Moon Phases Indicator on a Gold Chart

What it shows

A large circle above a candle where a new moon falls and a large circle below a candle where a full moon falls (blue and white by default, half see-through). The chart background is tinted faintly blue from a new moon to the next full moon (waxing) and faintly white from a full moon to the next new moon (waning). Only these two phases are marked, not the quarters.

How Pravex works it out

1. Pravex takes the time range of the loaded candles, widens it by about a month, and lists every new and full moon inside it. It uses Jean Meeus’s method for the phases of the moon (Astronomical Algorithms, chapter 49): a mean lunar cycle of about 29.53 days plus a set of correction terms for the sun’s and moon’s orbits. The code’s own note puts it at about a minute of accuracy.
2. The result is shifted by a fixed 69 seconds, the gap between astronomical time and UTC, and placed on the chart’s UTC timeline.
3. A candle gets the new-moon circle if the new-moon moment falls between its own time and the next candle’s time. The full moon works the same way. A phase that lands on a weekend, when gold has no candles, is attached to the last candle before the break.
4. The tint starts at the first phase in the loaded range. After a new moon candles are shaded as waxing until the next full moon, then as waning until the next new moon.

Settings

Setting	Default	What changing it does
Colour from new to full moon	blue	Colours the new moon circle and the faint background tint from a new moon to the next full moon. A look setting only; the dates do not change.
Colour from full to new moon	white	Colours the full moon circle and the tint from a full moon to the next new moon. On a light theme a darker colour makes the circles easier to see.

How traders read it

Moon-cycle traders compare turning points with the new and full moon dates. Treat it as a calendar you can test. Mark the dates on a long daily gold chart, count how many line up with a swing, and compare that with the same count for random dates.

There are twelve or thirteen full moons in a year, so a few years of them is a small sample. A handful of turns near a phase is easy to find in any chart and proves little by itself.

When it misleads

A phase is a single moment but the circle sits on a whole candle. On a daily chart, a new moon at 23:50 UTC and one at 00:10 UTC land on different candles even though they are twenty minutes apart. The dates are in UTC, so a full moon late on a Sunday evening in New York shows up on Monday. The marks are not signals: the code has no link between the lunar cycle and price, and no claim is made that one exists.

Questions and answers

How does Pravex calculate moon phases?

With a published astronomical formula (Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, chapter 49) computed in the app, not a data feed.

Does the Moon Phases indicator predict gold?

No. It only shows where the lunar dates fall against the candles. Whether they line up with turns is something you can check on a long chart.

Why are only new and full moons marked?

That is what the code draws. First and last quarters are not marked, but the tint changes colour at the new and full moon, so the waxing and waning halves of the cycle are still visible.

What time zone are the phases in?

UTC. A phase is placed on the candle whose time span holds that exact moment, so a daily candle in your time zone may show a phase that looks a day off.

Related: Seasonality, Trading Sessions, Performance, every indicator.