Accumulation Distribution Money Flow runs on MT4 and MT5, and it starts from one small
change to a very old formula. The classic A/D line asks where the close sat inside the
bar's own high to low. This one asks how far the close travelled against the bar's true
range, which includes the distance back to yesterday's close.

That sounds like a footnote. It isn't. On a gap, the classic version has nothing to say:
the bar opens away from yesterday, closes mid-range, and gets scored as indecision. The
true range version sees a bar that moved a long way and gives it weight.

Gold H1. A classical bullish divergence in solid green: price makes the lower low, the magenta flow line makes the higher one, and the pair is joined on both panes at once. The red arrows and lines are the bearish side of the same rule.

What the number actually is

Three steps, and none of them are hidden.

First, each bar gets a ratio: the change in close divided by the true range. A bar that
closed at its extreme after a wide move scores near 1 or −1. A bar that wandered and
came back scores near zero.

Second, that ratio is blended toward its own sign by A/D weight. At the default 0 you
get the proportional number. At 1 every bar counts as a full ±1 and only direction
survives. The values in between let you decide how much a hesitant close should be
punished, which is the one setting worth experimenting with.

Third, the ratio is multiplied by tick volume, and by HLC3 as well when factor price
is on. Then a 14 period average of that.

So with the defaults you are looking at a smoothed series of volume × price × decisiveness.
Turn factor price off and it becomes a straight accumulation/distribution line.

Where this differs from the usual build

What an A/D line is supposed to measure What most versions implement What this one does
Whether buyers or sellers finished the bar in control Close Location Value, ((C−L)−(H−C))/(H−L), which cannot see past the bar The close change over true range, so the gap from the previous close is part of the denominator
Money flow means price times volume Raw volume only, or price only factor price multiplies by HLC3, and it is one checkbox to turn off
A hesitant close should count for less than a decisive one All bars weighted the same once direction is known A/D weight slides between proportional and pure direction
A divergence needs a previous pivot to compare against A fixed lookback, whatever happens to be there Scans back for the previous trough or peak, confirmed by two bars either side
Reverse divergence is a different animal from classical Only classical, or both drawn identically Solid line for classical, dotted for reverse, on both panes

The row that changes what you see most is the first one. On gold and on indices, where
sessions hand over with gaps, the two versions disagree for days at a time.

The divergences, and both of them

A classical bullish divergence is price making a lower low while the flow line makes a
higher low. The tool draws it as a solid green line joining the two lows on the price
chart, and a matching line joining the two flow pivots underneath.

A reverse bullish divergence is the mirror: the flow line makes a lower low while price
makes a higher one. It's drawn dotted so you can tell them apart at a glance. Bearish
works the same way in red.

Having the pair drawn on both panes is the part I'd miss if I went back to reading these
by eye. The price leg is the half people talk themselves into, and seeing it drawn is
what stops that.

Gold H4. A reverse bullish divergence drawn dotted, where the flow line puts in the lower low and price puts in the higher one, sitting next to the solid classical pairs. Higher timeframes give fewer of both.

What it doesn't move

The flow value for a closed bar is written once and never revisited. Only the newest bar
is recalculated as ticks arrive, which it has to be, because until that candle closes
there is no close to measure.

Divergences are worked out on new bars only, over a window at the right edge. A pivot
needs one bar after it before it can be called a pivot at all, so an arrow lands one bar
after the low it marks. That delay is the price of not drawing an arrow and then taking
it away.

Alerts fire only for a divergence within three bars of the right edge. Load the
indicator on a year of history and you get the drawings without a year of alerts.

What it can't do

Tick volume is not volume. There is no central exchange in forex, so what MetaTrader
calls volume is a count of price updates. It correlates with real activity well enough to
be useful and it is not the same thing. If that distinction matters for what you are
doing, this is the wrong family of tool, and I'd rather say so here than have you find
out later.

The scale is meaningless. On gold the sub-window reads in the tens of millions,
because it is tick volume multiplied by a four thousand dollar price. On EURUSD the same
indicator, same settings, reads in the hundreds. Those numbers have no interpretation on
their own and none at all across symbols. Read the shape, the zero crossing, and the
divergences. Ignore the axis.

EURUSD H1. The same indicator and the same settings, reading 43.2 on an axis running 480.7 to -1091.7, where gold reads in the tens of millions. The scale follows the symbol's price.

Pivots are shallow by design. A flow pivot is confirmed by two bars on one side and
one on the other, which is a low bar to clear, so you get plenty of arrows. That is
deliberate: it is a divergence finder, not a filter, and the filtering is your job. If
your chart is too busy, raise length and the flow line smooths out.

Only the previous pivot is compared. A three push divergence is drawn as two
overlapping pairs, not one sweep from the first push to the third. It's still visible.
It isn't drawn the way you'd draw it by hand.

You won't find a win rate table in this listing. It draws a line and it marks
disagreements between that line and price. What you do next is the part that decides your
results.

The fiddliest thing in building the MT4 side had nothing to do with the maths. MQL4
numbers its bars backwards, so every index in the divergence search had to be turned
around, and the shared moving-average helper had to be thrown away and rewritten. Both
platforms ship the same body for it, and on MQL4 it would have averaged each bar together
with the bars that came after it. It compiles. It draws a lovely smooth line. It is also
looking at the future.

Questions you'll have

Does Accumulation Distribution Money Flow repaint? Closed bars, no. A flow value is
written once and never revisited, and an arrow that has appeared stays on the bar it
appeared on. The newest point of the line does move while its candle is open, because the
close it measures has not happened yet.

Is this real volume? No, it's tick volume, which is the count of price updates in the
bar. That's what MetaTrader gives you on forex, and every volume indicator you have run on
a currency pair was using the same thing.

Why is the number so large? Because it's tick volume multiplied by price. The absolute
value means nothing; only the shape and the divergences do.

Why so many arrows? Because the pivot test is deliberately shallow, so the tool finds
disagreements rather than pre-filtering them for you. Raise length if you want fewer and
larger swings.

What timeframe works best for Accumulation Distribution Money Flow? H1 and above.
Below M15 the tick counts get noisy enough that the flow line mostly measures spread.

MT4 or MT5? Both, and your subscription covers both. Same formula, same defaults, one
download each.

Support

Message me through the site with a screenshot showing the sub-window, plus the symbol and
timeframe you're on. That's usually enough for me to tell you what happened. Updates are
included for as long as your subscription is running.

Analysis tool. It places no trades and makes no profitability claim. Past price behaviour
is not a guide to future price behaviour.