What it does
Heikin-Ashi Smoothed draws its own candles on top of the price chart. They are built from smoothed prices, so runs of same-coloured candles are longer and colour changes are less frequent than with ordinary candlesticks or standard Heikin-Ashi. Blue candles show an up phase and orange-red candles a down phase.
An arrow marks each closed bar where the candle colour flips, and an alert can fire at the same time.
How it works
- Pre-smoothing: the open, high, low and close are each smoothed with the chosen moving average (EMA over 6 bars by default). Simple, exponential, smoothed (Wilder) and linear weighted methods are available.
- Heikin-Ashi on the smoothed prices: HA close = (open + high + low + close) ÷ 4, and HA open = (previous HA open + previous HA close) ÷ 2.
- Post-smoothing: the HA open and HA close are smoothed again (EMA over 3 bars by default). Set the length to 1 to skip this step.
- Candle high = the larger of the smoothed high and the final open and close. Candle low = the smaller of the smoothed low and the final open and close.
- The candle is blue when the final close is at or above the final open, otherwise orange-red.
How to use it
- For a cleaner view, switch the chart itself to line mode or set the bar colours to match the background (Properties, Colors), so only the smoothed candles are visible.
- Read sequences, not single candles: a long blue run describes a steady advance, and a long orange-red run a steady decline.
- Colour changes are trend-turn hints. They lag price, so many traders confirm them with a break of a recent swing or with support and resistance.
- Small candle bodies after a long run can show the move losing pace before the colour actually changes.
- Remember that these candles are not real prices. Use the actual bid and ask for entries, stops and targets.
Settings
| Input | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-smoothing method | Exponential | Character of the first smoothing |
| Pre-smoothing length | 6 | Higher values give longer runs and later colour changes |
| Post-smoothing method | Exponential | Character of the second smoothing |
| Post-smoothing length | 3 | Extra smoothing of the candle bodies; 1 turns it off |
| Arrows on colour changes | true | Show or hide the flip arrows |
| Pop-up alert / Push notification | false / false | One alert per closed bar on a new colour change |
Limitations
- Every smoothing step adds lag. A colour change can come several bars after the real turn in price.
- The displayed open, high, low and close are synthetic and differ from the market prices you trade at.
- In ranges, colour changes still alternate and give false starts.
- The live candle changes with each tick; arrows and alerts are confirmed on the bar close.
- Educational tool only. Trading involves substantial risk of loss, so practise on a demo account first.