be significant. The indicator addresses this limitation by including timestamp information and staleness warnings.
The three-day lag creates particular challenges during extreme volatility episodes. Flash crashes, surprise central bank interventions, geopolitical shocks, and other high-impact events can completely transform market positioning within hours. Traders must exercise judgment about whether reported positioning remains relevant given intervening events.
Reporting thresholds also mean that not all market participants appear in disaggregated COT data. Traders holding positions below specified minimums aggregate into the non-reportable or small trader category. This aggregation affects different markets differently. In highly liquid contracts like crude oil with thousands of participants, reportable traders might represent seventy to eighty percent of open interest. In thinly traded contracts with only dozens of active participants, a few large reportable positions might represent ninety-five percent of open interest.
Another data quality consideration involves trader classification into categories. The CFTC assigns traders to commercial or non-commercial categories based on reported business purpose and activities. However, this process is not perfect. Some entities engage in both commercial and speculative activities, creating ambiguity about proper classification. The transition to Disaggregated reports attempted to address some of these ambiguities by creating more granular categories.
COMPARISON WITH ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
Several alternative approaches to COT analysis exist in the trading community beyond the normalization methodology employed by this indicator. Some analysts focus on absolute position changes week-over-week rather than index-based normalization. This approach calculates the change in net positioning from one week to the next. The emphasis falls on momentum in positioning changes rather than absolute levels relative to history. This method potentially identifies regime shifts earlier but sacrifices cross-market comparability (Briese, 2008).
Other practitioners employ more complex statistical transformations including percentile rankings, z-score standardization, and machine learning classification algorithms. Ruan and Zhang (2018) demonstrated that machine learning models applied to COT data could achieve modest improvements in forecasting accuracy compared to simple threshold-based approaches. However, these gains came at the cost of interpretability and implementation complexity.
The COT Index indicator intentionally employs a relatively straightforward normalization methodology for several important reasons. First, transparency enhances user understanding and trust. Traders can verify calculations manually and develop intuitive feel for what different readings mean. Second, academic research suggests that most of the predictive power in COT data comes from extreme positioning levels rather than subtle patterns requiring complex statistical methods to detect. Third, robust methods that work consistently across many markets and time periods tend to be simpler rather than more complex, reducing the risk of overfitting to historical data. Fourth, the complexity costs of implementation matter for retail traders without programming teams or computational infrastructure.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF COT TRADING
Trading based on COT data requires psychological fortitude that differs from momentum-based approaches. Contrarian positioning signals inherently mean betting against prevailing market sentiment and recent price action. When commercials reach extreme bearish positioning, prices have typically been rising, sometimes for extended periods. The price chart looks bullish, momentum indicators confirm strength, moving averages align positively. The COT signal says bet against all of this. This psychological difficulty explains why COT analysis remains underutilized relative to trend-following methods.
Human psychology strongly predisposes us toward extrapolation and recency bias. When prices rally for months, our pattern-matching brains naturally expect continued rally. The recent price action dominates our perception, overwhelming rational analysis about positioning extremes and historical probabilities. The COT signal asking us to sell requires overriding these powerful psychological impulses.
The indicator design attempts to support the required psychological discipline through several features. Clear threshold markers and signal states reduce ambiguity about when signals trigger. When the commercial index crosses below twenty, the signal is explicit and unambiguous. The background shifts to red, the signal label displays bearish, and alerts fire. This explicitness helps traders act on signals rather than waiting for additional confirmation that may never arrive.
The metrics table provides analytical justification for contrarian positions, helping traders maintain conviction during inevitable periods of adverse price movement. When a trader enters short positions based on extreme commercial bearish positioning but prices continue rallying for several weeks, doubt naturally emerges. The table display provides reassurance. Commercial positioning remains extremely bearish. Divergence remains high. The positioning thesis remains intact even though price action has not yet confirmed.
Alert functionality ensures traders do not miss signals due to inattention while also not requiring constant monitoring that can lead to emotional decision-making. Setting alerts for COT extremes enables a healthier relationship with markets. When meaningful signals occur, alerts notify them. They can then calmly assess the situation and execute planned responses.
However, no indicator design can completely overcome the psychological difficulty of contrarian trading. Some traders simply cannot maintain short positions while prices rally. For these traders, COT analysis might be better employed as an exit signal for long positions rather than an entry signal for shorts.
Ultimately, successful COT trading requires developing comfort with probabilistic thinking rather than certainty-seeking. The signals work over many observations by identifying higher-probability configurations, not by generating perfect calls on individual trades. A fifty-five or sixty percent win rate with proper risk management produces substantial profits over years, yet still means forty to forty-five percent of signals will be premature or wrong. COT analysis provides genuine edge, but edge means probability advantage, not elimination of losing trades.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AND CONTINUOUS LEARNING
The indicator provides extensive built-in educational resources through its documentation, detailed tooltips, and transparent calculations. However, mastering COT analysis requires study beyond any single tool or resource. Several excellent resources provide valuable extensions of the concepts covered in this guide.
Books and practitioner-focused monographs offer accessible entry points. Stephen Briese published The Commitments of Traders Bible in two thousand eight, offering detailed breakdowns of how different markets and trader categories behave (Briese, 2008). Briese's work stands out for its empirical focus and market-specific insights. Jack Schwager includes discussion of COT analysis within the broader context of market behavior in his book Market Sense and Nonsense (Schwager, 2012). Perry Kaufman's Trading Systems and Methods represents perhaps the most rigorous practitioner-focused text on systematic trading approaches including COT analysis (Kaufman, 2013).
Academic journal articles provide the rigorous statistical foundation underlying COT analysis. The Journal of Futures Markets regularly publishes research on positioning data and its predictive properties. Bessembinder and Chan's earlier work on systematic risk, hedging pressure, and risk premiums in futures markets provides theoretical foundation (Bessembinder, 1992). Chang's examination of speculator returns provides historical context (Chang, 1985). Irwin and Sanders provide essential skeptical perspective in their two thousand twelve article (Irwin and Sanders, 2012). Wang's two thousand three article provides one of the most empirical analyses of COT data across multiple commodity markets (Wang, 2003).
Online resources extend beyond academic and book-length treatments. The CFTC website provides free access to current and historical COT reports in multiple formats. The explanatory materials section offers detailed documentation of report construction, category definitions, and historical methodology changes. Traders serious about COT analysis should read these official CFTC documents to understand exactly what they are analyzing.
Commercial COT data services such as Barchart provide enhanced visualization and analysis tools beyond raw CFTC data. TradingView's educational materials, published scripts library, and user community provide additional resources for exploring different approaches to COT analysis.
The key to mastering COT analysis lies not in finding a single definitive source but rather in building understanding through multiple perspectives and information sources. Academic research provides rigorous empirical foundation. Practitioner-focused books offer practical implementation insights. Direct engagement with data through systematic backtesting develops intuition about how positioning dynamics manifest across different market conditions.
SYNTHESIZING KNOWLEDGE INTO PRACTICE
The COT Index indicator represents the synthesis of academic research, trading experience, and software engineering into a practical tool accessible to retail traders equipped with nothing more than a TradingView account and willingness to learn. What once required expensive data subscriptions, custom programming capabilities, statistical software, and institutional resources now appears as a straightforward indicator requiring only basic parameter selection and modest study to understand. This democratization of institutional-grade analysis tools represents a broader trend in financial markets over recent decades.
Yet technology and data access alone provide no edge without understanding and discipline. Markets remain relentlessly efficient at eliminating edges that become too widely known and mechanically exploited. The COT Index indicator succeeds only when users invest time learning the underlying concepts, understand the limitations and probability distributions involved, and integrate signals thoughtfully into trading plans rather than applying them mechanically.
The academic research demonstrates conclusively that institutional positioning contains genuine information about future price movements, particularly at extremes where commercial hedgers are maximally bearish or bullish relative to historical norms. This informational content is neither perfect nor deterministic but rather probabilistic, providing edge over many observations through identification of higher-probability configurations. Bessembinder and Chan's finding that commercial positioning explained modest but significant variance in future returns illustrates this probabilistic nature perfectly (Bessembinder and Chan, 1992). The effect is real and statistically significant, yet it explains perhaps ten to fifteen percent of return variance rather than most variance. Much of price movement remains unpredictable even with positioning intelligence.
The practical implication is that COT analysis works best as one component of a trading system rather than a standalone oracle. It provides the positioning dimension, revealing where the smart money has positioned and where the crowd has followed, but price action analysis provides the timing dimension. Fundamental analysis provides the catalyst dimension. Risk management provides the survival dimension. These components work together synergistically.
The indicator's design philosophy prioritizes transparency and education over black-box complexity, empowering traders to understand exactly what they are analyzing and why. Every calculation is documented and user-adjustable. The threshold markers, background coloring, tables, and clear signal states provide multiple reinforcing channels for conveying the same information.
This educational approach reflects a conviction that sustainable trading success comes from genuine understanding rather than mechanical system-following. Traders who understand why commercial positioning matters, how different trader categories behave, what positioning extremes signify, and where signals fit within probability distributions can adapt when market conditions change. Traders mechanically following black-box signals without comprehension abandon systems after normal losing streaks.
The research foundation supporting COT analysis comes primarily from commodity markets where commercial hedger informational advantages are most pronounced. Agricultural producers hedging crops know more about supply conditions than distant speculators. Energy companies hedging production know more about operating costs than financial traders. Metals miners hedging output know more about ore grades than index funds. Financial futures markets show weaker but still present effects.
The journey from reading this documentation to profitable trading based on COT analysis involves several stages that cannot be rushed. Initial reading and basic understanding represents the first stage. Historical study represents the second stage, reviewing past market cycles to observe how positioning extremes preceded major turning points. Paper trading or small-size real trading represents the third stage to experience the psychological challenges. Refinement based on results and personal psychology represents the fourth stage.
Markets will continue evolving. New participant categories will emerge. Regulatory structures will change. Technology will advance. Yet the fundamental dynamics driving COT analysis, that different market participants have different information, different motivations, and different forecasting abilities that manifest in their positioning, will persist as long as futures markets exist. While specific thresholds or optimal parameters may shift over time, the core logic remains sound and adaptable.
The trader equipped with this indicator, understanding of the theory and evidence behind COT analysis, realistic expectations about probability rather than certainty, discipline to maintain positions through adverse volatility, and patience to allow signals time to develop possesses genuine edge in markets. The edge is not enormous, markets cannot allow large persistent inefficiencies without arbitraging them away, but it is real, measurable, and exploitable by those willing to invest in learning and disciplined application.
REFERENCES
Bessembinder, H. (1992) Systematic risk, hedging pressure, and risk premiums in futures markets, Review of Financial Studies, 5(4), pp. 637-667.
Bessembinder, H. and Chan, K. (1992) The profitability of technical trading rules in the Asian stock markets, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 3(2-3), pp. 257-284.
Briese, S. (2008) The Commitments of Traders Bible: How to Profit from Insider Market Intelligence. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Chang, E.C. (1985) Returns to speculators and the theory of normal backwardation, Journal of Finance, 40(1), pp. 193-208.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (2009) Explanatory Notes: Disaggregated Commitments of Traders Report. Available at: www.cftc.gov (Accessed: 15 January 2025).
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (2020) Commitments of Traders: About the Report. Available at: www.cftc.gov (Accessed: 15 January 2025).
Irwin, S.H. and Sanders, D.R. (2012) Testing the Masters Hypothesis in commodity futures markets, Energy Economics, 34(1), pp. 256-269.
Kaufman, P.J. (2013) Trading Systems and Methods. 5th edn. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Ruan, Y. and Zhang, Y. (2018) Forecasting commodity futures prices using machine learning: Evidence from the Chinese commodity futures market, Applied Economics Letters, 25(12), pp. 845-849.
Sanders, D.R., Boris, K. and Manfredo, M. (2004) Hedgers, funds, and small speculators in the energy futures markets: an analysis of the CFTC's Commitments of Traders reports, Energy Economics, 26(3), pp. 425-445.
Schwager, J.D. (2012) Market Sense and Nonsense: How the Markets Really Work and How They Don't. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Tharp, V.K. (2008) Super Trader: Make Consistent Profits in Good and Bad Markets. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Wang, C. (2003) The behavior and performance of major types of futures traders, Journal of Futures Markets, 23(1), pp. 1-31.
Williams, L.R. and Noseworthy, M. (2009) The Right Stock at the Right Time: Prospering in the Coming Good Years. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
FURTHER READING
For traders seeking to deepen their understanding of COT analysis and futures market positioning beyond this documentation, the following resources provide valuable extensions:
Academic Journal Articles:
Fishe, R.P.H. and Smith, A. (2012) Do speculators drive commodity prices away from supply and demand fundamentals?, Journal of Commodity Markets, 1(1), pp. 1-16.
Haigh, M.S., Hranaiova, J. and Overdahl, J.A. (2007) Hedge funds, volatility, and liquidity provision in energy futures markets, Journal of Alternative Investments, 9(4), pp. 10-38.
Kocagil, A.E. (1997) Does futures speculation stabilize spot prices? Evidence from metals markets, Applied Financial Economics, 7(1), pp. 115-125.
Sanders, D.R. and Irwin, S.H. (2011) The impact of index funds in commodity futures markets: A systems approach, Journal of Alternative Investments, 14(1), pp. 40-49.
Books and Practitioner Resources:
Murphy, J.J. (1999) Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Guide to Trading Methods and Applications. New York: New York Institute of Finance.
Pring, M.J. (2002) Technical Analysis Explained: The Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment Trends and Turning Points. 4th edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Federal Reserve and Research Institution Publications:
Federal Reserve Banks regularly publish working papers examining commodity markets, futures positioning, and price discovery mechanisms. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City maintain active research programs in this area.
Online Resources:
The CFTC website provides free access to current and historical COT reports, explanatory materials, and regulatory documentation.
Barchart offers enhanced COT data visualization and screening tools.
TradingView's community library contains numerous published scripts and educational materials exploring different approaches to positioning analysis.
Smart MACD Volume Trader# Smart MACD Volume Trader
## Overview
Smart MACD Volume Trader is an enhanced momentum indicator that combines the classic MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) oscillator with an intelligent high-volume filter. This combination significantly reduces false signals by ensuring that trading signals are only generated when price momentum is confirmed by substantial volume activity.
The indicator supports over 24 different instruments including major and exotic forex pairs, precious metals (gold and silver), energy commodities (crude oil, natural gas), and industrial metals (copper). For forex and commodity traders, the indicator automatically maps to CME and COMEX futures contracts to provide accurate institutional-grade volume data.
## Originality and Core Concept
Traditional MACD indicators generate signals based solely on price momentum, which can result in numerous false signals during low-activity periods or ranging markets. This indicator addresses this critical weakness by introducing a volume confirmation layer with automatic institutional volume integration.
**What makes this approach original:**
- Signals are triggered only when MACD crossovers coincide with elevated volume activity
- Implements a lookback mechanism to detect volume spikes within recent bars
- Automatically detects and maps 24+ forex pairs and commodities to their corresponding CME and COMEX futures contracts
- Provides real institutional volume data for forex pairs where spot volume is unreliable
- Combines two independent market dimensions (price momentum and volume) into a single, actionable signal
- Includes intelligent asset detection that works across multiple exchanges and ticker formats
**The underlying principle:** Volume validates price movement. When institutional money enters the market, it creates volume signatures. By requiring high volume confirmation and using actual institutional volume data from futures markets, this indicator filters out weak price movements and focuses on trades backed by genuine market participation. The automatic futures mapping ensures that forex and commodity traders always have access to the most accurate volume data available, without manual configuration.
## How It Works
### MACD Component
The indicator calculates MACD using standard methodology:
1. **Fast EMA (default: 12 periods)** - Tracks short-term price momentum
2. **Slow EMA (default: 26 periods)** - Tracks longer-term price momentum
3. **MACD Line** - Difference between Fast EMA and Slow EMA
4. **Signal Line (default: 9-period SMA)** - Smoothed average of MACD line
**Crossover signals:**
- **Bullish:** MACD line crosses above Signal line (momentum turning positive)
- **Bearish:** MACD line crosses below Signal line (momentum turning negative)
### Volume Filter Component
The volume filter adds an essential confirmation layer:
1. **Volume Moving Average** - Calculates exponential MA of volume (default: 20 periods)
2. **High Volume Threshold** - Multiplies MA by ratio (default: 2.0x or 200%)
3. **Volume Detection** - Identifies bars where current volume exceeds threshold
4. **Lookback Period** - Checks if high volume occurred in recent bars (default: 5 bars)
**Signal logic:**
- Buy/Sell signals only trigger when BOTH conditions are met:
- MACD crossover/crossunder occurs
- High volume detected within lookback period
### Automatic CME Futures Integration
For forex traders, spot FX volume data can be unreliable or non-existent. This indicator solves this problem by automatically detecting forex pairs and mapping them to corresponding CME futures contracts with real institutional volume data.
**Supported Major Forex Pairs (7):**
- EURUSD → CME:6E1! (Euro FX Futures)
- GBPUSD → CME:6B1! (British Pound Futures)
- AUDUSD → CME:6A1! (Australian Dollar Futures)
- USDJPY → CME:6J1! (Japanese Yen Futures)
- USDCAD → CME:6C1! (Canadian Dollar Futures)
- USDCHF → CME:6S1! (Swiss Franc Futures)
- NZDUSD → CME:6N1! (New Zealand Dollar Futures)
**Supported Exotic Forex Pairs (4):**
- USDMXN → CME:6M1! (Mexican Peso Futures)
- USDRUB → CME:6R1! (Russian Ruble Futures)
- USDBRL → CME:6L1! (Brazilian Real Futures)
- USDZAR → CME:6Z1! (South African Rand Futures)
**Supported Cross Pairs (6):**
- EURJPY → CME:6E1! (Uses Euro Futures)
- GBPJPY → CME:6B1! (Uses British Pound Futures)
- EURGBP → CME:6E1! (Uses Euro Futures)
- AUDJPY → CME:6A1! (Uses Australian Dollar Futures)
- EURAUD → CME:6E1! (Uses Euro Futures)
- GBPAUD → CME:6B1! (Uses British Pound Futures)
**Supported Precious Metals (2):**
- Gold (XAUUSD, GOLD) → COMEX:GC1! (Gold Futures)
- Silver (XAGUSD, SILVER) → COMEX:SI1! (Silver Futures)
**Supported Energy Commodities (3):**
- WTI Crude Oil (USOIL, WTIUSD) → NYMEX:CL1! (Crude Oil Futures)
- Brent Oil (UKOIL) → NYMEX:BZ1! (Brent Crude Futures)
- Natural Gas (NATGAS) → NYMEX:NG1! (Natural Gas Futures)
**Supported Industrial Metals (1):**
- Copper (COPPER) → COMEX:HG1! (Copper Futures)
**How the automatic detection works:**
The indicator intelligently identifies the asset type by analyzing:
1. Exchange name (FX, OANDA, TVC, COMEX, NYMEX, etc.)
2. Currency pair pattern (6-letter codes like EURUSD, GBPUSD)
3. Commodity identifiers (XAU for gold, XAG for silver, OIL for crude)
When a supported instrument is detected, the indicator automatically switches to the corresponding futures contract for volume analysis. For stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other assets, the indicator uses the native volume data from the current chart.
**Visual feedback:**
An information table appears in the top-right corner of the MACD pane showing:
- Current chart symbol
- Exchange name
- Currency pair or asset name
- Volume source being used (highlighted in orange for futures, yellow for native volume)
- Current high volume status
This provides complete transparency about which data source the indicator is using for its volume analysis.
## How to Use
### Basic Setup
1. Add the indicator to your chart
2. The indicator displays in a separate pane (MACD) and overlay (signals/volume bars)
3. Default settings work well for most assets, but can be customized
### Signal Interpretation
### Visual Signals
**Visual Signals:**
- **Green "BUY" label** - Bullish MACD crossover confirmed by high volume
- **Red "SELL" label** - Bearish MACD crossunder confirmed by high volume
- **Green/Red candles** - Highlight bars with volume exceeding the threshold
- **Light green/red background** - Emphasizes signal bars on the chart
**Information Table:**
A detailed information table appears in the top-right corner of the MACD pane, providing real-time transparency about the indicator's operation:
- **Chart:** Current symbol being analyzed
- **Exchange:** The exchange or data feed being used
- **Pair:** The currency pair or asset name extracted from the ticker
- **Volume From:** The actual symbol used for volume analysis
- Orange color indicates CME or COMEX futures are being used (automatic institutional volume)
- Yellow color indicates native volume from the chart symbol is being used
- Hover tooltip shows whether automatic futures mapping is active
- **High Volume:** Current status showing YES (green) when volume exceeds threshold, NO (gray) otherwise
This table ensures complete transparency and allows you to verify that the correct volume source is being used for your analysis.
**Volume Analysis:**
- Gray histogram bars = Normal volume
- Red histogram bars = High volume (exceeds threshold)
- Green line = Volume moving average baseline
**MACD Analysis:**
- Blue line = MACD line (momentum indicator)
- Orange line = Signal line (trend confirmation)
- Gray dotted line = Zero line (bullish above, bearish below)
### Parameter Customization
**MACD Parameters:**
- Adjust Fast/Slow EMA lengths for different sensitivities
- Shorter periods = More signals, faster response
- Longer periods = Fewer signals, less noise
**Volume Parameters:**
- **Volume MA Period:** Higher values smooth volume analysis
- **High Volume Ratio:** Lower values (1.5x) = More signals; Higher values (3.0x) = Fewer, stronger signals
- **Volume Lookback Bars:** Controls how recent the volume spike must be
**Direction Filters:**
- **Only Buy Signals:** Enables long-only strategy mode
- **Only Sell Signals:** Enables short-only strategy mode
### Alert Configuration
The indicator includes three alert types:
1. **Buy Signal Alert** - Triggers when bullish signal appears
2. **Sell Signal Alert** - Triggers when bearish signal appears
3. **High Volume Alert** - Triggers when volume exceeds threshold
To set up alerts:
1. Click the indicator name → "Add alert on Smart MACD Volume Trader"
2. Select desired alert condition
3. Configure notification method (popup, email, webhook, etc.)
## Trading Strategy Guidelines
### Best Practices
**Recommended markets:**
- Liquid stocks (large-cap, high daily volume)
- Major forex pairs (EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, AUDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, NZDUSD)
- Exotic forex pairs (USDMXN, USDRUB, USDBRL, USDZAR)
- Cross pairs (EURJPY, GBPJPY, EURGBP, AUDJPY, EURAUD, GBPAUD)
- Precious metals (Gold, Silver with automatic COMEX futures mapping)
- Energy commodities (Crude Oil, Natural Gas with automatic NYMEX futures mapping)
- Industrial metals (Copper with automatic COMEX futures mapping)
- Major cryptocurrency pairs
- Index futures and ETFs
**Timeframe recommendations:**
- **Day trading:** 5-minute to 15-minute charts
- **Swing trading:** 1-hour to 4-hour charts
- **Position trading:** Daily charts
**Risk management:**
- Use signals as entry confirmation, not standalone strategy
- Combine with support/resistance levels
- Consider overall market trend direction
- Always use stop-loss orders
### Strategy Examples
**Trend Following Strategy:**
1. Identify overall trend using higher timeframe (e.g., daily chart)
2. Trade only in trend direction
3. Use "Only Buy" filter in uptrends, "Only Sell" in downtrends
4. Enter on signal, exit on opposite signal or at resistance/support
**Volume Breakout Strategy:**
1. Wait for consolidation period (low volume, tight MACD range)
2. Enter when signal appears with high volume (confirms breakout)
3. Target previous swing highs/lows
4. Stop loss below/above recent consolidation
**Forex Scalping Strategy (with automatic CME futures):**
1. The indicator automatically detects forex pairs and uses CME futures volume
2. Trade during active sessions only (use session filter)
3. Focus on quick profits (10-20 pips)
4. Exit at opposite signal or profit target
**Commodities Trading Strategy (Gold, Silver, Oil):**
1. The indicator automatically maps to COMEX and NYMEX futures contracts
2. Trade during high-liquidity sessions (overlap of major markets)
3. Use the high volume confirmation to identify institutional entry points
4. Combine with key support and resistance levels for entries
5. Monitor the information table to confirm futures volume is being used (orange color)
6. Exit on opposite MACD signal or at predefined profit targets
## Why This Combination Works
### The Volume Advantage
Studies consistently show that price movements accompanied by high volume are more likely to continue, while low-volume movements often reverse. This indicator leverages this principle by requiring volume confirmation.
**Key benefits:**
1. **Reduced False Signals:** Eliminates MACD whipsaws during low-volume consolidation
2. **Confirmation Bias:** Two independent indicators (price momentum + volume) agreeing
3. **Institutional Alignment:** High volume often indicates institutional participation
4. **Trend Validation:** Volume confirms that price momentum has "conviction"
### Statistical Edge
By combining two uncorrelated signals (MACD crossovers and volume spikes), the indicator creates a higher-probability setup than either signal alone. The lookback mechanism ensures signals aren't missed if volume spike slightly precedes the MACD cross.
## Supported Exchanges and Automatic Detection
The indicator includes intelligent asset detection that works across multiple exchanges and ticker formats:
**Forex Exchanges (Automatic CME Mapping):**
- FX (TradingView forex feed)
- OANDA
- FXCM
- SAXO
- FOREXCOM
- PEPPERSTONE
- EASYMARKETS
- FX_IDC
**Commodity Exchanges (Automatic COMEX/NYMEX Mapping):**
- TVC (TradingView commodity feed)
- COMEX (directly)
- NYMEX (directly)
- ICEUS
**Other Asset Classes (Native Volume):**
- Stock exchanges (NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX, etc.)
- Cryptocurrency exchanges (BINANCE, COINBASE, KRAKEN, etc.)
- Index providers (SP, DJ, etc.)
The detection algorithm analyzes three factors:
1. Exchange prefix in the ticker symbol
2. Pattern matching for currency pairs (6-letter codes)
3. Commodity identifiers in the symbol name
This ensures accurate automatic detection regardless of which data feed or exchange you use for charting. The information table in the top-right corner always displays which volume source is being used, providing complete transparency.
## Technical Details
**Calculations:**
- MACD Fast MA: EMA(close, fastLength)
- MACD Slow MA: EMA(close, slowLength)
- MACD Line: Fast MA - Slow MA
- Signal Line: SMA(MACD Line, signalLength)
- Volume MA: Exponential MA of volume
- High Volume: Current volume >= Volume MA × Ratio
**Signal logic:**
```
Buy Signal = (MACD crosses above Signal) AND (High volume in last N bars)
Sell Signal = (MACD crosses below Signal) AND (High volume in last N bars)
```
## Parameters Reference
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|-----------|---------|-------------|
| Volume Symbol | Blank | Manual override for volume source (leave blank for automatic detection) |
| Use CME Futures | False | Legacy option (automatic detection is now built-in) |
| Alert Session | 1530-2200 | Active session time range for alerts |
| Timezone | UTC+1 | Timezone for alert sessions |
| Volume MA Period | 20 | Number of periods for volume moving average |
| High Volume Ratio | 2.0 | Volume threshold multiplier (2.0 = 200% of average) |
| Volume Lookback | 5 | Number of bars to check for high volume confirmation |
| MACD Fast Length | 12 | Fast EMA period for MACD calculation |
| MACD Slow Length | 26 | Slow EMA period for MACD calculation |
| MACD Signal Length | 9 | Signal line SMA period |
| Only Buy | False | Filter to show only bullish signals |
| Only Sell | False | Filter to show only bearish signals |
| Show Signals | True | Display buy and sell labels on chart |
## Optimization Tips
**For volatile markets (crypto, small caps):**
- Increase High Volume Ratio to 2.5-3.0
- Reduce Volume Lookback to 3-4 bars
- Consider faster MACD settings (8, 17, 9)
**For stable markets (large-cap stocks, bonds):**
- Decrease High Volume Ratio to 1.5-1.8
- Increase Volume MA Period to 30-50
- Use standard MACD settings
**For forex (with automatic CME futures):**
- The indicator automatically uses CME futures when forex pairs are detected
- Set appropriate trading session based on your timezone
- Use Volume Lookback of 5-7 bars
- Consider session-based alerts only
- Monitor the information table to verify correct futures mapping
**For commodities (Gold, Silver, Oil, Copper):**
- The indicator automatically maps to COMEX and NYMEX futures
- Increase High Volume Ratio to 2.0-2.5 for metals
- Use slightly higher Volume MA Period (25-30) for smoother analysis
- Trade during active market hours for best volume data
- The information table will show the futures contract being used (orange highlight)
## Limitations and Considerations
**What this indicator does NOT do:**
- Does not predict future price direction
- Does not guarantee profitable trades
- Does not replace proper risk management
- Does not work well in extremely low-volume conditions
**Market conditions to avoid:**
- Pre-market and after-hours sessions (low volume)
- Major news events (volatile, unpredictable volume)
- Holidays and low-liquidity periods
- Extremely low float stocks
## Conclusion
Smart MACD Volume Trader represents a significant evolution of the traditional MACD indicator by combining volume confirmation with automatic institutional volume integration. This dual-confirmation approach significantly improves signal quality by filtering out low-conviction price movements and ensuring traders work with accurate volume data.
The indicator's automatic detection and mapping system supports over 24 instruments across forex, commodities, and metals markets. By intelligently switching to CME and COMEX futures contracts when appropriate, the indicator provides forex and commodity traders with the same quality of volume data that stock traders naturally have access to.
This indicator is particularly valuable for traders who want to:
- Align their entries with institutional money flow
- Avoid getting trapped in false breakouts
- Trade forex pairs with reliable volume data
- Access accurate volume information for gold, silver, and energy commodities
- Combine momentum and volume analysis in a single, streamlined tool
Whether you are day trading stocks, swing trading forex pairs, or positioning in commodities markets, this indicator provides a robust framework for identifying high-probability momentum trades backed by genuine institutional participation. The automatic futures mapping works seamlessly across all supported instruments, requiring no manual configuration or expertise in futures markets.
---
## Support and Updates
This indicator is actively maintained and updated based on user feedback and market conditions. For questions about implementation or custom modifications, please use the comments section below.
**Disclaimer:** This indicator is for educational and informational purposes only. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Always conduct your own analysis and risk management before trading.
Advanced Speedometer Gauge [PhenLabs]Advanced Speedometer Gauge
Version: PineScript™v6
📌 Description
The Advanced Speedometer Gauge is a revolutionary multi-metric visualization tool that consolidates 13 distinct trading indicators into a single, intuitive speedometer display. Instead of cluttering your workspace with multiple oscillators and panels, this gauge provides a unified interface where you can switch between different metrics while maintaining consistent visual interpretation.
Built on PineScript™ v6, the indicator transforms complex technical calculations into an easy-to-read semi-circular gauge with color-coded zones and a precision needle indicator. Each of the 13 available metrics has been carefully normalized to a 0-100 scale, ensuring that whether you’re analyzing RSI, volume trends, or volatility extremes, the visual interpretation remains consistent and intuitive.
The gauge is designed for traders who value efficiency and clarity. By consolidating multiple analytical perspectives into one compact display, you can quickly assess market conditions without the visual noise of traditional multi-indicator setups. All metrics are non-overlapping, meaning each provides unique insights into different aspects of market behavior.
🚀 Points of Innovation
13 selectable metrics covering momentum, volume, volatility, trend, and statistical analysis, all accessible through a single dropdown menu
Universal 0-100 normalization system that standardizes different indicator scales for consistent visual interpretation across all metrics
Semi-circular gauge design with 21 arc segments providing smooth precision and clear visual feedback through color-coded zones
Non-redundant metric selection ensuring each indicator provides unique market insights without analytical overlap
Advanced metrics including MFI (volume-weighted momentum), CCI (statistical deviation), Volatility Rank (extended lookback), Trend Strength (ADX-style), Choppiness Index, Volume Trend, and Price Distance from MA
Flexible positioning system with 5 chart locations, 3 size options, and fully customizable color schemes for optimal workspace integration
🔧 Core Components
Metric Selection Engine: Dropdown interface allowing instant switching between 13 different technical indicators, each with independent parameter controls
Normalization System: All metrics converted to 0-100 scale using indicator-specific algorithms that preserve the statistical significance of each measurement
Semi-Circular Gauge: Visual display using 21 arc segments arranged in curved formation with two-row thickness for enhanced visibility
Color Zone System: Three distinct zones (0-40 green, 40-70 yellow, 70-100 red) providing instant visual feedback on metric extremes
Needle Indicator: Dynamic pointer that positions across the gauge arc based on precise current metric value
Table Implementation: Professional table structure ensuring consistent positioning and rendering across different chart configurations
🔥 Key Features
RSI (Relative Strength Index): Classic momentum oscillator measuring overbought/oversold conditions with adjustable period length (default 14)
Stochastic Oscillator: Compares closing price to price range over specified period with smoothing, ideal for identifying momentum shifts
MFI (Money Flow Index): Volume-weighted RSI that combines price movement with volume to measure buying and selling pressure intensity
CCI (Commodity Channel Index): Measures statistical deviation from average price, normalized from typical -200 to +200 range to 0-100 scale
Williams %R: Alternative overbought/oversold indicator using high-low range analysis, inverted to match 0-100 scale conventions
Volume %: Current volume relative to moving average expressed as percentage, capped at 100 for extreme spikes
Volume Trend: Cumulative directional volume flow showing whether volume is flowing into up moves or down moves over specified period
ATR Percentile: Current Average True Range position within historical range using specified lookback period (default 100 bars)
Volatility Rank: Close-to-close volatility measured against extended historical range (default 252 days), differs from ATR in calculation method
Momentum: Rate of change calculation showing price movement speed, centered at 50 and normalized to 0-100 range
Trend Strength: ADX-style calculation using directional movement to quantify trend intensity regardless of direction
Choppiness Index: Measures market choppiness versus trending behavior, where high values indicate ranging markets and low values indicate strong trends
Price Distance from MA: Measures current price over-extension from moving average using standard deviation calculations
🎨 Visualization
Semi-Circular Arc Display: Curved gauge spanning from 0 (left) to 100 (right) with smooth progression and two-row thickness for visibility
Color-Coded Zones: Green zone (0-40) for low/oversold conditions, yellow zone (40-70) for neutral readings, red zone (70-100) for high/overbought conditions
Needle Indicator: Downward-pointing triangle (▼) positioned precisely at current metric value along the gauge arc
Scale Markers: Vertical line markers at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 positions with corresponding numerical labels below
Title Display: Merged cell showing “𓄀 PhenLabs” branding plus currently selected metric name in monospace font
Large Value Display: Current metric value shown with two decimal precision in large text directly below title
Table Structure: Professional table with customizable background color, text color, and transparency for minimal chart obstruction
📖 Usage Guidelines
Metric Selection
Select Metric: Default: RSI | Options: RSI, Stochastic, Volume %, ATR Percentile, Momentum, MFI (Money Flow), CCI (Commodity Channel), Williams %R, Volatility Rank, Trend Strength, Choppiness Index, Volume Trend, Price Distance | Choose the technical indicator you want to display on the gauge based on your current analytical needs
RSI Settings
RSI Length: Default: 14 | Range: 1+ | Controls the lookback period for RSI calculation, shorter periods increase sensitivity to recent price changes
Stochastic Settings
Stochastic Length: Default: 14 | Range: 1+ | Lookback period for stochastic calculation comparing close to high-low range
Stochastic Smooth: Default: 3 | Range: 1+ | Smoothing period applied to raw stochastic value to reduce noise and false signals
Volume Settings
Volume MA Length: Default: 20 | Range: 1+ | Moving average period used to calculate average volume for comparison with current volume
Volume Trend Length: Default: 20 | Range: 5+ | Period for calculating cumulative directional volume flow trend
ATR and Volatility Settings
ATR Length: Default: 14 | Range: 1+ | Period for Average True Range calculation used in ATR Percentile metric
ATR Percentile Lookback: Default: 100 | Range: 20+ | Historical range used to determine current ATR position as percentile
Volatility Rank Lookback (Days): Default: 252 | Range: 50+ | Extended lookback period for Volatility Rank metric using close-to-close volatility
Momentum and Trend Settings
Momentum Length: Default: 10 | Range: 1+ | Lookback period for rate of change calculation in Momentum metric
Trend Strength Length: Default: 20 | Range: 5+ | Period for directional movement calculations in ADX-style Trend Strength metric
Advanced Metric Settings
MFI Length: Default: 14 | Range: 1+ | Lookback period for Money Flow Index calculation combining price and volume
CCI Length: Default: 20 | Range: 1+ | Period for Commodity Channel Index statistical deviation calculation
Williams %R Length: Default: 14 | Range: 1+ | Lookback period for Williams %R high-low range analysis
Choppiness Index Length: Default: 14 | Range: 5+ | Period for calculating market choppiness versus trending behavior
Price Distance MA Length: Default: 50 | Range: 10+ | Moving average period used for Price Distance standard deviation calculation
Visual Customization
Position: Default: Top Right | Options: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right, Middle Right | Controls gauge placement on chart for optimal workspace organization
Size: Default: Normal | Options: Small, Normal, Large | Adjusts overall gauge dimensions and text size for different monitor resolutions and preferences
Low Zone Color (0-40): Default: Green (#00FF00) | Customize color for low/oversold zone of gauge arc
Medium Zone Color (40-70): Default: Yellow (#FFFF00) | Customize color for neutral/medium zone of gauge arc
High Zone Color (70-100): Default: Red (#FF0000) | Customize color for high/overbought zone of gauge arc
Background Color: Default: Semi-transparent dark gray | Customize gauge background for contrast and chart integration
Text Color: Default: White (#FFFFFF) | Customize all text elements including title, value, and scale labels
✅ Best Use Cases
Quick visual assessment of market conditions when you need instant feedback on whether an asset is in extreme territory across multiple analytical dimensions
Workspace organization for traders who monitor multiple indicators but want to reduce chart clutter and visual complexity
Metric comparison by switching between different indicators while maintaining consistent visual interpretation through the 0-100 normalization
Overbought/oversold identification using RSI, Stochastic, Williams %R, or MFI depending on whether you prefer price-only or volume-weighted analysis
Volume analysis through Volume %, Volume Trend, or MFI to confirm price movements with corresponding volume characteristics
Volatility monitoring using ATR Percentile or Volatility Rank to identify expansion/contraction cycles and adjust position sizing
Trend vs range identification by comparing Trend Strength (high values = trending) against Choppiness Index (high values = ranging)
Statistical over-extension detection using CCI or Price Distance to identify when price has deviated significantly from normal behavior
Multi-timeframe analysis by duplicating the gauge on different timeframe charts to compare metric readings across time horizons
Educational purposes for new traders learning to interpret technical indicators through consistent visual representation
⚠️ Limitations
The gauge displays only one metric at a time, requiring manual switching to compare different indicators rather than simultaneous multi-metric viewing
The 0-100 normalization, while providing consistency, may obscure the raw values and specific nuances of each underlying indicator
Table-based visualization cannot be exported or saved as an image separately from the full chart screenshot
Optimal parameter settings vary by asset type, timeframe, and market conditions, requiring user experimentation for best results
💡 What Makes This Unique
Unified Multi-Metric Interface: The only gauge-style indicator offering 13 distinct metrics through a single interface, eliminating the need for multiple oscillator panels
Non-Overlapping Analytics: Each metric provides genuinely unique insights—MFI combines volume with price, CCI measures statistical deviation, Volatility Rank uses extended lookback, Trend Strength quantifies directional movement, and Choppiness Index measures ranging behavior
Universal Normalization System: All metrics standardized to 0-100 scale using indicator-appropriate algorithms that preserve statistical meaning while enabling consistent visual interpretation
Professional Visual Design: Semi-circular gauge with 21 arc segments, precision needle positioning, color-coded zones, and clean table implementation that maintains clarity across all chart configurations
Extensive Customization: Independent parameter controls for each metric, five position options, three size presets, and full color customization for seamless workspace integration
🔬 How It Works
1. Metric Calculation Phase:
All 13 metrics are calculated simultaneously on every bar using their respective algorithms with user-defined parameters
Each metric applies its own specific calculation method—RSI uses average gains vs losses, Stochastic compares close to high-low range, MFI incorporates typical price and volume, CCI measures deviation from statistical mean, ATR calculates true range, directional indicators measure up/down movement, and statistical metrics analyze price relationships
2. Normalization Process:
Each calculated metric is converted to a standardized 0-100 scale using indicator-appropriate transformations
Some metrics are naturally 0-100 (RSI, Stochastic, MFI, Williams %R), while others require scaling—CCI transforms from ±200 range, Momentum centers around 50, Volume ratio caps at 2x for 100, ATR and Volatility Rank calculate percentile positions, and Price Distance scales by standard deviations
3. Gauge Rendering:
The selected metric’s normalized value determines the needle position across 21 arc segments spanning 0-100
Each arc segment receives its color based on position—segments 0-8 are green zone, segments 9-14 are yellow zone, segments 15-20 are red zone
The needle indicator (▼) appears in row 5 at the column corresponding to the current metric value, providing precise visual feedback
4. Table Construction:
The gauge uses TradingView’s table system with merged cells for title and value display, ensuring consistent positioning regardless of chart configuration
Rows are allocated as follows: Row 0 merged for title, Row 1 merged for large value display, Row 2 for spacing, Rows 3-4 for the semi-circular arc with curved shaping, Row 5 for needle indicator, Row 6 for scale markers, Row 7 for numerical labels at 0/25/50/75/100
All visual elements update on every bar when barstate.islast is true, ensuring real-time accuracy without performance impact
💡 Note:
This indicator is designed for visual analysis and market condition assessment, not as a standalone trading system. For best results, combine gauge readings with price action analysis, support and resistance levels, and broader market context. Parameter optimization is recommended based on your specific trading timeframe and asset class. The gauge works on all timeframes but may require different parameter settings for intraday versus daily/weekly analysis. Consider using multiple instances of the gauge set to different metrics for comprehensive market analysis without switching between settings.
