Drawing Price Channels from Three Extremum Points
Summary
This article describes how to draw a price channel in MetaTrader from three user selected local extrema. It explains extrema as local highs or lows, with bar patterns such as fractals offered as a convenient way to identify them. The implementation separates selecting points on the chart from drawing the channel: price labels store the time and price coordinates, while a channel indicator reads those points and updates the displayed lines. Object oriented classes hold extrema, sort them by time, and save or load their coordinates through terminal global variables.
The discussion focuses on practical charting details, including tracking changed extrema, handling gaps where bars are absent, and obtaining current channel boundaries. It demonstrates synchronizing the selected points and channel display across timeframes. The article does not test a trading rule or show performance evidence; its contribution is a charting method and implementation design. It suggests channels may later support decisions based on a boundary breakout or a pullback, but evaluating either use is left to follow up work.
Key ideas
- A channel can be positioned using three user selected local extrema on a price chart.
- Price labels provide time and price coordinates for storing the selected points.
- An extrema list sorts points by time and supports saving, loading, and lookup.
- The design separates point selection from channel drawing and can synchronize across timeframes.
- The article explains chart construction but does not evaluate the profitability of channel trading rules.
Tags
This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.