Signals and trade management
Profit Hunter
Adaptive ATR trend that maps the entry, stop, and three targets on every flip.
Profit Hunter is a trend overlay that draws the whole plan. An adaptive ATR engine tracks the trend, and on every confirmed flip it projects a full trade map: an entry, a volatility stop, and three take-profit targets, with a dashboard that tracks the open setup and a rolling win rate. Its one job is to turn a trend read into a plan you can act on.
What it does
Most trend tools draw a line and leave the hard part to you. Profit Hunter answers the next four questions on the chart: which way the trend runs, where you get in, where you are wrong, and where you take profit.
- Tracks the trend. An adaptive average drifts with the move and re-centers only when price travels more than one ATR away, so it stays calm in chop and turns when the move is real.
- Draws volatility bands. Upper and lower bands sit a share of an adaptive hold value from the average. They widen in volatile phases and tighten in quiet ones.
- Prints LONG and SHORT flips. A flip fires when the trend direction changes and clears two filters: a close on the correct side and a minimum ATR distance from the average.
- Maps the trade. Each flip projects an entry, an ATR-buffered stop, and TP1 / TP2 / TP3 as shaded zones and labeled lines, then tags the realized percent as each target is reached.
- Tracks the open setup. A dashboard reads trend, last signal, bars in trade, floating profit, distance to the stop, and a rolling win rate over recent setups.
Try it
The control that shapes the whole trade is the Multiplicative Factor (default 4.0). It scales the ATR bands and the stop. Drag it. A bigger factor widens the bands and pushes the stop further from entry, so one unit of risk (1R) grows and the green TP1 / TP2 / TP3 targets spread out. A smaller factor pulls everything in. The readout shows the open trade measured in R.
Synthetic data, for illustration. The Multiplicative Factor scales the ATR bands and the stop. A bigger factor widens the bands and sets the stop further from entry, so one unit of risk (1R) grows and the green TP1 / TP2 / TP3 targets spread out. A smaller factor tightens everything in. TP1 / TP2 / TP3 sit at 0.5R / 1.0R / 1.5R. “Open trade” reads how far price has run from entry in R. The real indicator runs on your TradingView chart.
In plain words
You buy at the white line. The red line below is your safety line: if price falls to it, you are out. The gap between the two is one step of risk, called 1R. The green lines are reward steps, set here at half a step, one step, and one and a half steps of profit.
The slider sets how wide the bands and the safety gap are. Wider means a bigger step, so the green lines spread out. Tighter bunches them up. "Open trade" says how many steps price has gained since you bought, so +1R means it has run one full step in your favor.
In the live tool the Multiplicative Factor sits next to Slope, ATR Length, and Width % for the trend engine, a Confirm Flip With Close filter, a Min Flip Distance (ATR) filter, and the three risk-reward inputs that place the targets.
Markets, phases, timeframes
Assets and markets
- Crypto: BTC, ETH, and liquid majors like SOL, BNB, and LINK.
- Futures: ES, NQ, CL, GC, and BTC perps.
- FX majors: EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY and the main crosses.
- Large-cap stocks and indices: AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, the S&P and Nasdaq indices.
- It works worse on thin altcoins and gappy small caps, where the average re-centers on noise and flips too often.
Market phases
- Clean trends: the average runs at an angle, the bands hold their width, and a single flip rides for a long stretch. This is where the trade map pays.
- Pullbacks inside a trend: the minimum-distance filter keeps small dips from triggering a fresh flip, so the open setup survives a shallow correction.
- Low-volatility chop: price hugs the average and flips back and forth without clearing the filters cleanly. Most of those flips go nowhere. Stand aside.
- Post-news expansion: ATR jumps, the bands widen, and the stop backs off. That is by design, so a volatility spike does not knock you out at the worst moment.
Timeframes
| Timeframe | Use |
|---|---|
| H1 | Minimum working timeframe. Active swing trading, a few flips a week on liquid pairs. |
| H4 | Balanced mode. Clean trend waves and a good ratio of flip frequency to quality. |
| D1 | Swing and position trading. The main mode for reading bias and holding larger positions. |
| W1 | Long-horizon picture. Rare, strong flips. Useful as a bias filter for lower timeframes. |
Below H1 the average re-centers on noise: many flips, lower quality. Tune ATR Length and Slope up to compensate, or move up a timeframe.
What you see on the chart
The tool draws the adaptive average and its two volatility bands, with a colored fill that turns green or red with the trend. On each flip it stamps a LONG or SHORT label and projects the trade map to the right, and a corner dashboard shows the live state.
The thick center line, green while the trend is up. The fill between the bands shares its color and widens as volatility rises. The line re-centers toward price on a real displacement and otherwise drifts in the trend direction.
The same line and fill turn red while the trend is down. The color flips exactly at the signal.
A LONG label prints at the flip when the trend turns up and both filters pass. It marks the start of a new trade map.
A SHORT label prints at the down-flip, the mirror of LONG.
Shaded zones and labeled lines for Entry, SL, and TP1 / TP2 / TP3, projected to the right for the Trade Zone Length. The red zone is risk (entry to stop), the green zones are reward (entry up through the targets).
When price touches a target, a 1TP / 2TP / 3TP tag prints the realized percent at that level.
A six-row corner readout of the live trade and market state, color-coded green for bullish and red for bearish.
| Row | Shows | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Trend | Direction of the adaptive average | UP, DOWN |
| Last Signal | The active scenario direction | LONG, SHORT, NONE |
| Bars Since | Bars since the active flip | A bar count, or n/a |
| Profit % | Floating profit from the entry. Green when positive, red when negative | A two-decimal percent, or n/a |
| To Stop | Distance from price to the stop, in percent | A two-decimal percent, or n/a |
| Win Rate | Share of recent setups that reached TP1 before the stop | A percent over the sample, or n/a |
How to use it
A green fill means an uptrend, red means a downtrend. The average and its bands are your at-a-glance read before any trade.
Enter on a LONG or SHORT label, on the flip bar close or the next open. The flip already passed the close-confirmation and minimum-distance filters, so the weakest signals are dropped before they print.
The red line is your stop, set beyond the opposite band plus a small ATR buffer. TP1 / TP2 / TP3 are projected from your risk-reward inputs. Scale out at the targets or trail behind the average, your call.
Trend, last signal, floating profit, distance to stop, and the rolling win rate tell you how the open setup is doing without re-reading the chart.
Raise the Multiplicative Factor and Slope for a smoother, slower trend with fewer flips. Lower them for a faster, more reactive one. Set it once per instrument and leave it.
Typical scenarios
- Swing entry on a flip. Take the LONG or SHORT, stop on the red line, and let TP1 lock in a quick partial while TP2 and TP3 run.
- Trend filter for another system. Only take longs while the trend reads UP and shorts while it reads DOWN, and ignore your own counter-trend setups.
- Multi-timeframe confluence. A D1 uptrend plus an H4 LONG flip is a stronger setup than either alone.
When to ignore the flip
- The trend flipped two or three times in the last 10 to 15 bars. The market is ranging and the flips are noise.
- The average is almost flat and price is sitting on it. There is no trend to ride. Wait for a clear direction.
- The flip landed on a news release before ATR had time to widen. Skip it or wait for a second flip.
- You are on M15 or lower. H1 is the minimum sensible timeframe here.
Settings and signals
Defaults below are the real values from the indicator. Start there and change one thing at a time.
| Parameter | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Multiplicative Factor | 4.0 | Scales the ATR used for the bands and the trend step. Higher is a wider channel and a slower, smoother trend. Lower is a tighter channel and a more reactive one. |
Slope | 12.0 | How quickly the trend line advances and how fast band width relaxes after a flip. Higher is slower and smoother, lower tracks price more aggressively. |
ATR Length | 150 | Window for the base ATR that drives band width and the flip threshold. Higher is a smoother, slower volatility estimate. |
Width % | 75 | Width of the visible bands as a percentage of the internal hold value. Higher is a wider channel around the line. |
Confirm Flip With Close | true | Require a close on the correct side of the average before a flip counts. On is fewer, cleaner flips. Off is earlier but noisier. |
Min Flip Distance (ATR) | 0.15 | Minimum distance between price and the average, in ATR units, for a flip to count. Higher filters out weak flips that hug the line. |
TP1 Risk/Reward | 0.5 | First target distance as a multiple of the initial risk. Lower makes TP1 closer and more frequently reached. |
TP2 Risk/Reward | 1.0 | Second target distance as a multiple of the initial risk. |
TP3 Risk/Reward | 1.5 | Third target distance as a multiple of the initial risk. |
SL Buffer ATR | 0.10 | Extra buffer beyond the opposite band where the stop is placed, in ATR units. Higher is a wider stop with more room. |
Trade Zone Length, bars | 100 | How far to the right the active trade zone and lines extend, in bars. Purely the visual length of the projection. |
Win Rate Sample | 50 | Number of recent closed setups used for the rolling win rate. Higher is a smoother, slower figure. |
Show Trend Bands / Fill | true | Show or hide the volatility bands and the colored fill between them. |
Show Active Trade Zone / Lines | true | Show or hide the shaded Entry, SL, and TP zones and their labeled lines. |
Show Dashboard | true | Show or hide the corner table with trend, signal, profit, stop distance, and win rate. |
The indicator exposes three alert events through alertcondition. Set TradingView alerts on them and choose Once Per Bar Close so events fire only on a closed candle.
| Signal | Condition | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Profit Hunter LONG | Trend flips up, price clears the minimum ATR distance, and (optionally) closes above the average | The buy signal. A LONG label and a fresh trade map. |
| Profit Hunter SHORT | Trend flips down, price clears the distance filter, and (optionally) closes below the average | The sell signal. A SHORT label and a fresh trade map. |
| Profit Hunter Signal | Either flip fires | A combined event for one alert on any new signal. |
Glossary
- LONG
- A bet on a rise. You buy lower and aim to sell higher. The green flip on the chart.
- SHORT
- A bet on a fall. The exchange lets you sell an asset you do not own, then buy it back cheaper for the difference. The red flip.
- Flip
- The moment the trend direction changes and the average turns the other way. Profit Hunter prints a flip only after two filters pass.
- ATR
- Average range of a bar over the recent window. Roughly how much the asset is moving right now. Bigger ATR means bigger candles and a wider stop.
- Band
- The upper and lower lines around the average. They widen when volatility rises and tighten when it falls, and the stop is set just beyond the far band.
- 1R
- One unit of risk: the distance from entry to stop. Profit reads cleanly in R, so a target at 1.5R aims for one and a half times what you risked.
- Floating profit
- Profit on a trade that is still open. The number moves every tick and is not money in your pocket until you close.
- Win rate
- Here, the share of recent setups that reached TP1 before the stop. A rough read on how the current settings behave, not a promise.
Risk and position size
The trade map puts your risk on the chart in plain numbers. The signal is maybe a fifth of the result, and risk management is the rest. Beginners rarely blow up because a flip was wrong; they blow up by sizing in too big and skipping the stop, and the red line is there to prevent exactly that. Let it set your size.
On any one trade, risk no more than 1 to 2 percent of the account. A hit stop then costs 1 to 2 percent and the account survives a losing run.
Your entry is the flip, your stop is the red line. The gap between them is 1R, your risk per unit.
Position size = (cash you are willing to lose) / (distance from entry to stop). A wider band means a wider stop and a smaller size for the same cash risk.
In plain words
Account $1,000. You risk 1 percent, so $10 on this trade. A LONG flips and you enter at $100. The stop sits at $95, so 1R is $5.
Size = $10 risk / $5 stop distance = 2 units. A hit stop loses exactly $10. Price reaching TP2 at 1.0R makes $10, and TP3 at 1.5R makes $15. Raise the Multiplicative Factor and the stop drops further, so the same $10 buys fewer units.
Common mistakes
- Sizing in on the whole balance. One candle against you and the account is gone. Let the risk decide the size, every time.
- Taking every flip on M5 and M15. On low timeframes there are dozens a day and most are noise. Wait for H1 and up.
- Trading the chop. If the trend flipped two or three times in the last 10 to 15 bars, the market is ranging. Stand aside.
- Moving the stop away to sit out a drawdown. The thought "it will turn back any second" has emptied more accounts than any crash.
- Reading the win rate as a promise. It is a rolling sample of past setups on this chart, not the odds of the next trade.
- Re-tuning the engine after every loss. Leave the defaults and judge it over 20 to 30 trades before you change anything.
Limitations
- In a flat, choppy range the average flips back and forth and the trade maps go nowhere. Stand aside until the market picks a direction.
- A lower Multiplicative Factor or Slope reacts faster but flips more often. A higher one is smoother but later. Pick the trade-off on purpose.
- Below H1 the average is too sensitive to noise. Many flips, lower quality. H1 is the minimum sensible timeframe.
- The win rate counts TP1 before the stop on a rolling sample. It is context, not a forecast, and it says nothing about how far TP2 or TP3 run.
- It maps risk and makes no promise about the outcome. The trader keeps full responsibility for execution.
Educational tool. Not financial advice. Trading involves risk.
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