+ ALMA Trend DetectorHi, again. Here I have a nice moving average script designed to get you into trends and keep you in trends until the opportune moment comes to exit. And, as with any indicator, or suite of indicators, designed to get one into trends and keep him/her in a trend, they do not do so well in chop/ranging/mean reversion conditions, though I would say this one is better than most, otherwise I wouldn’t be fitting it into my trading system.
This is a huge improvement, in my opinion, over an indicator I found recently, and like quite a bit by samsmilesam, which you can find here: www.tradingview.com
In this adaptation of his script I changed a bunch of things, but kept the spirit of the indicator true.
This indicator utilizes three different length Arnaud Legoux moving averages, known for being extremely low lag, and incredibly adjustable (though I find the original authors settings excellent).
While he has buy and sell signals triggering regardless of the fast and slow ma’s position to the trending ma, I actually take the trending ma into account. Furthermore, I wouldn’t say I coded in signals indicating buying and selling, but that I coded in signs that answer the question “what kind of trend are we in?” as well as possible ideal trade exits (which couuuuuld also be taken as entries, but aren’t necessarily meant to).
So, the deets on this:
1) 5 period, 20 period, and 70 period ALMAs. Fast, slow and trend. All customizable independent of each other (unlike the sam’s). All three also change color based on their own individual trends.
2) Uptrends are identified when price is closing above the Trend ma, and both Fast and Slow ma’s are above the Trend ma, and vice versa for downtrends. There are in-between points when a trend is not identified, and this is when price closes above or below the Trend ma, but the other two ma’s have not crossed it. Background color is used to identify the trend.
3) Trade exits are based on closing price and Fast and Slow ma’s relative to the Trend ma, once again. To signal exiting an uptrend price must close below both Fast and Slow ma’s and both Fast and Slow ma’s must be above the Trend ma; and vice versa for exiting a down trend. Obviously there may be false signals, but there are fewer signals, and I think it’s a better strategy than most. I prefer to filter out as much noise as possible. There’s little worse in my opinion than an indicator that gives too many false signals, but obviously it’s impossible to remove them all. Some discretion is necessary on the part of the trader.
4) So what does this mean for trade entries? Well, you can certainly enter a trade on a signal for an exit (go long on a short exit signal) if the chart looks good for that. Or you can wait for trend confirmation with the background color, entering on a pullback to the ma’s perhaps. Or you can enter in the “no man’s land” in between trends. If you’ve exited and price continues on trending your best bet would be to wait for a pullback into the ma’s or a s/r level, or look for the next candle that closes beyond the Fast and Slow ma’s. These are just thoughts of mine.
5) Lastly, there are alert conditions set for uptrends, downtrends and both long and short exits!
Enjoy the indicator! I think with some sort of bands or channels for those times when the market is rangebound or in chop, you could really crush it with this.
