Two Products, One Workflow
This guide covers two companion products:
- Power Bar (Indicator): Detects extreme candles on one chart with built-in backtesting
- Power Bar Scanner (EA): Scans up to 50 symbols simultaneously for extreme candles
Recommended workflow: Scanner finds the signal, Power Bar gives you the analysis.
Power Bar Indicator
Setup
Attach to any chart. Immediately shows arrows on detected extreme candles and opens an interactive panel with backtested strategy statistics.
What is an "Extreme Candle"?
A candle whose body (Open-to-Close distance) exceeds a configurable multiple of the ATR (Average True Range). Default: body > 2.5x ATR with period 20.
The Three Strategies
| Strategy | Logic | SL/TP Lines |
|---|---|---|
| FlipFlop (FF) | Statistical tracking of direction patterns | No |
| Momentum (MOM) | Follow the extreme candle direction | Yes |
| Reversal (REV) | Fade the extreme candle (mean reversion) | Yes |
Click the tabs (FF / MOM / REV) to see each strategy's backtest results: trade count, win rate, total pips, max profit, max loss.
Interactive Controls
Use the +/- buttons in the panel to adjust parameters live:
- ATR Multiplier: 1.0 to 5.0 in 0.5 steps
- ATR Period: Cycles through 10, 14, 20, 30, 50
- SL%: 30-200% of ATR (Momentum/Reversal tabs only)
- TP%: 30-300% of ATR (Momentum/Reversal tabs only)
Statistics recalculate instantly as you adjust.
Interpreting the Results
- If Momentum shows 62% win rate over 80+ trades, that's a data point worth acting on
- If Reversal shows 38% over the same sample, avoid that approach on this instrument
- Compare MOM vs REV for each symbol/timeframe to determine whether it's a trend or mean-reversion market
Power Bar Scanner EA
Setup
- Place the EA on a dedicated chart (e.g., EURUSD M5)
- All symbols in your MetaTrader watchlist are automatically scanned
- Use the same ATR parameters as Power Bar for consistency
Panel Columns
| Column | Content | Sortable |
|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Symbol name (click to navigate) | Yes |
| Price | Current bid price | Yes |
| Signal | BUY / SELL / -- | Yes |
| Ratio | How extreme the signal is (e.g., "3.2x ATR") | Yes |
| Age | Minutes since the signal appeared | Yes |
Signal States
- Active (bright text, color bar): Signal within InpSignalAgeBars minutes
- Recent (dimmed text): Older signal, still visible
- No signal (all dim, "--"): No extreme bar detected
Key Parameters (Both Products)
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ATR Multiplier | 2.5 | Higher = fewer but more extreme signals |
| ATR Period | 20 | 14 is standard, 20 is smoother |
| SL% | 100 | Stop Loss as % of ATR |
| TP% | 150 | Take Profit as % of ATR |
Practical Tips
- Start with the FF tab to see how often extreme candles occur on your instrument
- Compare MOM vs REV for each instrument - some markets are mean-reverters, others trend
- High multiplier (4.0-5.0) on Daily finds rare, significant events
- Keep Scanner ATR parameters identical to Power Bar for consistent signals
- Sort Scanner by Ratio to see the strongest signals first
- Sort by Age for the freshest signals
- Scanner cooldown: Set InpCooldownSec to 300 (5 min) on volatile markets to prevent alert flooding
Common Issues
SL/TP lines not visible - They only show in MOM or REV tabs, not in FF.
Scanner shows "Waiting for extreme bars..." - InpShowOnlyActive is true and no signal is fresh enough. Reduce ATR multiplier or set InpShowOnlyActive to false.
Statistics don't match manual counting - Increase InpHistoryBars. Default 5000 may miss older signals. Also check MetaTrader's "Max bars in chart" setting.