Overview This indicator displays major elements of Smart Money Concepts and price action trading with multi-timeframes(MTF) and layered market structures with color visualization.
What is Smart Money Concepts? Smart Money Concepts(SMC) is one of the methodologies to interpret how financial market moves and to analyze it and execute trades, focusing on liquidity and order flow of financial institutions. Smart money means the funds invested by large financial institutions such as banks, institutional traders/investors, market makers, hedge funds etc. contrary to retail traders/investors' money.
It is important to note that there is no proof or evidence that those institutions move the market as described in Smart Money Concepts. Personally speaking, it is one of the interpretation of the market and another angle to view the market just like other technical analysis methodologies such as Elliott Wave Principle, Gann Theory, Wyckoff Method and even traditional price action trading.
Importance of MTF Analysis MTF analysis(a.k.a Topdown analysis) is the foundation to technically analyze charts and the most fundamental skill in trading because lower timeframes are always influenced by upper timeframes where large financial institutions operate.
How to use This indicator is designed to help traders analyze how the market moves in terms of SMC and price action with multi-timeframes and color visualization of the market structures, which makes this indicator unique and different from other indicators.
There is two key settings that you can use based on your trading style.
1.Upper timeframe selection You have two options to determine upper timeframe; Auto mode and Manual mode. When Auto mode selected, upper timeframe will be determined based on chart timeframe as follows.
If you select Manual mode, you can fix an upper timeframe.
2.High/low settings This affects all other settings of the indicator and most importantly designs the market structure. This is the key setting to determine how you view the market as price action trading is all about highs and lows and story of how highs and lows have been created with the market structure.
You can specify left bars and right bars to identify swing highs/lows and these highs/lows become the basis to design the market structure and determine how SMC elements are displayed.
Example: Left bar&right bar: 10 You can see bigger wave(magenta line) in the market structure(stepped line). (Magenta line is a drawn object by manual)
Left bar&right bar: 4 With this setting, you can see smaller wave in the market structure.
Since market moves like wave as there is a lot of wave theories in financial investment/trading industry such as Elliott wave, Wolf wave etc., users can define market structure with this setting depending on what degree of wave they aim to trade.
Functions:
MTF Order Block
Concept Order block is a block of orders where buying orders and selling orders are accumulated. Order blocks are created when the institutions move the market up and down, temporality placing orders in an opposite direction to the way they want to move, in order to match their own orders with counter-orders.
Visualization by the indicator The indicator displays both chart timeframe's order blocks and upper timeframe's order blocks(MTF).
You can also select from two options how to display order blocks; 1. Show all order blocks 2. Show strong order blocks only Note: Strong order blocks mean order blocks created at strong highs/lows. See also strong high/low below.
Alerts can be set when prices reach strong order blocks.
MTF Fair Value Gap(FVG)/Imbalance
Concept Fair Value Gap(FVG)(Imbalance) is a void generated among three consecutive candlesticks. FVG(s) is created when the market moves so rapidly generating buy side or sell side order imbalances. FVG(s) is characterized by price action that prices tend to come back to the area where FVG(s) exists, filling in the space among the candlesticks.
Visualization by the indicator The indicator displays both chart timeframe's FVG and upper timeframe's FVG.
MTF Liquidity Grab
Concept Liquidity grab is price action to sweep liquidity for the institutions to move the market. This price action often happens because the size of their orders is so huge and they need a bunch of counter-orders to match their orders. This is why prices sometimes come to areas where liquidity rest and swipe them before the market goes up/down.
Liquidity visualization Where does liquidity rest?
The answer is above highs(buy side liquidity) and below lows(sell side liquidity). Among all highs and lows, swing highs and lows are where liquidity is accumulated the most because swing highs and lows can be created only by the institutions, therefore massive liquidity is indicated.
Visualization by the indicator The indicator displays liquidity dots so that users can easily identify where liquidity rests and liquidity grab of both a chart timeframe and an upper timeframe.
Alerts can be set when liquidity grab happens.
MTF Strong High/Low
Concept Strong high/low literally means strong highs and lows among all highs and lows including swing highs and lows. There is a few different definitions of strong high/low in price action trading and the definition in this indicator is as follows.
Strong high A high that that breaks higher low or lower low
Strong low A low that breaks lower high or higher high
Visualization by the indicator The indicator displays strong highs and lows of both a chart timeframe and an upper timeframe.
MTF Market Structure Visualization
Concept Market structure is a series of price movement with highs and lows which outlines the way the market directs. It is a basis to see trend occurrence, trend reversal and sideways and analyzing the market structures in multi-timeframes is the most fundamental technical skill in trading/investment.
Visualization by the indicator The indicator displays market structures of both a chart timeframe and an upper timeframe and provide color visualization depending on bullish and bearish market structures.
The definition of bullish and bearish market structure is as follows.
Bullish market structure When a price breaks a Lower High or Higher High
Bearish market structure When a price breaks a Higher Low or Lower Low
Settings All the functions above, colors and line settings are parameterized and can be turned on/off depending on users’ needs.
Liquidityの可視化 一般的にLiquidityは高値の上(buy side liquidity)、安値の下(sell side liquidity)に存在します。 全ての高値·安値の中で、スイングハイ·ローがliquidityが最も蓄積されているエリアということができます。なぜならスイングハイ·ローは機関投資家の注文によってのみ形成されるからです。