Timeframe Continuity Oscillator [TFO]

17 abr

This indicator is used to visualize timeframe continuity - a core concept of "The Strat" - along with some added logic for potential range limiters.

When discussing timeframe continuity, typically we are evaluating several timeframes to see if price is trading above or below the current open of each respective timeframe. If we are concerned with the 15m, 4h, and 1D for example, and price is trading above the current open of each of those timeframes, we can say that we have full timeframe continuity (FTFC) up. Conversely, if price is trading below the current open of each of those timeframes, we can say that we have FTFC down.

We can visualize this with an oscillator of sorts, where the zero line is anchored to the open price of the highest timeframe that we're concerned with. Using the prior example, this would be the 1D timeframe. As long as price is above the current 1D open, it is impossible to have FTFC down; and as long as price is below the current 1D open, it is impossible to have FTFC up. This is why we base the oscillator's values off of the highest timeframe's open (the values are simply how far price has traded from this open) - any value greater than zero tells us that there is potential to have FTFC up, and any value less than zero tells us that there is potential to have FTFC down.

There are a few ways we chose to visualize this data. First, we can choose the "Binary" option which simply uses one solid bullish color above the zero line, and one solid bearish color below the zero line.



Second, we can choose the "Gradient" option to help describe whether we have FTFC up or down. Values above the zero line will be a mix of the bullish color and mid color, where the mid color indicates no timeframe continuity up and the bullish color indicates FTFC up - sort of like a color spectrum of timeframe continuity to describe how many timeframes are in agreement. Similarly, values below the zero line will be a mix of the bearish color and the mid color, where the mid color again indicates no timeframe continuity down and the bearish color indicates FTFC down.



Lastly, we can choose the "FTFC Only" option which will only color the histogram bars as bullish if there is FTFC up, or bearish if there is FTFC down.



One more feature that we added is these upper and lower bands that aim to help describe the potential upper and lower limits that price may travel, relative to the highest timeframe's open. This is done by taking the standard deviation of some defined lookback period, for example, 2 standard deviations of the previous 10 weeks, assuming 1W is the highest timeframe enabled.



The concept is similar to that of an ADR (average daily range) as it can be used to estimate maximum range extensions for the largest timeframe. The arrows you see are plotted once the value exceeds either band - alerts can be enabled for these events as well through any alert() function call.