Multi-Timeframe Candles Overlaid on Gold

What it shows

Shaded boxes on the price chart. A box is as wide as the chart candles inside its higher timeframe period and as tall as its range. Teal boxes are up periods (the close at or above the open) and red boxes are down periods. The newest box is still growing.

How Pravex works it out

1. Pick the higher timeframe. With the period picked from the chart it follows the chart: a chart candle under 1 minute gets 2 hours, under 1 day gets 1 day, under 1 week gets 1 week, under 28 days gets 1 month, under 84 days gets 3 months, anything larger gets 12 months. With that off, the Timeframe setting is used instead.
2. Cut the chart’s candles into periods of that length: fixed spans counted in UTC for seconds, minutes, hours and days, calendar weeks from Monday, and calendar months for the month options.
3. For each period, take the open of its first chart candle, the highest high, the lowest low and the close of its last chart candle.
4. Draw the box by the box shape setting: High/Low Range from the lowest low to the highest high; Open/Close Range between the open and the close; OHLC both boxes; True Range from the lowest of the low and the previous period’s close to the highest of the high and that close.
5. Colour it as an up box if the close is at or above the open, otherwise as a down box.
6. Only the most recent periods are drawn: about 500 boxes, or 250 periods in OHLC mode.

Settings

Setting	Default	What changing it does
Pick the period from the chart	on	Works out the higher timeframe from the chart’s own candle size, as described above. While it is on, the Timeframe setting is not used.
Timeframe	1 month	The period of each box when the period is not picked from the chart. The choices run from 1 second to 12 months, and Chart, which draws one box per chart candle. It only takes effect once the automatic pick is off.
Box shape	High/Low Range	What the box spans. High/Low is the full range; Open/Close is just the body; OHLC draws both, so you see body and range together; True Range also reaches the previous period’s close, so a gap is included.
Heikin Ashi averaging	off	Builds each period’s open and close the Heikin Ashi way before drawing. The close is the average of open, high, low and close; the open is the middle of the previous period’s Heikin Ashi open and close. High and low are widened to include both.
Take higher candles from the market	off	Takes the period’s open, high, low and close from the market’s own candles of the higher timeframe (daily or longer) instead of building them from the chart’s candles. It matters when the chart does not hold the whole period, such as a one-week chart with only a few days loaded. For periods shorter than a day it is ignored.

How traders read it

The box is the higher timeframe candle drawn where it happened. You see the daily range behind each hour, and you can tell at a glance whether the hourly candle you are watching sits at the top, the middle or the bottom of the day.

Traders use the edge of a box as a level. The top of the previous day’s box is a common line to watch for a break, and a close back inside the box tells a different story from a close outside it. A tall box means a wide-ranging period, a short one means a quiet period.

Say the day’s box (made-up prices) runs from 2,330 to 2,360 and the hourly candle is at 2,358. Price is in the top of the day’s range, near its high.

When it misleads

Boxes are built from the chart’s candles, so on a chart that only holds a few days of history the first boxes are cut off and look short. They are also aligned to UTC, not to the 17:00 New York trading day that gold daily candles use, so a daily box here may not match the daily candle on a daily chart; taking the higher candles from the market helps, though it uses the same UTC boundary for the match. The newest box changes with every candle. And while the period is picked from the chart, a change of the chart timeframe changes the box size too, which can be a surprise.

Questions and answers

How do I see the daily candle on a one-hour chart?

Add Multi-Timeframe Candles. With the period picked from the chart, a chart candle under a day gets daily boxes, so you see each day’s range behind the hourly candles.

What changes when I take the market’s own higher candles?

The higher-timeframe open, high, low and close come from the market’s own daily or longer candles, not from the chart’s candles. The result is usually the same, and differs mainly when the chart is missing part of the period.

Why is my Timeframe setting ignored?

The period is being picked from the chart, and Timeframe only works once that is turned off.

What is the difference between the box shapes?

High/Low draws the whole range, Open/Close just the body, OHLC both, and True Range stretches the range to the previous period’s close so gaps are included.

Related: Pivot Points High Low, Gaps, Auto Pitchfork, every indicator.