Flipping between six charts to check the bigger trend eats up time, and by the time you get back to your entry chart the move is often already underway. The Higher Timeframe Price Action Scanner puts the price action trend of up to 6 higher timeframes in one panel under your chart, as a row of green and red dots for each one.
Every row runs the same price action formulas as our 1 Minute Scalping Indicator, built by Lane Dotson, an active futures trader since 2013 who builds every Trend Friend indicator himself. Below you will see how the rows flip, how the alignment dots and alerts work, and how to feed the trend into your other indicators as a filter.
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WHAT IT DOES
Each timeframe you switch on gets its own row of dots. A green dot means that timeframe is in an uptrend right now, and a red dot means it is in a downtrend. Row one sits at the top and belongs to Timeframe #1, and each row under it is the next slot in your settings, so it reads cleanest when you set them from your lowest timeframe in #1 to your highest in #6.
Out of the box the six slots are set to the 5 minute, 15 minute, 30 minute, 1 hour, 4 hour and daily charts, and each one can be set to anything from 1 minute up to 12 months. Every slot has its own on/off switch, and a slot that is off disappears from the panel and is left out of the alignment dots, the alerts and the trend output. So if you only care about three timeframes, turn off #6 first, then #5, then #4, and the scanner only looks at what you actually trade off of.
Every row runs through the same set of price action formulas, so you are comparing the same read on every timeframe instead of six different tools. The formulas look at how each candle is built and where it closes against the candles before it, how big the body and wicks are compared to averages that adjust to each market and timeframe, real breaks of recent highs and lows, multi-candle patterns like engulfing moves and wick rejections, and where price sits against recent swing highs and lows.
A row only has two states, up or down. It turns green when the bullish conditions line up and stays green until the bearish conditions line up, then it flips to red, so every color change on a row is a trend change on that timeframe. The formulas use price only, with no volume, which is why the scanner also runs on symbols that do not have volume data.
When every timeframe you have switched on is in an uptrend at the same time, an aqua dot prints above the top row. When every one of them is in a downtrend, an orange dot prints below the bottom row. It takes all of them, not most of them, so these dots are the scanner’s strongest read on direction. You can change both colors or turn the dots off in the settings.
A higher timeframe candle can take hours or days to close, so the real question is what a row does while that candle is still open. The Allow Unconfirmed Signals? setting decides that.
With Unconfirmed Is Ok, each row also reads the higher timeframe candle that is still forming. That gives you the earliest heads up on a trend change, but until that candle closes a flip can show up and then go away if price turns back, which means this mode can repaint on the open candle. Once the candle closes, that state locks in.
With Confirmed Only, the default, each row only uses higher timeframe candles that have already closed. A flip shows up after that candle closes and never moves or disappears after that, so the history on your chart matches what you saw live. You see each change a little later, and that is the trade off.
In both modes the scanner never uses data that was not there yet.
The scanner sends out one number that other indicators can read: 1 when every timeframe you have switched on is bullish, -1 when every one is bearish, and 0 when they are mixed. In any indicator that lets you filter signals with an outside source, pick “Higher Timeframe Price Action Scanner: Trend Direction To Send To External Indicators” as the source and that indicator will only show signals that go with the higher timeframe trend. The number is not drawn on your chart, it only shows up in the source list of your other indicators.
Leave Ticker To Scan blank and the scanner reads whatever symbol is on your chart. Type in a different ticker and it reads that one instead. That comes in handy with pairs that move together or opposite each other, like TQQQ and SQQQ, where two copies of the scanner, one on each ticker, give you a second look at the same trend.
Small candles that poke through structure are behind a lot of false flips, so this filter is on by default. It stops a row from flipping on a candle that is too small compared to the adaptive candle size averages. The trade off is that a row can sometimes hold its trend a little longer than you would like, and if you would rather let any size candle flip a row, just turn it off.
There are two alerts. All Bullish Scanner Alert fires when every timeframe you have switched on is in an uptrend, and All Bearish Scanner Alert fires when every one is in a downtrend. Set them up from TradingView’s alert menu so you hear about it when the timeframes line up instead of watching the panel all day, and pair them with Confirmed Only so the alerts match what stays on your chart.
HOW TO TRADE WITH IT
You can read the panel top to bottom in a second or two. When most or all of the rows are green the bigger trend is up, so a lot of traders only look for longs, and when most or all are red they only look for shorts. When the rows are split, the market has not picked a side yet, and many traders size down or wait for the timeframes to line back up.
The aqua and orange dots only print when every timeframe you track points the same way, so a lot of traders treat them as the time to only take trades in that direction. Keep an eye on the lower rows while you are in a trade too. When a lower timeframe flips against the rows above it, that is often the first sign the move is slowing down.
The scanner and the 1 Minute Scalping Indicator run the same price action algorithm, so they speak the same language. Put the scalping indicator on your chart for entry signals and candle colors on your trading timeframe, and let the scanner show you the higher timeframe trend above it. Many traders then only take the scalping signals that point the same way as the scanner.
You can also hook the scanner’s trend output into Trend Friend indicators that take an outside source as a filter, like Swing Trade & Scalp Signals or the Buy Sell Indicator. Once it is connected, that indicator hides signals that go against the higher timeframe trend, which gives every signal on your chart a multi-timeframe check before you see it.
Before you trade off the scanner with real money, run it on your own market with Bar Replay and watch how each row flips on the timeframes you actually use. Try each trade mode and both confirmation settings so you know how early and how often each one flips, and you will know exactly what you are looking at when it counts.
CONFIGURATION
Each of the six slots has its own on/off switch and its own timeframe. A slot that is off drops out of the panel, the alignment dots, the alerts and the trend output. Keep every slot higher than your chart timeframe and in order from lowest to highest.
MARKETS & TIMEFRAMES
The Higher Timeframe Price Action Scanner loads on any TradingView chart, including stocks, crypto, forex and futures, on any chart timeframe and any TradingView plan. Since it reads price only, it also runs on symbols with no volume data, like indices. Each scan slot can be set from 1 minute up to 12 months, as long as it is higher than your chart timeframe.
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 Higher Timeframe Price Action Scanner'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.
Updated the algorithm to match the newest version of the 1 Minute Scalping Indicator with code improvements, faster loading, and better performance.
Added toggle for all-timeframes signals and a confirmed vs. unconfirmed signal option.
Major update with Pine Script v6, redesigned trade modes, per-timeframe toggles, customizable reaction speed, and external trend direction output.
Major algorithm upgrade adding 3 new Super trade modes, candle size rejection parameters, and multi-timeframe alignment threshold signals.
EXPLORE THE SUITE
Premium Suite
Uses the same price action algorithm on your chart timeframe with entry signals and candle coloring. The essential companion. Use the scanner for higher timeframe trend direction and the scalping indicator for entries.
Premium Suite
Generates buy and sell signal arrows across three trading modes with external indicator filtering. Connect the scanner’s trend direction output as an external filter to only receive signals that align with the higher timeframe trend.
Premium Suite
Multi-timeframe trend detection with master trend, ranging market filters, and trend strength scoring. Provides a different approach to multi-timeframe trend analysis. Use both for cross-confirmation of the overall market direction.
