Smart Swing Indicator

The Problem with Most Charts

Every trader knows the feeling. You're staring at a chart, candles flickering, and you're not quite sure what you're looking at. Is this a trend? A reversal? Noise?

The problem isn't you. It's that raw price action hides its structure. The market moves in swings—rhythmic expansions and contractions—but standard charts don't show them. You're left guessing where one move ends and another begins.

Swing charting solves this. It's a method that cuts through the noise and reveals the market's actual footprint: where buyers took control, where sellers pushed back, and where the next move might begin.

The challenge? True swing chart tools have been locked behind expensive software—$150/month platforms, $3,000/year institutional packages. Or they've been attempted on TradingView with incomplete logic that breaks in real market conditions.

This indicator exists to change that.


What This Indicator Does

Smart Swing Indicator LITE implements mechanical swing chart rules directly on your TradingView chart. No external software. No subscription. No complexity.

When you add it to any chart, you'll immediately see swing lines connecting significant highs and lows according to objective rules. These aren't arbitrary trendlines you draw yourself—they're calculated automatically based on how each bar relates to the one before it.

The result is clarity. Where you once saw a jumble of candles, you now see structure: upswings and downswings, inside bars that pause the action, outside bars that signal potential shifts.


How Swings Form

The indicator follows strict mechanical rules that remove subjectivity from your analysis:

Up Bars
An up bar forms when both the high AND low exceed the previous qualifying bar. This AND logic—requiring both conditions—filters out the false signals that plague simpler approaches.



Down Bars
A down bar forms when both the high AND low fall below the previous qualifying bar. The same AND logic applies, ensuring only genuine directional moves register.



Inside Bars
Inside bars are ignored entirely. They represent consolidation—the market catching its breath, buyers and sellers in temporary equilibrium. This indecision doesn't define direction, so the swing continues as if they don't exist, preserving the larger structure.



Outside Bars
Outside bars are where most indicators fail. The bar exceeds both the high and low of the previous bar—so which direction wins?

This indicator uses "wait and see" logic: it holds a pending state until the next qualifying bar reveals the answer.

Outside Bar Continuation: If price resumes the prior trend direction, the indicator shows the intraday path—a distinctive zigzag revealing where the market tested the opposite direction but was rejected.



Outside Bar Reversal: If the outside bar marks a genuine trend change, the swing extends to its extreme before reversing, showing the exact level where market direction shifted.



[Your Preference
Traders disagree on how to handle outside bars. The indicator lets you choose:

- Mark as Continuation — Shows the zigzag path where price tested the opposite direction before resuming the trend (default)
- Mark as Reversal — Treats the outside bar as a pivot point, reversing the swing at its extreme
- Skip Entirely — Ignores outside bars completely, waiting for cleaner signals

There's no "correct" answer—it depends on your charting philosophy and how much detail you want to see.

Visual Styles

You can display swing lines in two styles depending on your visual preference:

Rectangular: Lines move horizontally to the swing point, then vertically to the next level. This style emphasizes the price levels themselves.

Diagonal: Lines connect swing points directly. This style emphasizes the angle and momentum of each move.



Both show the same underlying structure—choose whichever helps you read the chart more naturally.


What You See on Your Chart

Labels appear at each swing point showing the data that matters: the price range of the swing, the absolute price level, and the duration in days. This information appears cleanly at each turning point, giving you immediate context without cluttering your chart.

Inside bars and outside bars can be highlighted with distinct colors, so you always know which bars are actively participating in the swing structure and which are in consolidation or pending states.




Works Everywhere

The indicator functions on any market TradingView supports—stocks, forex, futures, crypto, commodities—and on any timeframe from 1-minute scalping charts to monthly position trading views.

Decimal precision adjusts automatically based on the instrument. A forex pair displays pips correctly; a stock displays dollars and cents; Bitcoin displays appropriate precision for its price range.


Who This Is For

If you've never used swing charting before, this is your introduction. The visual clarity alone will change how you see price action. You'll start noticing structure that was always there but hidden beneath the noise.

If you're familiar with swing concepts but tired of drawing lines manually or paying for external software, this brings the method home to TradingView where it belongs.

And if you're evaluating whether swing charting fits your trading style, this free version gives you everything you need to decide—no commitment, no trial period, no pressure.


The Philosophy Behind the Design

Markets generate endless data. The question isn't how to see more—it's how to see what matters.

This indicator doesn't try to predict anything. It doesn't generate buy or sell signals. It simply reveals the structure that's already present in price action and lets you—the human—decide what to do with that information.

That's intentional. The best tools don't replace your judgment; they clarify the situation so your judgment can work with better information.


Getting Started

Add the indicator to any chart. The default settings work well for most situations. If you want to adjust colors, line styles, or label content, everything is customizable in the settings panel.

Spend time with it. Watch how swings form and complete. Notice how inside bars pause the action and outside bars create moments of decision. The patterns will start to make sense quickly.

Explore the settings panel to customize colors, line styles, and label content to your preference.


For Traders Ready for More

This LITE version covers the essential swing charting foundation. For traders who want deeper analysis—multi-day swing periods, price and time ratios, comprehensive alerts, data export—there's a PRO version that extends these foundations with professional-grade tools.

But start here. Master the basics. The structure is the same; PRO simply adds more ways to measure and act on it.