MT5 BOS & CHoCH and FVG Indicator

A weak swing high is a bar whose high is not exceeded by the 3 bars on either side, set by Weak Swing Strength; a weak swing low is the mirror image. It appears once those 3 bars have closed.

Strong swings mark the turns between larger legs. A bar becomes a strong swing high when its high stays above the highs of the next 30 bars, set by Strong Swing Strength, at the point where a rising leg turns into a falling one; strong swing lows work the other way round. Strong swings therefore alternate between highs and lows and appear 30 bars after the swing bar.

Each new swing is compared with the previous swing on the same side: HH, LH or EH for highs, LL, HL or EL for lows, where EH and EL mark equal highs and lows. Weak swings use small labels and dashed structure lines, strong swings large labels and solid lines. Either scale can be switched off.

Weak Swings

Strong Swings

A break is labelled only when the swings before it form one of these sequences. Each arrow points to the next swing; the last step is the break of the marked swing, up for bullish breaks and down for bearish ones.

In the CHoCH variations, the swings that form before the break must all be on the same side: only lows before a bullish CHoCH, only highs before a bearish one. Equal highs and lows, EH and EL, are handled in the same way as HH and LL. The structure line runs from the swing to the break bar, where a blue point marks the break. Weak and strong swings are evaluated separately, so one move can be a CHoCH on one scale and a BoS on the other.

BoS and CHoCH each have their own confirmation price type. Close, the default, needs a bar to close beyond the swing level; High / Low counts the wick. With Close, a break on the forming bar is drawn as soon as price is beyond the level and removed if the bar closes back.

An optional break confirmation threshold requires price to clear the level by a minimum distance: in ticks, 5 by default, in points as a price distance on the chart, or as a percentage of the level. A percentage that suits one symbol can be far too wide for another: 2% of a level at 1.10000 is 0.02200.

A bullish fair value gap is a three-candle pattern in which the low of the third candle stays above the high of the first, and the middle candle spans the gap; a bearish gap is the mirror image. The indicator looks only for gaps in the direction of the latest break:

• After BOS/CHoCH checks the first 5 three-candle patterns that start at the break bar, set by Max Bars To Find FVG, so the break bar itself can be the first candle of a gap.
• BOS/CHoCH Impulse finds gaps inside the move from the broken swing to the break: from a few bars before the break bar, 18% of the move’s length and at least 2 bars, to 7% of its length and at least 1 bar after it. A gap is skipped if price came back more than 20% into it before the break.
• Combined, the default, uses both.

After BOS/CHoCH

BOS/CHoCH Impulse

Combined

A gap must be at least the minimum size, 5 ticks by default, set in ticks, in points as a price distance, or as a percentage of price. It is shown only after it has stayed open for 3 bars, set by FVG Min Length. A gap that price fills sooner is not drawn and gives no signal.

Partially, the default, mitigates a gap at the first touch of its near edge. Threshold mitigates it when price reaches a dotted line inside the gap, 30% by default, measured from the edge price reaches first. Fully waits until price has crossed the whole gap.

Mitigated Price Type decides which price counts: High / Low, the default, or Close. With Close, a mitigation on the forming bar is confirmed when the bar closes and removed if the close no longer qualifies. Mitigated gaps turn grey and stop extending.

Partially

Threshold 70%

Fully

When a bullish gap is mitigated, a green triangle marks a Long signal on that bar; when a bearish gap is mitigated, a red triangle marks a Short signal. Each gap gives at most one signal, and a gap that has already expired gives none. The markers are signals of the indicator’s conditions, not entries, stops or targets.

FVG Display Type set to Shrink redraws the open part of each active gap bar by bar, moving the near edge to the deepest price reached so far. Default keeps every gap at its original size.

FVG Display Type: Shrink

With Max FVG Duration enabled, a gap that is still active 50 bars after it formed, or after a set number of minutes, expires and is marked with a grey point. When the structure on the same swing scale turns the other way, active gaps of the old direction expire as well.

Active gaps are drawn green and red, mitigated gaps grey and expired gaps dark grey, each with its own opacity. Show FVG Type displays all gaps, only active ones, or only mitigated or expired ones.

Active, Mitigated and Expired FVGs

With strong swings enabled, two lines run to the current bar: a red one from the highest high since the last strong swing high and a green one from the lowest low since the last strong swing low. They move as price sets new extremes.

Swing labels for weak and strong swings can be shown or hidden and sized separately, in a standard blue tone or in bullish and bearish colours. The BoS and CHoCH label text, font size and style, the colours of bullish and bearish structures and the colours of each gap state can all be changed.

An alert is sent when a Long or Short marker appears in real time, at most once per bar, as a pop-up, a sound and an email, each switched on or off separately. BoS, CHoCH and new gaps do not trigger alerts. Emails go to the address set in MetaTrader 5 under Tools → Options → Email.

When enabled, the tracker records the maximum favourable and maximum adverse excursion after each Long and Short signal over up to four holding periods, set in seconds, minutes or days, and optionally until the opposite signal. Excursions are calculated from minute or tick data. The table shows the median MFE/MAE ratio for each period, and an Export button saves it to a file.

See how the MFE/MAE Tracker is calculated and how to read the table →

All events are available to an Expert Advisor through iCustom() and CopyBuffer(): buffers 0–1 hold the Long and Short signals, 2–3 the strong trend high and low, 4–13 gap detection, boundaries, mitigation and expiry, 14–17 bullish and bearish BoS and CHoCH, 18–29 the weak and strong swing types, and 30–39 the MFE/MAE values. Bars without a value hold EMPTY_VALUE.