Monitoring Live Spreads and Detecting Sustained Spread Spikes
Summary
The document describes an on-chart spread monitor for tracking trading costs on a selected symbol. It calculates spread from the live Ask and Bid, then displays the current value alongside the minimum, average, and maximum observed since the indicator was attached. It also reports the sample count and monitoring start time, and colors the current reading according to configurable warning and danger levels.
An optional alert is triggered when the spread remains at or above the danger level for a chosen number of consecutive seconds; a cooldown limits repeated alerts. The monitor is presented as a way to assess conditions around news or rollover, compare demo and live broker quotes, tune a strategy’s spread filter, and observe spread behavior across sessions. It is informational only: the text says it does not place trades or produce chart plots. No measurement results or alert-performance evidence are provided, and the collected statistics cover only the period since the indicator was started.
Key ideas
- Calculating spread from Ask minus Bid captures fractional spreads more accurately than relying on an integer symbol property.
- The panel tracks current, minimum, average, and maximum spread from the time monitoring begins.
- Configurable thresholds can categorize the current spread and trigger alerts for sustained high readings.
- A cooldown helps limit repeated alerts during a prolonged spread spike.
- Observed spread behavior can inform tradeability checks and maximum-spread filters, but the monitor itself does not trade.
Tags
This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.