Swing Trade & Scalp Signals only prints a buy or sell arrow when a whole list of checks agree on the same candle. One big green candle or one oversold reading is never enough on its own, and that is the whole idea.
Pick scalp, swing or long swing mode, leave the low risk filter on to keep your arrows on the side of the trend, and let the candle colors, trend moving average clouds, auto fibonacci levels and a live percentage table do the chart math for you.
It’s built by Lane Dotson, an active futures trader since 2013 who builds every Trend Friend indicator himself, and it loads on stocks, crypto, forex and futures charts on any timeframe.
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What It Does
Buy arrows print under the candle in green and sell arrows print above it in red, and you can change both colors and pick small or medium arrows in the settings. The reason one candle can’t fire an arrow by itself is that every candle gets scored on several different parts of market behavior at the same time:
A buy arrow only prints when the bullish checks agree on one candle, and a sell arrow only prints when the bearish checks agree. On top of that, rejection filters block weak candles, like candles with long rejection wicks or moves that have already stretched too far, and most signal types are blocked while the chop or low volume warning is up.
Signals also take turns. After a buy arrow the next one can only be a sell, and after a sell the next one can only be a buy, so every arrow marks a clear change in direction instead of a pile of arrows in a row. The exact formulas and settings behind the checks are private, but those five things are what they measure.
Each mode has a Less Signals? checkbox that makes it more selective, so you really have six versions to pick from. If you want more arrows on any mode, drop to a lower timeframe, and if you want fewer, go up a timeframe. Make sure to try each one on a few of your own charts before you settle on one.
The Only Give Low Risk Signals setting is on by default, and it uses your trend moving averages (MAs) to decide which way the trend is pointing. Arrows only come through when the trend agrees with them, so in an uptrend you only see buys and in a downtrend you only see sells. When the trend doesn’t agree with the current signal or can’t make up its mind, no arrows print and the candles turn the neutral color, which is your cue to stand aside.
How the trend gets read depends on which trend MAs are on. With both on, the trend is bullish when price is above Trend MA #1 and Trend MA #1 is above Trend MA #2, and bearish when it is the other way around. With only one on, price above that line is bullish and price below it is bearish. Out of the box only Trend MA #2 is turned on, so the trend comes from price against that one line until you turn Trend MA #1 on.
If you turn the filter off, and you are not using external filters either, a risk label shows in the table instead. It rates the current signal by comparing it to the trend:
Risk here only means how the signal lines up with the trend. It is a way to sort your trades, not a promise about how any trade will turn out.
Two trend MAs sit on your chart, and you can pick the type of each one (EMA, SMA, HMA, VWMA, WMA or RMA) and its length. Both default to SMA, with Trend MA #1 at 15 and Trend MA #2 at 60, and Trend MA #1 starts turned off.
Each line turns green when price is above it and red when price is below it, and a cloud fills the space between the line and price in the same colors, so you can read the trend at a glance. These two lines also drive the trend label, the risk label and the low risk filter. For the cleanest read, set the lengths to time-based amounts: on a 1-minute (1m) chart, 15 covers 15 minutes and 60 covers an hour, and on a 5-minute (5m) chart, 12 covers an hour and 48 covers four hours.
The VWAP (volume-weighted average price) is the average price for the day, weighted by how much traded at each price, and lots of day traders watch how price reacts at it. It shows as a dotted yellow line with a cloud between it and price that turns green when price is above it and red when price is below it.
You can filter signals with up to 3 of your own indicators. Each filter reads a value from another indicator on the same chart: 1 means bullish, -1 means bearish and 0 means no trades. When filters are on, an arrow only comes through when every filter you turned on agrees with it.
Trend Friend indicators like the Trend Trading Indicator have an output named Trend Direction To Send To External Indicators that is built for this, and any indicator that puts out a 1, -1 or 0 works too. If you want moving averages as a filter alongside other indicators, set up the same moving averages on our free Any 8 Moving Averages indicator and use it as one of your filters. Our guide shows how to filter signals with other indicators step by step.
Keep in mind the low risk filter and the external filters can’t be on at the same time. If both are on, an error shows on the chart and no arrows appear until you turn one of them off. If a filter is pointed at a source that doesn’t put out 1, -1 or 0, a message on the chart tells you and the signals pause until you fix it.
This indicator also sends out its own direction value, named Trend Direction To Send To External Indicators, so other indicators on the same chart can use it as a filter. With a filter mode on, it sends 1, -1 or 0 to match what the chart shows, and with both filter modes off, it sends 1 after a buy signal and -1 after a sell. That lets you chain signal indicators together so you only get arrows when they agree.
Fibonacci retracement and extension levels are drawn for you from the previous period’s high and low, and those two white lines are big levels to watch on their own. You can pick the previous day, week (the default), month, quarter or year as the source, and the percentage table shows how far price is from the next level above and below so you know how much room a trade has.
A live table, in the bottom right corner by default, keeps track of the numbers so you don’t have to do chart math in your head. You can move it to any corner, edge or the center of the chart and change its background color. It shows:
Candles paint by the current signal: green from a buy signal until the next sell, and red from a sell signal until the next buy. That helps you stay in a trade without second-guessing every small candle that goes against you. With a filter mode on, candles turn the neutral gray any time conditions aren’t lined up, so you can see right away when the script wants you flat.
For the colors to show, open your chart settings (the gear icon at the top right), go to the Symbol tab and turn off body, wicks and borders.
The bounce zone is a purple cloud made from two very long-term moving averages, the EMA 1000 and EMA 2000. When price has been trending above it and drops into it, watch for it to act as support, and when price has been trending below it and rises into it, watch for resistance. Price often chops around inside the zone while the market picks a direction, and breakouts from it tend to move fast.
Warning labels show at the top of the chart when price action measures as choppy, or when recent volume is far below what is normal for that chart. Most signal types are blocked while a warning is up, and if you are already in a trade when one shows up, keep a close eye on it.
Trading Guide
Longs have the trend on their side when price is above both trend MAs and Trend MA #1 is above Trend MA #2, and shorts have it when everything is flipped. The low risk filter handles this for you, and you’ll want Trend MA #1 turned on so it reads both lines. If you are newer to trend trading, our guide walks through the idea from the ground up.
Signals that print close to a trend MA, the VWAP, a fibonacci level or the edge of the bounce zone, or a stack of them, are the ones worth your attention. Before you enter, check the table, because if the next fibonacci level is right on top of price, the move may not have enough room to be worth the risk.
A sell arrow during a long, or a buy arrow during a short, is your cue to take profit or get out. The candle colors help here too, so you can hold the trade while the color stays the same instead of bailing on the first candle that goes against you.
When price sits between the two trend MAs, treat them as support and resistance and plan for price to travel from one to the other. When the two lines pinch together after being far apart and price breaks out with a matching arrow, the moves that follow are often fast.
For more confluence, add the Trend Trading Indicator or another compatible indicator to your chart and pick it as an external filter. That way you only get arrows when your indicators agree on direction.
When the chop or low volume label is up, wait for volume to come back and for price to pick a direction before you take new trades. Then make sure to practice with the settings you like on Bar Replay or a paper trading account before you put real money behind them, and study where and why each trade would have gone wrong.
Stay Notified
Available alerts:
Set these up so you don’t have to watch the chart all day, and our guide on how to set up alerts walks through it. Make sure to set the trigger to Once Per Bar Close if you only want alerts on signals that locked in. Keep in mind the Crossing Trend MA #1 Alert only works when Trend MA #1 is turned on, since it starts off. Paid TradingView plans can also send alerts by webhook to other apps.
Signal Confirmation
All of the signal checks run on the candle that is still forming, which is what makes early entries possible. While that candle is open, an arrow can show up and then disappear if conditions change before the close.
Once a candle closes with an arrow on it, that arrow is locked in and can’t be removed or moved later. If you only want confirmed entries, wait for the close with the arrow still showing and set your alerts to Once Per Bar Close. If you get in before the close, back that early entry with good volume and your own read of the chart.
The only higher timeframe (HTF) data the script asks for is the previous period’s high and low for the fibonacci levels. It always pulls the last period that fully finished, so it never uses data that wasn’t there yet, and the levels only move when a new period starts.
The trend MAs, VWAP, candle colors, trend label and table update in real time on the open candle, the same way any standard indicator does. Once a candle closes, its values are final.
Markets & Timeframes
Swing Trade & Scalp Signals loads on stocks, crypto, forex and futures charts on any timeframe, and it works on any TradingView plan. It runs most cleanly on high volume tickers with plenty of price action, because so many checks have to line up on one candle and quiet markets rarely give it that. Very long timeframes may not give signals if there isn’t enough history for the calculations.
It also loads on symbols with no volume data at all, like indices. On those, the low volume warning clears by itself so signals can still come through, but the signal types that need volume can’t fire there. Want to see what else is in the lineup? Browse all of our TradingView indicators.
CONFIGURATION
Every visual piece can be turned on or off on its own, and each one has its own colors:
The trend label turns off with the table, and the chop and low volume warnings don’t have their own toggle.
IMPORTANT
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 Swing Trade & Scalp Signals 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.
Major update upgrading to Pine Script v6 with new features including external indicator filtering, signal arrows replacing text labels, adjustable moving average lengths, and a low-risk-only signal mode.
Updated alert options for better signal filtering.
Added signal rejection parameters to hold trending positions longer and changed candle coloring logic to close-over-close comparison.
Added a "Less Signals" checkbox that provides a more conservative version of each trading mode.
Multiple rounds of signal parameter improvements through October 2022.
Initial release followed by rapid improvements including bug fixes, signal parameter tuning, and new rejection patterns.
EXPLORE THE SUITE
Premium Suite
Designed for fast scalping on the 1-minute chart with quick entry and exit signals. Pairs naturally with Swing Trade & Scalp Signals in scalp mode. Use external indicator filtering to chain them together for high-confluence scalp entries.
Premium Suite
Automatically marks supply and demand zones where big buying or selling happened before. Take Swing Trade & Scalp Signals arrows at supply and demand zones so your entry sits at a level you can see, with a clear spot for your stop loss at the zone edge.
Premium Suite
Plots automatic support and resistance levels based on volume analysis. Combine it with Swing Trade & Scalp Signals to see whether an arrow printed at a level built from real volume.
