The Buy Sell Indicator reads every candle to decide whether buyers or sellers are in control, prints a buy or sell arrow when that control flips, and then keeps working after you get in with a trailing stop loss, three take profit levels and a Trailing Stop Mode that locks onto your trade.
It’s built by Lane Dotson, an active futures trader since 2013 who builds every Trend Friend indicator himself. Below you’ll see how each candle gets read, how the four trade modes change the signals, and exactly when an arrow locks in for good.
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What It Does
Every candle gets graded on its own price action before the indicator decides who is in control. It looks at the size of the body and wicks compared to an average candle that adjusts to how fast or quiet your chart is, where the close lands against the last few highs and lows, reversal patterns like engulfing candles, tweezer tops and bottoms, dojis and long rejection wicks, market structure like pivots, breakouts and opening gaps on a new trading day, and whether price is pushing up or down into the candle.
All of those checks get scored against each other, and the direction only flips when enough of them line up on the same candle. Weak candles get thrown out on purpose, so small candles, inside bars, candles with long wicks fighting the move and closes that barely clear the last candle can’t flip anything. The one exception is a very large candle that closes past all of the recent highs or lows, which can flip the direction in any mode, because a move that big shouldn’t be ignored.
Arrows also take turns. A buy can only be followed by a sell and a sell can only be followed by a buy, so every arrow you see marks a real change in direction, not a repeat.
A buy arrow prints under the candle and a sell arrow prints over it. While that candle is still forming the arrow shows up faded, and the moment the candle closes with the signal still there it turns solid, so you always know which arrows are locked in and which ones could still change. You can turn the buy and sell arrows on or off separately, pick small, medium or large, and change both the solid and faded colors.
A yellow caution dot shows up next to a signal when the candle behind it is smaller than normal. The signal passed every entry check, but the candle isn’t very convincing, so wait for price to confirm the move first, and if you do take it, keep your stop tight.
Confirmation arrows are off by default to keep your chart clean. Turn them on and a second arrow prints when a candle in the same direction confirms a cautioned signal within 2 candles.
If the very next candle completely wipes out a fresh signal, a yellow X marks that signal candle so you know right away it didn’t hold. That can only be known after the next candle, so the X is drawn one candle back, which the repaint section below covers.
So use Scalp Mode when the market is going sideways and switch to one of the longer holding modes when it’s trending. Swing Mode, Long Swing Mode and higher trailing lengths have a hard time when price whipsaws back and forth, because price keeps turning before it can make the range break they need.
Three settings let you dial in how picky the signals are.
Candles paint aqua while the price action reads bullish and orange while it reads bearish. That takes a lot of the stress out of watching a candle or two come in against your trade, because the color tells you the direction underneath hasn’t changed yet. The arrows need a few extra checks beyond the direction flip, so sometimes the candles change color a candle before the arrow prints, which gives you an early heads up.
Both colors can be changed or turned off. To see them, open your chart settings (the gear icon, top right), go to the Symbol tab and turn off body, wicks and borders.
The stop starts at the highest high or lowest low of the last few candles, set by Stoploss Candle Trail Length, then adds some room based on the average candle height times Stoploss Avg Candle Multiple. A lower trail length gives you a tighter stop and a higher one gives the trade more room. It updates every candle and only ever moves in your favor while the trade is on.
When price runs the stop, the line and label switch to your stop hit color (orange by default) and read Was Hit @ with the exact price. That price stays frozen so you know exactly where you got stopped, and it clears on its own when the next signal starts a new trade.
Trailing Stop Mode locks the chart onto the trade you’re in. Wait for a confirmed entry, take the trade, then turn on the setting called Trailing Stoploss Exit From Here. New signals stop printing, the candle colors hold your trade direction, the take profit levels step aside, and the stop trails behind price until it’s hit, with the label turning green for Holding Longs or red for Holding Shorts.
Once the stop is hit, the line freezes at that price instead of trailing a trade that’s already over. Make sure to turn the mode back off after you’re out so the normal signals come back. One way to use it is to get an early entry with Scalp Mode, then switch Trailing Stop Mode on to ride the move without new signals pulling you out early.
When a signal locks in at the candle close, three take profit levels are drawn from the signal price. Each one sits a set number of average candle heights away, 3, 6 and 9 by default, and you can adjust each one in steps of 0.1. They stay put until the next signal starts a new trade, each one has its own alert, and with the price display off the labels just read TP 1, TP 2 and TP 3.
When recent volume drops way below normal for that chart, a Low Volume Use Caution label shows up at the top of your chart. Price can whipsaw easily when volume is this thin, so it’s a good time to wait before taking new trades and keep a close eye on anything you’re already in.
HOW TO TRADE WITH IT
For step by step walkthroughs, see How to Use the Buy Sell Indicator and Buy Sell Indicator Trading Strategies.
Mark where price is likely to turn first, then only take the signals that print in those areas. The indicator has no support and resistance tools built in, so you can pair it with whatever levels you already use, or let Supply and Demand mark the zones for you.
When price is chopping sideways, Scalp Mode gets you in and out of each move fast. Once a clear trend shows up, switch to Swing, Long Swing or Super Swing Mode so you can hold through the pullbacks instead of getting flipped out of every one.
After a confirmed entry, turn on Trailing Stop Mode and let the stop trail on its own while new signals stay quiet. Hold until the stop is hit or you decide to exit, then turn the mode off.
Take partials at TP 1, TP 2 and TP 3 as price moves your way, and use the opposite arrow as your final exit.
Use the Buy Sell Signal Scanner to see the direction on higher timeframes (HTF) before you take a signal. Sticking to the signals that agree with the bigger picture keeps you trading with the trend instead of against it.
Whichever setup you go with, run it in Bar Replay on your own market and timeframe first, so you know how the signals behave before real money is on the line.
CONFIGURATION
Stay Notified
Seven alerts come with the indicator:
Each one is built to fire on whatever trigger option you pick when you set it up. The buy, sell and take profit alerts fire right after their candle closes, so you only hear about signals that are locked in and levels that were really hit. The Stoploss Hit Alert fires the moment price crosses your stop on a live candle, and only once per hit. The Stoploss Updated Alert fires every time the stop moves in your favor, goes quiet after a hit and picks back up on the next trade, so set that one to Once Per Bar. Paid TradingView plans can also send these alerts by webhook to another app, but the indicator itself never places a trade.
Signal Confirmation
What can change on a live candle. Every check runs on the candle while it’s still forming, which is what lets an entry show up early. That also means an arrow can show up faded and then disappear if the candle turns before it closes. Caution dots and confirmation arrows work the same way.
What locks at the close. Once a candle closes with the arrow showing, the arrow turns solid and that signal is locked in for good. It never moves, never disappears and never gets redrawn on a closed candle. If you only want confirmed entries, wait for the close.
The one thing drawn in the past. A false signal can only be spotted after the next candle wipes it out, so the yellow X is placed one candle back, on the failed signal candle itself. Nothing else is drawn in the past.
No higher timeframe data and no future data. The indicator doesn’t pull data from any other timeframe. Every calculation uses the candles on the chart you’re looking at, and the only calendar check is spotting when a new trading day starts so it can find opening gaps. No future data is used anywhere.
Live lines on the open candle. The candle colors update live while a candle is open, and the stop loss and take profit lines at the right edge of the chart always show the current levels. Trailing Stop Mode works on live candles, and reloading the chart re-anchors it to the most recent signal.
Markets & Timeframes
The Buy Sell Indicator loads on any TradingView chart with price data, including stocks, crypto, forex and futures, on any timeframe and any TradingView plan. It’s built light on purpose with no support and resistance tools inside, so the signals and candle colors update fast and you can pair it with whichever levels you already use, from your own drawings to any of our other TradingView indicators. Busy, high volume tickers with plenty of price action give the cleanest read, and symbols with no volume data will keep the low volume warning stuck on the chart.
Good to Know
Get Access
Access the full Premium Indicator Suite on your TradingView charts. All 10 indicators, chart templates, and priority support.
COMMON QUESTIONS
CHANGELOG
When the Premium Suite moved into TradingView's Paid Space, the Buy Sell Indicator's description got a full rewrite to match the current version and the old release notes were removed to avoid confusion. This page reflects the current version of the indicator, so everything above matches what you get on your chart.
Added toggle for candle size rejection parameters and removed volume spike levels to improve loading performance.
Major overhaul of Super Swing Mode for better chop handling, longer holds, and early entries. Updated candle calculations improved all trade modes.
Added Super Swing Mode, updated defaults, fixed bugs, and improved calculations. Made stoploss and take profit multiples adjustable by 0.1.
Fixed candle trailing length bug and added a dedicated Trailing Stop Mode for position management.
Major update adding inside bar, candle size, tweezer, gap parameters, Candle Size Rejection Multiple, confirmation arrows, X crosses, and stoploss/take profit alerts.
Added price info to stoploss and take profit labels and adjustable signal arrow sizes.
Improved signals with volume and reversal candles, added caution dots for uncertain signals, and partially opaque arrows for unconfirmed signals.
EXPLORE THE SUITE
Premium Suite
The companion scanner checks direction on higher timeframes and other tickers, so you can confirm your trade direction before taking a Buy Sell signal.
Premium Suite
A smoothed 6-oscillator trend strength indicator with two calculation modes, neutral zone, and divergence detection. Use the ribbon to confirm momentum direction when Buy Sell signals fire for added confluence.
Premium Suite
Marks supply and demand zones from volume spikes, open, high, low and close levels, sessions and VWAP, so you can focus on the Buy Sell signals that print inside those zones.
