Who is this indicator for and what does it do?
This is an indicator that helps price action traders in determining the strength of the trend and potential counter trend traps that present themselves during the move. It highlights the background of the bar at which counter trend traders that trade with stop orders (breakout entries) were able to achieve the same amount of reward as was their risk for that trade.
What is it based on?
When there is a strong trend in effect, the counter trend traders are unable to buy above(in bear trend) or sell below (in bull trend) a bar with a stop order and get an equal reward for the risk they are taking.
The first time counter trend traders are able to buy and make money in bear or sell and make money in bull it is a warning sign that market is likely transitioning into trading range phase of the market cycle.
Another application of the indicator is for discovering potential traps. If market comes very close to the take profit level of counter trend traders and reverses, they will usually try to get out with as much profit or as small of a loss as possible and that will often create a fast move (also called giving up) and a good with trend entry.
How does it work?
The indicator is using exponential moving average as a filter for when the market is trending and then scans for signals where counter trend traders enter. Next it looks if the stoploss or profit target was hit for that trade. If the profit target was hit it draws a box around the bar on which the traders entered, the box height is based on stoploss and profit target price levels.
Indicator inputs
- Scan for doji signal bars
When this option is selected, bars that have small bodies (less than 50% of their height) are also included as bars on which counter traders enter. If the option is not selected it only looks for bull trend bars (bodies are greater than 50% of their height) below the moving average and bear trend bars above the moving average.
- Border and background colors and border style
It is possible to select different colors and chose between solid, dashed and dotted borders
- Ema period
Default setting is 20 bar exponential moving average but feel free to use which you prefer
- Tick value
This is the value of the minimal movement of the chart you are trading on. For example for S&P 500 E-mini futures the value is 0.25 and that is the default setting.