HA (Heikin-Ashi candles)¶
What it shows: smoothed candles. Each Heikin-Ashi candle averages the real candle with the one before, so trends show as runs of one colour (green up, red down) with fewer mixed candles.
How people use it: green candles mean an uptrend, red a downtrend. A turn from red to green is used as a buy signal; green to red as a sell.
Pairs well with: a moving average or ADX to filter colour changes in sideways markets.
Settings¶
None. It has no settings to change.
Ready-made conditions¶
| For | Condition | Fires when |
|---|---|---|
| Buy | Heikin-Ashi candle is green (HA close above HA open) | every candle HA close is above the HA open line |
| Buy | Heikin-Ashi candle turns green | the one candle HA close moves from below the HA open line to above it |
| Sell | Heikin-Ashi candle is red (HA close below HA open) | every candle HA close is below the HA open line |
| Sell | Heikin-Ashi candle turns red | the one candle HA close moves from above the HA open line to below it |
"Above", "below", "is" and "rising" / "falling" stay true on every candle the state lasts, so they can fire many candles in a row. "Crosses" and "flips" fire once, on the candle it happens, so you get one signal per move.
Warnings you may see¶
- "… uses Heikin-Ashi candles with On candle touch: the current candle's Heikin-Ashi values keep changing until it closes, so a signal can come from a candle that ends up looking different. Heikin-Ashi is normally used with On candle close.": shown when the strategy's trigger is On candle touch and the condition is on the main timeframe. This one appears only in the strategy's Entry / Exit section, not under the condition. Consider On candle close. You can still save it.
- "It compares a line with itself (same indicator, same settings), so it can never fire. Give the two lines different settings.": both sides of the condition are the very same line. Pick a different line or different settings for one side. With ">=", "<=", "==" or "touches" the message ends "so it is always true" instead.
- "It can never be true: a cross happens on one candle, so it cannot happen on N candles in a row. Use 'within the last N candles' instead.": a "crosses" condition with a "… in a row" lookback of 2 or more. Switch the lookback to Within the last.
Where they show: on the Strategies page, open Create entry conditions / Edit entry conditions (or the exit ones). Each condition's messages appear right under it. The setting messages ("must be between", "whole number", "must be one of", "must be smaller than") start with the indicator's short name, for example "MACD: Fast must be between 1 and 1000", and keep the conditions from being saved until fixed. The other warnings never block saving and are repeated in the strategy's Entry or Exit section, starting with the condition's name.
Good to know¶
- It is worked out from each candle's open, high, low and close (not volume).
- Use it with On candle close: on On candle touch the current Heikin-Ashi candle can change colour until it closes. For "2 green candles in a row", add a lookback to the colour condition.
- It needs some history before its value settles: a fixed 30 candles (each Heikin-Ashi candle is built from the 30 candles before it). Apathia loads that history for you.