Waddah Attar Explosion is a momentum histogram on MT4 and MT5 with two reference lines over it, and arrows on the price chart when the histogram clears one of them.
The thing to understand first is what the bars actually measure, because it isn't what most people assume.
The bars are a rate of change, not a level
A MACD histogram shows you where MACD is. This shows you how much MACD moved since the previous bar, multiplied by Sensitivity, which is 150 by default.
The consequence is worth sitting with. A tall green bar does not mean momentum is strongly positive. It means momentum increased sharply on that bar, and it can happen while MACD itself is still well below zero. The histogram is measuring acceleration where a MACD histogram measures position.
Up and down are split into separate plots, so the whole thing sits above the zero line and you read direction from colour rather than from sign.
Four shades, and the second one is the useful one
Each direction has two colours. The strong shade means the bar is larger than the previous bar; the pale shade means it's smaller.
So a run of dark green bars is acceleration building, and the moment they turn lime the acceleration is fading even though the histogram is still tall and still green. That fade usually shows up before the histogram comes down, which is the earliest thing this indicator has to say.
Two lines, and only one of them is wired to the arrows
The Explosion line, drawn brown, is the full width of a Bollinger channel: two times the standard deviation times BB Stdev Multiplier. It rises when the market is expanding.
The Dead Zone line, dotted blue, is ATR over a hundred bars times 3.7. It's the noise floor: below it, movement is normal for the instrument and means nothing.
The classic reading of this indicator asks for the histogram to be above both lines. This build's arrows only require the dead zone. An arrow appears when the histogram was at or below the dead zone on the previous bar and is above it now, regardless of where the explosion line sits.
That's a real difference from the textbook rule and it makes the tool noticeably more talkative. I'd rather tell you than let you assume the brown line is filtering something. If you want the stricter version, read the arrows as candidates and take only the ones where the bar also clears the brown line, which you can see at a glance.
| MACD histogram | This | |
|---|---|---|
| What a bar measures | Where MACD is | How much MACD changed on that bar |
| Direction | Sign of the bar | Two separate plots, read by colour |
| Fading momentum | Bar gets shorter | Colour changes shade before that |
| Noise floor | None | An ATR dead zone, drawn |
| Volatility context | None | A Bollinger width line, drawn |
What you get
Six buffers, four plotted: the two histograms with their colour indices, the explosion line and the dead zone. iCustom reads all four, so an EA can take the momentum value and both thresholds and apply whichever rule it wants, including the stricter one.
The arrows are chart objects, offset from the bar by half an ATR so they don't sit on the candle.
Where it's weak
No alerts of any kind. There is no notification block in this build. It draws arrows and that is the whole output. If you need to be told, you will need to watch the chart.
The dead zone is not adjustable. The ATR period of 100 and the multiplier of 3.7 are compiled in, not inputs. You can change the sensitivity and the averages; the noise floor is fixed.
Sensitivity is a display multiplier with real consequences. At 150 the histogram's height is arbitrary in absolute terms, so comparing values between instruments is meaningless, and changing it moves every bar relative to the two lines. Change it and the arrow count changes with it.
Arrows use the looser of the two rules, as above.
Nothing confirms direction. An arrow says acceleration crossed the noise floor. It says nothing about which way price is trending, and in a range you get arrows in both directions within a few bars.
The object count climbs on fast charts. EURUSD H1 over the default history produced about thirteen thousand objects here against gold's five thousand, because the dead zone crossing happens more often on a quieter instrument. Turn Show Buy/Sell arrows off if the chart gets heavy.
It depends on five underlying handles. Two EMAs, a standard deviation and two ATRs. On the first bars of a fresh chart it returns nothing until they are all ready, so the left edge stays empty for a while.
Questions you'll have
Does Waddah Attar Explosion repaint? The forming bar's value moves as the bar develops, the way any MACD-derived reading does. Closed bars are stable, and an arrow stays on the bar that produced it.
Why is a bar tall when MACD is still negative? Because the bars are the change in MACD, not MACD. A sharp improvement from a deeply negative reading is a tall bar.
What do the two shades mean? Strong shade means the bar is bigger than the one before it. Pale shade means it's smaller, so momentum is still in that direction but decelerating.
What's the difference between the brown and the dotted line? Brown is the Bollinger channel width, a volatility reference. Dotted blue is the ATR dead zone, the noise floor. The arrows only use the dead zone.
Why do I get arrows when the bar is below the brown line? Because the arrow rule in this build only requires the dead zone crossing. Filter by eye if you want the stricter classic rule.
Can I change the dead zone? No. Its ATR period and multiplier are compiled in.
Does it have alerts? No, this build draws only.
Can an EA read it? Yes. Both histograms, the explosion line and the dead zone are plotted buffers.
Best timeframe? M30 to H4. On M5 the dead zone is crossed constantly and the arrows lose meaning.
MT4? Both platforms are included, one download each. Same rate-of-change histogram, same two lines, same arrow rule.
Support
Send me a message with a screenshot, the symbol and the timeframe, and I'll tell you what the tool was doing on that bar.
Analysis tool. It places no trades and makes no profitability claim. Past price behaviour is not a guide to future price behaviour.