Momentum Thrust Pattern
- Indicators
- Version: 1.0
- Activations: 5
# Momentum Thrust Pattern - Thrust, pause, resumption
*Category: Pattern Recognition | Difficulty: intermediate | Window: chart window (overlaid on price) | Markets: Universal (Forex, indices, commodities, crypto, stocks) | Suggested timeframes: M15, M30, H1, H4, D1*
## Short description
> Recognises the thrust, contained pause and resumption beyond the extreme sequence, signalling only once all three phases have completed.
## Full description
### Overview
Directional moves almost always develop in the same shape: a thrust, a pause and a resumption. The thrust is a bar of exceptional size establishing the direction. The pause is a brief sequence of bars retracing that thrust only partly, without cancelling it: the sign that whoever bought is not exiting, just waiting. The resumption is the bar exceeding the extreme of the initial thrust, confirming the pause really was only a pause. This indicator recognises the full sequence and signals only at the resumption, hence after all three phases have occurred. The maximum retracement tolerated during the pause is the parameter defining how clean the sequence must be: excessive retracement means the thrust was cancelled and the sequence is abandoned.
### How the calculation works
1. The thrust is recognised when a bar body exceeds InpThrustAtr times the ATR.
2. The thrust bar extreme becomes the level to exceed, while the opposite extreme is the origin the retracement is measured from.
3. During the pause it is checked on every bar that the retracement does not exceed InpMaxRetrace of the thrust size.
4. Excessive retracement means the thrust was cancelled and the sequence is abandoned with no signal.
5. The arrow appears when the close exceeds the thrust level: the confirmed resumption.
6. The sequence also expires by time, after InpMaxPause pause bars without resumption.
### How to use it
- Enter when the arrow appears, with a stop below the pause low: the point at which the sequence would be disproven.
- The gold line shows the level to exceed: when visible, the indicator is waiting for the resumption.
- The size of the initial thrust is a reasonable estimate of the expected size of the subsequent move.
- Lower InpMaxRetrace to accept only the cleanest sequences, where the pause was genuinely contained.
- Raise InpThrustAtr to select only the most violent thrusts, which tend to produce wider continuations.
### Who it is for and on which timeframes
It targets continuation traders looking for entries after a pullback, probably the most widespread way of trading trends. It works from M15 to D1. The state logic is fully transparent and every phase documented, so the indicator behaviour is verifiable rather than taken on faith. It is also a good basis for automation, because the sequence is deterministic and requires no interpretation.
### Practical example of reading a signal
On US500 M30 a bar rises two ATR with a full body: the thrust is recognised and the gold line appears at that bar high. Over the next four bars price retraces to forty two per cent of the thrust, below the sixty per cent tolerated, and the sequence stays active. On the fifth bar the close exceeds the thrust high: the green arrow appears. The trader goes long with a stop below the pause low. In a second episode, the same day, the pause retraces seventy eight per cent of the thrust: the sequence is abandoned with no signal and indeed price does not resume.
## Input parameters
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `InpAtrPeriod` | 30 | Reference ATR period for measuring the thrust and placing the arrows. |
| `InpThrustAtr` | 1.50 | Minimum thrust size, in ATR. Raising it selects only the most violent thrusts. |
| `InpMaxRetrace` | 0.60 | Maximum retracement tolerated during the pause, as a fraction of the thrust size. |
| `InpMaxPause` | 8 | Maximum pause bars before the sequence expires. A pause lasting too long is no longer a pause. |
| `InpArrowShift` | 0.70 | Distance of the arrows from price, in ATR. Purely cosmetic. |
## Advantages / strengths
- It recognises the full sequence instead of the thrust alone, which by itself is not a signal.
- The maximum retracement constraint eliminates sequences where the thrust was effectively cancelled.
- The gold line makes the internal state visible, so you always know what the indicator is waiting for.
- No repaint and deterministic logic, hence automatable without ambiguity.
## Limitations and warnings
- The resumption does not always come: many thrusts fade and the sequence expires with no signal.
- The signal arrives at the resumption, so price is already beyond the thrust extreme and the entry is not the best possible.
- It watches one sequence at a time: a new thrust during the wait is ignored.
- Thrust recognition uses the body rather than the range, so a bar with long wicks may go unrecognised.
**No repaint:** values printed on a closed bar are never modified afterwards.
**Disclaimer.** This product is a technical analysis tool, not an automated trading system, and it offers no profit guarantee whatsoever. Financial markets carry the risk of total loss of the invested capital. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Every signal must be confirmed with your own analysis, a money management plan and prior testing on a demo account. The author is not responsible for trading decisions taken on the basis of this indicator.
## Suggested tags / keywords for MQL5
`momentum`, `continuation`, `pattern`, `pullback`, `price action`, `thrust`, `no repaint`, `sequence`
