The Strat Combo Watcher numbers every candle 1, 2 or 3 the way Rob Smith's method does, then
counts which three-bar combinations your market actually produces and ranks them. The panel
is the part you'll keep.
The numbers
Three bar types, and everything in The Strat is built from them:
- 1 — an inside bar. Didn't take out the previous high or low.
- 2 — a directional bar. Took out one side.
2up,-2down. - 3 — an outside bar. Took out both.
The indicator prints the number under every bar, colour-coded, and labels the three-bar
sequences worth naming: |2|2|-2|, |3|-2|2|, |1|2|1| and the rest.
Show Numbers On Chart turns the per-bar numbers off if you only want the combo labels.
The panel is the actual product
Top right sits The Strat Panel, and it does something the method's own literature
mostly doesn't: it tells you the frequency.
Two ranked columns of pivot combos with their percentages, and a counter for the raw bar
types. On the gold H1 chart above: 2 appeared 732 times at 36.0 percent, -2 767 times at
37.7, 1 only 295 times at 14.5, and 3 239 at 11.8. The top pivot combos ran from 26.7
percent down.
That reframes the whole thing. A pattern that fires in 3 percent of cases is not the same
kind of object as one that fires in 27, and until you see the count you're treating them
alike. The panel is one table and it settles that argument for the symbol and timeframe
you're actually on.
Show MTF adds the same reading across timeframes and is off by default.
Pivot Machine Gun
PMG is the sequence of consecutive higher highs or lower lows, and it gets its own section:
Min Sequence Length 3 and Min Breaks 3 by default, drawn as levels in green for bull and
red for bear.
Show Labels for PMG is off and Show Levels is on, which is the right way round — the
levels are readable, the labels crowd a chart that already has a number under every bar.
Custom combo search
Notice Combo is a text field. Type the sequence you care about, turn on Alert when Custom
Combo detected, and you get told when that exact combination prints. It's the one input
here that turns a study tool into a working one.
There are three more alert switches, all off by default: inside bar, directional bar, and
PMG. Inside-bar alerts on H1 will fire a few times a day; on M5 they'll fire constantly.
Repainting, honestly
The bar numbers can't repaint. A bar is inside, directional or outside based on its own high
and low against the previous bar's, and once it closes that's settled forever. There is no
lookback window, no smoothing, no parameter that changes what a 2 is.
The calculation runs on the bar open and works on closed bars only. Combo labels appear when
their third bar closes.
The panel's percentages do change, because they're counts over Lookback number bars (2000)
and that window moves. Yesterday's 36.0 might read 36.2 tomorrow. That's a statistic
updating, and it's the one number on the chart that should move.
What it doesn't do
- MT5 only. There's no MT4 build of this one, and I'd rather say so on the listing than
in an email afterwards. - No entries, stops or targets. It classifies bars and counts combinations.
- No indicator buffers. Chart objects throughout.
- No trade direction from the panel. The ranking tells you what's common, not what's
profitable. - No backtest of the combos. The percentages are occurrence counts, not outcomes. A
combo appearing 27 percent of the time says nothing about what followed it. - It draws a lot. Every bar gets a number. On a 2000-bar lookback that's a busy chart,
and on a slow machine it's noticeable.
Settings I'd start with
H1 or H4 with defaults, and spend the first session reading the panel rather than the chart.
Learn what your symbol actually does before you go looking for a pattern in it.
Then set Notice Combo to the sequence you trade and turn on that alert only. Leave the
inside-bar and directional-bar alerts off; there are too many of both to be worth a popup.
If the chart is unreadable, turn off Show Numbers On Chart and keep the combo labels.
Questions you'll have
Does The Strat Combo Watcher repaint? The bar numbers can't. A bar's type is fixed by
its own high and low against the previous bar. The panel percentages update as the 2000-bar
window rolls, which is a statistic, not a repaint.
What do 1, 2, 3 and -2 mean? 1 is an inside bar, 2 is a directional bar up, -2 is
directional down, 3 is an outside bar that took out both sides.
What is the panel showing? How often each combo and each bar type has occurred over the
lookback, ranked. Occurrence, not profitability.
What is PMG? Pivot Machine Gun, a run of consecutive higher highs or lower lows. Default
is at least three of them.
Can I be alerted on one specific combination? Yes. Type it into Notice Combo and turn
on the custom combo alert.
Is there an MT4 version? No. This one is MT5 only.
Why is my chart so busy? Every bar carries a number by default. Turn off Show Numbers
On Chart.
Does it tell me which way to trade? No. It classifies and counts.
This is included with a subscription. There is no win rate in this listing and none in the
indicator: the percentages count how often a pattern appears, and how often something appears
has nothing to do with what it earns.