Auto Trendline Channel Touch Count
- Indicators
- Version: 1.0
- Activations: 5
Auto Trendline Channel MTF draws trendlines, parallel channels and horizontal support / resistance automatically from confirmed swing highs and lows. For each line it records the touch count, close breaks, wick breaks and retests. A table shows, for the chart timeframe and two higher timeframes, the nearest line above and below the price, the distance to it and the Dow theory direction.
Touch counts and break records describe what happened on the past chart. They do not tell whether price will stop at, or break, a line in the future.
FEATURES
- Trendlines: up to 2 per side (ranked by touch count).
- Channel: one parallel line on the top-ranked line of each side.
- Horizontal lines: levels clustered from the swings of the last 300 bars, up to 3 above and 3 below the price.
- Break records: an "x" mark on the bar that closed beyond a line, an "o" mark on the retest bar. Broken lines stay as dashed lines.
- Multi-timeframe table: chart timeframe + two higher timeframes chosen automatically (for example M30 and H1 on an M15 chart). Nearest line above / below, distance (pips for forex), touch count and Dow direction.
- Alerts: close break of a trendline or channel (on by default). Close break of a horizontal line, price near a line and new line can be turned on. Pop-up, sound, push notification and / or e-mail.
- Chart text, table and alerts in English or Japanese. Line names at the right end, and details (with the dates of the two points) when you hover a line.
HOW THE LINES ARE DRAWN
- A swing needs 5 bars on each side. It is confirmed when the 5th bar to its right closes, so swings appear 5 bars late.
- Trendlines use 2 points chosen from the last 8 turning points. A line is used only if all of these are true:
- between the 2 points, no close is beyond the line by more than the tolerance (ATR(14) x 0.10, ATR at the bar where point 2 was confirmed);
- the 2 points are at least 10 bars apart;
- the slope is not steeper than ATR(14) x 0.20 per bar (ATR at point 2).
- Touch count: the confirmed swings of the same kind, from point 1 (up to the break for a broken line), whose wick is within the tolerance of the line. The 2 points are included.
- Only lines within ATR(14) x 3 of the last closed bar, and on the correct side (lower lines below the price, upper lines above), are shown.
- The channel is parallel to the top-ranked line of each side and passes through the outermost opposite wick between the 2 points.
- Horizontal lines: confirmed swings of the last 300 bars are grouped within ATR(14) x 0.25 (latest ATR). Groups with 2 or more touches are shown.
BREAKS AND RETESTS
- Close break: a closed bar closes beyond the line by more than the tolerance.
- Wick break: only the wick goes beyond the tolerance while the close stays inside (marks are off by default).
- Retest: after a break, price comes back from the broken side to within the tolerance of the line.
- The newest broken line of each side is shown dashed for 50 bars after the break.
WHAT CAN AND CANNOT CHANGE (please read)
- Lines use confirmed swings and closed bars only. Once recorded, a close break, wick break or retest never changes.
- A line that is not broken yet is redrawn when a newer swing low (high for upper lines) than point 2 is confirmed. Breaks that were already recorded do not change.
- A line that no longer meets the display conditions (within ATR x 3, correct side) can disappear from the chart. Its record is kept.
- Horizontal lines are grouped again with the latest ATR and the last 300 bars, so their price and number can change as new bars form.
- When more than 64 broken-line records exist at the same time, the oldest are removed.
- "Unconfirmed candidate lines" (off by default) use a swing that is not confirmed yet and are drawn dotted. If you turn them on, these lines can change or disappear.
- Because of the 5-bar confirmation, the latest high or low is not used for lines right away.
MULTI-TIMEFRAME TABLE
- Shows the chart timeframe and two higher timeframes (automatic by default, or chosen in the settings).
- Higher timeframes are shown as numbers in the table. Lines are drawn on the chart for the chart timeframe only.
- Nearest line above / below, distance from the last closed bar (pips for forex, price difference otherwise), touch count, state, and Dow direction (based on closes beyond the pullback low / rally high).
- "Waiting for data" is shown until the data of a timeframe is loaded.
- The detailed table adds a list of the chart timeframe's lines (value now, touches, slope, state).
- Table position is "Auto" by default (a corner that hides the fewest lines). When the one-click trading panel is shown, a top-left table is moved below the panel.
ALERTS
- Alerts tell you that price reached a line or that a closed bar closed beyond a line.
- On by default: close break of a trendline or channel only. Horizontal line break, near and new line are off by default.
- One alert per line per bar.
- The number of alerts depends strongly on the timeframe. In our checks with the default settings: about 9 per day on average on M15 (often more than 10), 2 to 3 per day on H1, and more than 100 per day on M1. Horizontal line and near alerts make the number much larger.
- No alerts until the data of all timeframes is ready. Breaks that happened before the start are not alerted.
- Push notifications and e-mail need the terminal's settings.
IMPORTANT
- It does not tell you when to buy or sell, and it does not show profit or future price movement. Past charts do not guarantee future results.
- Lines are drawn by fixed rules and may differ from lines you would draw yourself.
- Steep lines (more than ATR x 0.20 per bar) are not drawn, and lines farther than ATR x 3 from the price are hidden. After a strong one-way move there can be few or no lines.
- Objects whose names start with "ATC_<number>_" are treated as this indicator's drawings and are cleaned up. Do not use such names for your own objects.
MT4 NOTES
- MT4 cannot draw dashed lines with a width of 2 or more; they are drawn solid. Broken lines are drawn 1 step thinner than trendlines, so with the default width (2) they are dashed. With a trendline width of 3 or more, or a channel width of 2 or more, broken lines are solid (but faded in color).
- Times in the details are shown in Japan time (JST). The server's GMT offset is estimated from the time of received ticks. Until a new tick arrives (for example right after start or on weekends), the server is assumed to be GMT+2 (GMT+3 during DST). The server DST rule is chosen in the settings (EU by default). Times can be one hour off if it does not match your server. Line calculation is not affected.
- With an input outside its range, the indicator does not start ("initialization failed").
OTHER
- MetaTrader 4 only (the MT5 version is a separate product). Any symbol, any timeframe. Calculation, inputs (order and defaults), display and alerts are the same as the MT5 version.
- Two copies can run on one chart (for example with different swing sizes). The second copy's line names and table get "#2".
- Works with templates and after a terminal restart.
- No DLLs, no external files, no internet access.
- No indicator buffers (values cannot be read with iCustom).
- Support through MQL5 messages, reply within 3 business days: installation, settings and bug reports only. Questions about market views, trade decisions or how to read a result cannot be answered.
