Every trader eyeballs swings: "this rally has gone far", "that drop looks small". Swing Size Ruler puts a number on it. It finds every swing on the chart, colours each one by its size, and tells you what share of this market's past swings the current one is already longer than.
Falls are quicker
| Market | Typical up swing | Typical down swing | 1 in 10 up swings |
|---|---|---|---|
| US500 (D1) | 24 days | 11 days | 61,339 pts or more |
| USDJPY (H4) | 20 bars | 11 bars | 4,975 pts or more |
| Gold (H1) | 16 bars | 15 bars | 23,327 pts or more |
On US500 and USDJPY, a typical down swing lasted about half as long as a typical up swing. On gold, the two were almost even.
Three colours
- Grey: a swing shorter than the typical one in its direction.
- Aqua: at least typical.
- Pink, thicker, with its points: longer than 9 in 10 past swings.
The swing still open is dashed and labelled with its size so far, for example "longer than 82% of up swings". Two dotted levels from its turning point show where a typical and a 1-in-10 swing would reach.
What counts as a swing
A swing ends when price turns against it by at least 3 ATRs (you can change this from 1 to 10), so the same setting fits gold, currencies and indices on any timeframe. Only finished bars count: past swings never change.
Why it helps
- See which moves on the chart were ordinary and which were unusual, without measuring each one.
- Compare a stop or target with how far this market's swings usually travel.
- Get an alert when the open swing becomes longer than 9 in 10 past swings.
Useful? A short review on its Market page helps other traders find it.
Swing Size Ruler is free: https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/204033. The figures describe past swings on that chart: a swing can go further than any before it.
