DM Impulse Enhanced [BackQuant]

DM Impulse Enhanced [BackQuant]

What this is (and what it isn’t)
DM Impulse Enhanced is a signal-driven overlay that classifies market action into two practical regimes: Long (risk-on) and Cash (risk-off). It’s built around a proprietary impulse model from the directional-movement family, wrapped in a persistence test and a state machine. Because this script is private, the core mechanics are intentionally abstracted here; what follows explains how to read and use it without revealing the protected calculation.

Why traders use it
Many tools oscillate or describe “how stretched” price is; fewer make a firm, operational call that you can automate. DM Impulse Enhanced aims to do exactly that declare when upside pressure is broad and durable enough to justify a long bias, and when deterioration is strong enough to stand aside (cash/short discretion). The emphasis is on impulse persistence rather than one-off spikes.

What you see on the chart
• Long / Cash markers – Green up-triangles (Long) and red down-triangles (Cash) plot at the bar where the regime changes.
• Regime-tinted bars (optional) – Candles can be softly shaded green during Long and red during Cash for at-a-glance context.
• Trend ribbon (context only) – A narrow ribbon (fast/slow moving averages) is tinted by the current regime to show trend alignment; it does not generate signals on its own.
• No separate sub-pane – Signals are intended to sit directly on price for immediate decision-making.

How the logic behaves (high-level)

Impulse core – A directional-movement–based engine estimates the strength of buying vs. selling pressure over a user-defined horizon.

Persistence gate – Instead of reacting to a single reading, the model evaluates how consistently that impulse dominates across a configurable lookback range.

State machine – When persistence clears (or fails) a pair of thresholds, the model flips and stays in that regime until evidence justifies a change. This “stickiness” is intentional; it reduces whipsaws in choppy tape.

Inputs & controls

Calculation Settings
• DM Length – The base horizon for the impulse engine. Longer = smoother/steadier; shorter = quicker/more reactive.
• Start / End – Defines the span of the persistence check. Expanding the span asks the market to prove itself against more history before changing regime.

Signal Settings
• Long Threshold – The persistence level required to promote the model into Long.
• Short Threshold – The level that, once crossed to the downside, demotes the model into Cash. Using a cross-under event for risk-off helps avoid premature exits on noise.

Visual Settings
• Long / Short colours – Customize marker and shading hues.
• Color Bars? – Toggle candle tinting by regime (off if you prefer a clean chart).

Reading the signals
• Long prints only when the model observes sustained upside pressure across the configured span. Treat this as permission to engage with pullbacks, breakouts, or your preferred setups in the direction of the trend.
• Cash prints when downside deterioration is strong enough to invalidate the prior regime. It’s a risk-off directive—flatten, hedge, or switch to short strategies according to your plan.
• Regime persistence is a feature: once Long, the model won’t flip on minor dips; once Cash, it won’t re-arm on minor bounces. If you want more flips, shorten the spans and relax thresholds; if you want fewer, do the opposite.

Practical tuning guide

Match DM Length to your timeframe
  – Intraday: smaller length for timely response.
  – Swing/Position: larger length to filter desk-noise and track higher-timeframe flows.

Size the persistence span to your goal
  – Narrow span: faster regime changes, more trades, more noise.
  – Wide span: fewer, higher-conviction calls, longer holds.

Set realistic thresholds
  – The Long threshold should be reachable with your chosen span; the Short threshold should be low enough to catch genuine deterioration but not so tight that it flips on every dip.

Decide on cosmetics
  – Turn on bar tinting for discretionary reading, or keep it off when exporting screenshots or running other overlays.

Suggested workflows
• Trend-following with discipline – Trade only in the Long regime; use structure (higher lows, anchored VWAP, or pullbacks to your MA stack) for entries and the Cash flip as a portfolio-level exit.
• Risk overlay – Keep your normal strategy, but: reduce size when Cash appears; re-enable full risk only after Long reasserts.
• Multi-timeframe gating – Require Long on a higher timeframe (e.g., 4H or 1D), then take entries on a lower one. If the high-TF posts Cash, stand down.

How the ribbon fits in
The ribbon visualizes short- vs. intermediate-term trend in the same colour as the regime. It’s deliberately “dumb”: it does not change the signal, it just helps you see when price action and regime are in harmony (e.g., pullbacks during Long that hold above the ribbon).

Alerts included
• DM Impulse LONG – Triggers as the persistence measure clears the Long threshold.
• DM Impulse CASH – Triggers when deterioration crosses the Short threshold from above.
Configure alerts to fire on bar close if you want final (non-intrabar) decisions.

Strengths
• Actionable binary output – Long/Cash is unambiguous and easy to automate.
• Persistence-aware – Focuses on runs that endure, not one-bar excitement.
• Asset/timeframe agnostic – Works anywhere you trust directional-movement concepts (equities, futures, crypto, FX).

Limitations & cautions
• Not a reversal caller – It’s a regime classifier. If you need early bottoms/tops, pair it with your own exhaustion or liquidity tools.
• Parameter feasibility matters – If your thresholds are set beyond what your span can reasonably achieve, signals may rarely (or never) trigger.
• Chop happens – In mean-reverting or news-driven tape, expect more frequent flips unless you widen spans and thresholds.
• Intrabar movement – Like any responsive model, provisional intrabar states can appear before the bar closes. Use “bar close” alerts for finality.

Getting started (safe defaults you can adapt)
• Intraday bias – Shorter DM Length, modest span, moderately tight thresholds.
• Swing filter – Longer DM Length, wider span, stricter Long and sufficiently low Short.
• Conservative overlay – Keep thresholds firm and spans wide; use signals to scale risk rather than flip directions frequently.

Summary
DM Impulse Enhanced is a persistence-focused regime classifier built on directional-movement concepts. It answers a narrow question clearly “Risk-on or risk-off?” and stays with that answer until the evidence meaningfully changes. Use it as a bias switch, a portfolio risk overlay, or a gate for your existing entry logic, and size its spans/thresholds to the cadence of the market you trade.