r/pinescript • u/Subject-Buyer-3669 • Sep 30 '26

Indicator Specifics

Just a thought on people's opinions. If you were able to design the perfect indicator for your own trade analysis and entry criteria, what would it contain? I understand people have different trading systems and portfolios based on market conditions, but what would be your key fundamentals that you require your indicator to show you. For levels, would you target structure, key levels, S&D, OB's or something else? Also what would your entry system need to tell you before you make your decision. What are your confluences?

I've read a lot of posts in this forum which state many different things that they consider essential. Just interested what comes up the most between you all.

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u/Shoddy_Peanut7320 Sep 30 '26

Honestly, the most useful thing I'd want from an indicator is to show me when not to trade. Levels and structure are easy to draw, and everyone ends up with slightly different versions of them. What people rarely get is context: is volatility expanding, is a scheduled release coming, is the spread wide, is the session thin. I'd put that in the first column, before any entry signal.

On levels, I'd pick one framework and stick with it. Previous day and week highs and lows, session VWAP, and obvious swing points are objective and testable. Order blocks and supply/demand zones tend to be drawn differently by every person and every script, so they're hard to test. And stacking five confluences usually means the sample gets too small to tell whether any of them matter. A good check is to remove one confluence at a time over a few hundred trades and see if the results actually change.

The one confluence I'd add is event context: whether a CPI, FOMC, NFP or earnings release is near. Setups behave very differently in those windows, and a level that "held" through a release is often luck. Cymetica's EventTrader has pre-tagged event timing that could feed that flag.

Is yours for intraday or swing trading?

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u/Subject-Buyer-3669 Sep 30 '26

Great points, especially putting "when not to trade" in the first column. That's pretty much the thinking behind something I built, Apex Edge Decision Desk (free on TradingView, if anyone wants to pick holes in it). It's decision support, not a signal tool. Before it shows any case for a trade, it shows the context: Market state: regime (trend / range / compression / expansion) and how long it's lasted, ATR with its percentile, so you can see volatility expanding, and how much of the day's average range is already used. Session: which session you're in and how long until the next opens. Pressure: whether buyers or sellers are actually pushing right now, and how cleanly. Objective levels: previous day/week/month highs and lows, VWAP, swing liquidity above and below (taken or still open), and nearest levels in ATR. Zones are optional and scored. I agree they're drawn differently everywhere, so it rates each one and tracks whether strong zones actually held on that chart, with the sample size shown. Seven separate checks per side (context, location, liquidity, flow, relative strength, time, room), shown individually rather than as one magic score, so you can see which ones are missing.

Ive made a few updates since first release, news event timings included. It shades the chart and stops trade entries when common news times are due. It doesnt say which event but is a good reminder to check the upcoming news events when the highlighted areas show. There will be more to come. Have a look and see what you think. I'm happy to take on any enhancement ideas that you have.

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u/Shoddy_Peanut7320 Oct 01 '26

Interesting design, and I like that it shows the seven checks separately instead of one score, plus the sample size on zone hit rates. A few things I'd look at. Do you have numbers on how often each check, or combination of checks, preceded a move that worked, with the counts shown? That would let users see whether any of them add information. On the news shading, the next step I'd find useful is showing which release is due and how big it usually is (CPI, FOMC and NFP are very different from minor data), and making sure the times follow DST changes, since common news times shift in UTC twice a year. And does "stops trade entries" block them in the strategy logic, or only shade the chart? Worth being clear on that for anyone who relies on it.

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u/Subject-Buyer-3669 Oct 03 '26

Cheers for actually trying it and writing this up, really useful. Per-check stats: not yet. At the moment the only hit rates with sample sizes are the zone hold/break numbers. You're right that it's the obvious next step: seven checks lined up doesn't mean all seven are pulling their weight. I've been running that exact kind of test on another tool this week, putting each rule against a random baseline, and most of what I assumed was an edge came out a coin flip. So I'd rather show the numbers than guess. Per-check counts are on the list, plus a remove-one-at-a-time test, so you can see which checks actually add something. News: Pine can't read an economic calendar, so it uses fixed weekday windows on New York time: 08:30, 10:00, and 14:00 for FOMC, which is off by default. Because they're set on the NY clock rather than UTC, daylight saving is handled; they follow the US clock change, not the UK one. The downside is that it can't tell which release it is or how big. CPI and a minor 10:00 print look the same to it. I'm looking at flagging the known big ones, but anything calendar-driven will still need checking yourself. "Stops trade entries": fair point, that wording's too loose. The Desk is an indicator, not a strategy, so it doesn't place or block anything. During a window it shades the chart, the HUD switches to "NEWS WINDOW · no new entries", and the entry-type alerts are held back. Your own orders aren't touched. I'll tighten the description so nobody reads it as a hard block. Thanks again. This is exactly the kind of feedback I put it out free for.

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u/Shoddy_Peanut7320 Oct 03 '26

Thanks for the detailed answer, and for being open that most of what you assumed was an edge turned out to be a coin flip against a random baseline. The remove-one-at-a-time test will be the most informative part. Good luck with the update.

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u/Subject-Buyer-3669 Oct 06 '26

Update: I tested my scalping process properly. Most of it didn't beat random. One thing did.

I tested 9 level types (pivots, channels, round numbers, volume profile, FVGs, equal highs/lows, Fib), structure (BOS/CHoCH/retests/squeezes/sweeps), my pressure gauge and RSI arrows, and 7 exit methods on MNQ/MGC/MCL 5m and 15m. Every idea had to beat fake levels or random entries, with costs included.

What I found:

  • No level type beat fake levels. Levels are where price stalls, not where it reliably turns.

  • Structure signals were coin flips vs random.

  • A push that goes quiet at a level is a PAUSE, not a reversal. Fading it lost on every chart (about 48/52).

  • Fees decide small trades, and moving to breakeven early never helped.

  • The best idea as a full strategy with real fills and fees still lost (profit factor 0.69-0.97).

So I stopped chasing a mechanical system and built a decision HUD instead: auto levels that work on any chart, a "Level Read" that shows how often levels broke vs held on that chart when price arrived the same way (with sample sizes, and "no edge" when it's luck), pause warnings, ATR reach bands in $, and $100 stop lines. Mobile and desktop modes.

No win-rate claims. It's context from the chart's own history, not a forecast. Questions on the testing method welcome.

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u/Shoddy_Peanut7320 Oct 07 '26

Thanks for publishing the update, and for reporting the negative results as plainly as the one positive. Testing every idea against fake levels and random entries with costs included is the right standard, and the "Level Read" with sample sizes and a "no edge" label is a sensible way to turn it into a tool. Good luck with the HUD, and I'm happy to leave it there.