Alpha Candle Breakout Signal on Momentum from Support Resistance

Hello traders,

Let’s start with a brief description of what this strategy/indicator is and what it does and how we trade based on Alpha Candles.

The definition of an Alpha Candle is that it is mathematically calculated, and significantly bigger than the previous candles. This could be a green candle or a red candle, as long as the body is significantly bigger than the previous candles at the end of the calculation. All calculations are done in real time, we do NOT paint the candle sticks after the close of the candle and do not use offset values. This is extremely important. You will see the candle changing it's color as the body of the candle gets bigger with real time data feed. (Recalculate On Every Tick is ON by default). Now besides the mathematical calculations, an Alpha Candle also represents the emotion in the market for that stock in that moment. We can also say that an Alpha Candle is a change in the momentum.

Now that we’ve identified the Alpha candle, the second step is, to have a look at the chart and identify if the Alpha candle is breaking to a new high / low from a consolidation period, or from a good chart pattern (ascending / descending triangle , pennant , sideways consolidation) or a sudden direction change of the stock (bounce). Remember, the script will paint all Alpha candles regardless.

NVAX day trading example


Forex


Crypto


PLUG (Bounce example)

The script will identify the Alpha candles that are breaking to a new high / low from a user input look back period (default is 20 bars back, but this can be changed by the user input). An Alpha candle that breaks the look back period, will have a stop loss line below for Green Alpha or above for Red Alpha Candle and reward targets, like target1 or target2 (both are user input fields, can be adjusted to personal R values, default values are 2R and 3R)

A 2R means two times the reward (profit) of a 1-unit risk. If you are comfortable of loosing $50 per trade which will be considered 1-unit, then 2R means $100 reward (profit) target and a 3R is $150 reward (profit) target. Those R values will be plotted and/or labelled on the chart with dollar amounts if desired. You can change your R values from the user input area, even with decimal points, like 2.5R or 3.75R. If you shoot for at least 2R, you could be wrong 6 times out of 10, and still make 2R profit, as long as the other 4 trades give you a total of 8R. This is a basic trading concept. It will force the new traders to focus on risk/reward rather then a gambling attitude.

The script is meant to work with candle stick chart patterns only, it is NOT meant to work with ranges, line charts or point and figure charts. It will work with time frames like (seconds,1,2,3,5,10 minute or any minutes, daily, weekly). If you are trading IPOs , there might not be enough data for the script to do the calculation, so just be aware.

The script will identify the candles if they are Green Alpha (going up, bullish ) or Red Alpha (going down, bearish ). In order to see them clearly, we’ve greyed out the rest of the candles, and made Green Alpha candles white, and Red Alphas are left as red. You can change the colors from the user input area.

There is also a look back period, between 1-55 and the initial value is 20 for Green Alpha and 10 for Red Alpha. So, if the Alpha Candle breaks this look back period, it will be considered as an opportunity to take the trade. The code will put the stop loss area, possible target1 and target2 areas with a blue diamond and will draw the resistance/support lines for that Alpha candle. Depending on the individual’s risk tolerance, a label on the right side of the screen will show the risk tolerance (user input value) and the number of shares to be traded based on the risk tolerance (# of shares will be for the last Alpha Candle that is formed, it will constantly update itself with the new Alpha Candle)

For those who might be familiar with the three-bar play, we implemented something similar, so the code will find them in real time. Once an Alpha Candle is formed, if the following candle is a very small candle, also called pin bar , it will be painted to orange, so you can see it clearly. This pin bar is significantly smaller than the previous candles and formed right after an Alpha Candle.

Like anything in life, nothing is free. Meaning you have to work for it. So if you are looking to buy/sell blindly based on some indicators and signals, please do not consider this script. However, once you start using it, you will see how patterns repeat, when they repeat and how they repeat. It will identify the action, but you have to check the validity from the charts, so user discretionary is advised. As an example, if the Alpha candle is breaking from a consolidation period at $10. Let’s assume stop loss is at $9 so the 2R target will be $12, but if there is a possible resistance at $11, then the trader has to decide to take the trade for a possible 1R return, or skip the trade.

We try to approach the trading as a set of rules and processing the trades one by one, with a calculated risk and reward. This script will give you the Candle stick formation that is worth consideration and will draw the Stop Loss area (you can tweak this to your liking), will draw the 2-3R Targets, and will calculate the number of shares to be purchased based on the Risk Tolerance user entered in the user input area. The rest is to let the trade take care of it self.

Charts and patterns work better, when there is enough volume in a particular stock. If the stock is trading very low in volume , things will not work as expected. So, we must focus on the abnormal stocks, like gap gainers, volume gainer stocks, or heavily traded stocks (for intraday trading). For swing or long-term traders, one could look for a Green Alpha candle, assess the risk and possible return and trade the plan on a daily chart pattern (long term), or 15,30,60 min charts for swing trades.

If you are looking to short a stock, look for stocks that are weak (gap downs), so look for Red Alpha formations in that stock.

Once the back testing is turned on, code will generate buy/sell signals, otherwise it will work as an indicator. But please keep in mind….. For day trading, the stock has to be abnormally trading, so the chart patterns and the Alpha Candles work correctly. Volume has to be more than usual. It is the best way to have predictable results for day trading. If the volume of the stock is 2-5 times or more than the average of 20 days period (early in the morning), and even more later in the day, it is a good indication that the stock is trading on an abnormal volume with some news (pre-market abnormality is a good sign for possible abnormality for that stock).

For back testing, user can select from the user input area :

• Long or Short Trades or both or use the script as an indicator
• Close any open position if an Alpha candle forms in the opposite direction
• Pyramid the trades up to 4 levels (allow to buy/sell 4 times in the same direction every time another Alpha Candle forms)
• Breakout/breakdown look back period (every time an Alpha Candle forms and breaks this look back period, it will be a trade opportunity)
• Target Reward areas
• Stop Loss area
• Time frame (change the time frame and observe which time frame made good profit. Test the plan for future trades. Test it in as many abnormal stocks for the day they were behaving abnormal as possible). Time frame is not a user input field, just the time frame of the chart, 2,5,10 min, 1 hour etc.
• Selective date testing (between two dates/times). This is very important as most of the good opportunities comes from abnormal price action with volume . If you back test with the maximum amount of data for that abnormal stock on that day, it will produce unrealistic results, because the stock will have a normal course of trend before the news. Remember, we are looking for stocks that are trading abnormal in both price and volume or stocks like AAPL , TSLA which are trading heavily on each day. It is also a good way to learn, how and when to buy/sell, where to put stop losses by observing the chart with the Alpha Candles showing the results.
• All the above values will have an impact on the total profit / loss.

F (Ford Motors)

Now that we’ve covered what the script does, let’s plan the trade and trade the plan.

Side Note:
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We started coding this as an indicator to show the Alpha Candles to find opportunities in the market. Later in the development, we implemented it as a Strategy, to be able to back test the ideas, to tweak some rules for entry/exit and see the effects on our profit/loss percentages in general. We kept the original idea being an Indicator, to show us the Alpha Candles in real time. This requires the option “Indicator Mode” is to be selected from the User Input area, and leaving the “Recalculate On Every Tick” is selected from the Properties tab of the strategy (as of Pine Script v5). Strategy is turning this “On” by default.


Disclaimer: This script is an educational and personal use only tool and should be used accordingly. User can not publish any images created with this code. Do your own due diligence, do not buy / sell stocks based on any indicator, always use stop losses. We do not make any promises as this indicator or any indicator will make you a profitable trader. Trading and technical analysis is difficult, it takes time to build confidence and experience. Study the charts and candlestick formations. Study support/resistance areas and how to identify them. This will help you to tweak the script’s stop loss areas and 2R-3R targets. Do not invest any money you are not comfortable loosing.

This is an invite only strategy. We will give ample time to test it out. After that you will need to subscribe. To get access to this strategy trader can send me an email from the links below.

All the Best

Happy Trading