This script is designed to work on the 1-hour timeframe of a trading platform. It automatically identifies and visually marks specific price action patterns that traders use to determine entry points for buying or selling.
Core Logic Overview
The tool focuses on identifying "Inside Bars"—a technical setup where a candle's high and low prices are completely contained within the range of the previous candle. When these bars appear during a specific trading window, the script creates visual "trigger lines" to signal potential price movements.
Key Features and Visual Cues
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Time-Specific Monitoring: The script does not analyze every moment of the day. It is configured to monitor a specific set number of hours starting from a user-defined opening hour. This allows traders to focus on high-activity periods (such as the London or New York sessions).
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Automatic Boundary Marking: To provide context for price action, the script automatically draws vertical lines on your chart:
- Day Open: Marks the exact price where the trading day began.
- Day Close: Marks the end of the specified trading window.
- Weekly Open: A permanent horizontal dotted line showing where the current week started.
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Buy and Sell Triggers: The script looks for specific interactions between "Inside Bars" and the Day Open price:
- Buy Triggers: If an Inside Bar is formed and its high price is above the Day Open, a horizontal orange-red line is drawn. This suggests a potential bullish move.
- Sell Triggers: If an Inside Bar is formed and its low price is below the Day Open, a horizontal dark orange line is drawn. This suggests a potential bearish move.
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Visual Enhancements & Alerts:
- Stop Loss Visualization: Users can choose to display arrows that indicate potential stop-loss levels based on the high or low of the trigger candle.
- Real-Time Notifications: The script includes an alert system. When a new trigger is detected in real-time, it can trigger a pop-up message on the screen and play a sound file to grab the trader's attention.
- Backtesting Mode: There is a toggle that allows users to see these historical triggers on past data, or restrict the view to only show today's current action.
Summary for the User
Essentially, this script automates the "scanning" of the 1-hour chart. Instead of manually looking for inside bars and checking their position relative to the day's opening price, the tool draws the lines for you instantly. It highlights where price action suggests a breakout might occur, providing a cleaner, more organized visual guide for your trading strategy.
Price Data Components
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DIBS_TriggerLines1.2
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| DIBS_TriggerLines1.2.mq4 |
//| Copyright © 2008, ForexArea.com |
//| http://www.forexarea.com |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
#property copyright "Copyright © 2008, ForexArea.com"
#property link "http://www.forexarea.com"
// DIBS Indicator - for more information http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=86766
// or http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=56907
#property indicator_chart_window
extern int iOpenHour = 5; // open day hour
extern int iBarsToTrade = 9; // active hours to monitor (recommended 9-10)
extern int iTriggerLineLength = 10; // lenght of trigger lines
extern color cBuyTriggerClr = OrangeRed;
extern color cSellTriggerClr = DarkOrange;
extern color cDayOpenClr = FireBrick;
extern color cDayCloseClr = Black;
extern bool bShowDayClose = true;
extern bool bShowStoploss = false;
extern bool bShowWeeklyOpen = true;
extern int iPriceLabelSize = 2;
extern string sComment1 = "---- Only set ONE alert to true!!! ----";
extern bool bPopUpAlert = true; // can only have one type of alert sound or popup
extern bool bSoundAlert = false; // NOT both!!!
extern string sSoundFile = "puff.wav"; // name of sound file
extern int iDelayBetweenAlarm = 60; // delay between each alarm
extern bool bBackTest = false; // set to false to only show current day
extern int iBarsToCount = 200;
double dBuyTriggerLines[], dSellTriggerLines[];
bool bDrawAll;
bool bDrawLines;
int iTriggerObjects = 10000;
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Custom indicator initialization function |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
int init()
{
//---- indicators
//NewBar();
//----
return(0);
}
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Custom indicator deinitialization function |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
int deinit()
{
//----
DeleteAll();
//----
return(0);
}
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Custom indicator iteration function |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
void DeleteAll(){
ObjectDelete("DIBS_WeeklyOpen");
for(int j = 0; j <= 10000; j++){
ObjectDelete("DIBS_Trigger_B" + j);
ObjectDelete("DIBS_Trigger_S" + j);
ObjectDelete("DIBS_DayOpen" + j);
ObjectDelete("DIBS_DayClose" + j);
ObjectDelete("DIBS_Stoploss_B" + j);
ObjectDelete("DIBS_Stoploss_S" + j);
}
}
int start()
{
if(Period() != PERIOD_H1){Comment("Only works on 1H timeframe!"); return(0);}
if(NewBar()){DeleteAll(); bDrawLines = true; iTriggerObjects = 10000;}
int limit;
int counted_bars=IndicatorCounted();
int iBarHour;
int iExtension;
double dDayOpenPrice;
bool bDrawToday;
int iUniqueID;
int i;
//---- check for possible errors
if(counted_bars<0) return(-1);
if(iBarsToCount == 0){
limit=Bars;
}else{
limit=iBarsToCount;
}
//---- main loop
while(bDrawLines==true){
if(bShowWeeklyOpen)DrawWeeklyOpen();
// MUST be left at -1
for(i=limit; i>0; i--){
bDrawToday = false;
// only draw objects for today
if(bBackTest == false && TimeDay(Time[i]) == TimeDay(TimeCurrent()) && TimeMonth(Time[i]) == TimeMonth(TimeCurrent())){
bDrawToday = true;
}else{
bDrawToday = false;
}
if(bBackTest == true){
bDrawToday = true;
}
if(bDrawToday){
// only trade set hours
iBarHour = TimeHour(Time[i]);
if( iBarHour+1 >= iOpenHour && iBarHour+1 <= iOpenHour + iBarsToTrade ){
// get day open price
if(iBarHour+1 == iOpenHour){
dDayOpenPrice = iOpen(NULL, 0, i);
// draw vertical bar to show open of day
ObjectCreate("DIBS_DayOpen" + i, OBJ_VLINE, 0, Time[i-1], 0);
ObjectSet("DIBS_DayOpen" + i, OBJPROP_COLOR, cDayOpenClr);
//ObjectSet("DIBS_DayOpen" + i, OBJPROP_STYLE, STYLE_DOT);
}
if(iBarHour+1 == iOpenHour + iBarsToTrade && bShowDayClose){
// draw vertical bar to show close of day
ObjectCreate("DIBS_DayClose" + i, OBJ_VLINE, 0, Time[i-1], 0);
ObjectSet("DIBS_DayClose" + i, OBJPROP_COLOR, cDayCloseClr);
//ObjectSet("DIBS_DayClose" + i, OBJPROP_STYLE, STYLE_DOT);
}
// see if we have an inside bar
if(iHigh(NULL, 0, i) <= iHigh(NULL, 0, i+1) && iLow(NULL, 0,i) >= iLow(NULL, 0, i+1)){
// IB found so draw triggers
if(iHigh(NULL, 0, i) > dDayOpenPrice){
// draw buy trigger object
iTriggerObjects--;
if(i<iBarsToTrade){
iExtension = i;
//iUniqueID = 25000;
iUniqueID = iTriggerObjects;
}else{
iExtension = iTriggerLineLength-1;
iUniqueID = iTriggerObjects;
}
if(bSoundAlert && i == 1)Alerts(1);
if(bPopUpAlert && i == 1)Alert("DIBS " + Symbol() + " - Buy Trigger");
if(ObjectFind("DIBS_Trigger_B" + iUniqueID) != 0){
ObjectCreate("DIBS_Trigger_B" + iUniqueID, OBJ_TREND, 0, Time[i], iHigh(NULL, 0, i) , Time[i-iExtension], iHigh(NULL, 0, i));
ObjectSet("DIBS_Trigger_B" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_RAY, false);
ObjectSet("DIBS_Trigger_B" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_WIDTH, 5);
ObjectSet("DIBS_Trigger_B" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_COLOR, cBuyTriggerClr);
}else{
ObjectMove("DIBS_Trigger_B" + iUniqueID, 2, Time[i], iHigh(NULL, 0, i));
}
if(bShowStoploss){
ObjectCreate("DIBS_Stoploss_B" + iUniqueID, OBJ_ARROW, 0, Time[i], iLow(NULL, 0, i));
ObjectSet("DIBS_Stoploss_B" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_ARROWCODE, 5);
ObjectSet("DIBS_Stoploss_B" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_COLOR, cBuyTriggerClr);
ObjectSet("DIBS_Stoploss_B" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_WIDTH, iPriceLabelSize);
}
}
if(iLow(NULL, 0, i) < dDayOpenPrice){
// draw sell trigger object
iTriggerObjects--;
if(i<iBarsToTrade){
iExtension = i;
//iUniqueID = 25000;
iUniqueID = iTriggerObjects;
}else{
iExtension = iTriggerLineLength-1;
iUniqueID = iTriggerObjects;
}
if(bSoundAlert && i == 1)Alerts(1);
if(bPopUpAlert && i == 1)Alert("DIBS " + Symbol() + " - Sell Trigger");
if(ObjectFind("DIBS_Trigger_S" + iUniqueID) != 0){
ObjectCreate("DIBS_Trigger_S" + iUniqueID, OBJ_TREND, 0, Time[i], iLow(NULL, 0, i) , Time[i-iExtension], iLow(NULL, 0, i));
ObjectSet("DIBS_Trigger_S" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_RAY, false);
ObjectSet("DIBS_Trigger_S" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_WIDTH, 5);
ObjectSet("DIBS_Trigger_S" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_COLOR, cSellTriggerClr);
}else{
ObjectMove("DIBS_Trigger_S" + iUniqueID, 2, Time[i], iLow(NULL, 0, i));
}
if(bShowStoploss){
ObjectCreate("DIBS_Stoploss_S" + iUniqueID, OBJ_ARROW, 0, Time[i], iHigh(NULL, 0, i));
ObjectSet("DIBS_Stoploss_S" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_ARROWCODE, 5);
ObjectSet("DIBS_Stoploss_S" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_WIDTH, iPriceLabelSize);
ObjectSet("DIBS_Stoploss_S" + iUniqueID, OBJPROP_COLOR, cSellTriggerClr);
}
}
}// if 3
}// if 2
}// if 1
}// for
bDrawLines = false;
}
//----
//----
return(0);
}
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
void DrawWeeklyOpen(){
double WkOpen = iOpen(NULL, PERIOD_W1, 0);
ObjectCreate("DIBS_WeeklyOpen", OBJ_HLINE, 0, 0, WkOpen);
ObjectSet("DIBS_WeeklyOpen" , OBJPROP_COLOR, DarkGreen);
ObjectSet("DIBS_WeeklyOpen" , OBJPROP_WIDTH, 5);
ObjectSet("DIBS_WeeklyOpen" , OBJPROP_STYLE, STYLE_DOT);
}
bool NewBar() {
static datetime LastTime = 0;
if (Time[0] != LastTime) {
LastTime = Time[0];
bDrawLines = true;
return (true);
} else
return (false);
}
void Alerts(int Direction)
{
static datetime AlertLastTime = 0;
if(TimeCurrent() > AlertLastTime ) {
AlertLastTime = TimeCurrent()+iDelayBetweenAlarm;
PlaySound(sSoundFile);
}
}
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