Market Structure & Liquidity: CHoCHs+Nested Pivots+FVGs+Sweeps

8. Apr. 2023

//Purpose:
This indicator combines several tools to help traders track and interpret price action/market structure; It can be divided into 4 parts;
1. CHoCHs, 2. Nested Pivot highs & lows, 3. Grade sweeps, 4. FVGs.
This gives the trader a toolkit for determining market structure and shifts in market structure to help determine a bull or bear bias, whether it be short-term, med-term or long-term.
This indicator also helps traders in determining liquidity targets: wether they be voids/gaps (FVGS) or old highs/lows+ typical sweep distances.
Finally, the incorporation of HTF CHoCH levels printing on your LTF chart helps keep the bigger picture in mind and tells traders at a glance if they're above of below Custom HTF CHoCH up or CHoCH down (these HTF CHoCHs can be anything from Hourly up to Monthly).

//Nomenclature:
CHoCH = Change of Character
STH/STL = short-term high or low
MTH/MTL = medium-term high or low
LTH/LTL = long-term high or low
FVG = Fair value gap
CE = consequent encroachement (the midline of a FVG)

~~~ The Four components of this indicator ~~~

1. CHoCHs:
•Best demonstrated in the below charts. This was a method taught to me by @Icecold_crypto. Once a 3 bar fractal pivot gets broken, we count backwards the consecutive higher lows or lower highs, then identify the CHoCH as the opposite end of the candle which ended the consecutive backwards count. This CHoCH (UP or DOWN) then becomes a level to watch, if price passes through it in earnest a trader would consider shifting their bias as market structure is deemed to have shifted.
•HTF CHoCHs: Option to print Higher time frame chochs (default on) of user input HTF. This prints only the last UP choch and only the last DOWN choch from the input HTF. Solid line by default so as to distinguish from local/chart-time CHoCHs. Can be any Higher timeframe you like.
•Show on table: toggle on show table(above/below) option to show in table cells (top right): is price above the latest HTF UP choch, or is price below HTF DOWN choch (or is it sat between the two, in a state of 'uncertainty').
•Most recent CHoCHs which have not been met by price will extend 10 bars into the future.
•USER INPUTS: overall setting: SHOW CHOCHS | Set bars lookback number to limit historical Chochs. Set Live CHoCHs number to control the number of active recent chochs unmet by price. Toggle shrink chochs once hit to declutter chart and minimize old chochs to their origin bars. Set Multi-timeframe color override: to make Color choices auto-set to your preference color for each of 1m, 5m, 15m, H, 4H, D, W, M (where up and down are same color, but 'up' icon for up chochs and down icon for down chochs remain printing as normal)

2. Nested Pivot Highs & Lows; aka 'Pivot Highs & Lows (ST/MT/LT)'
•Based on a seperate, longer lookback/lookforward pivot calculation. Identifies Pivot highs and lows with a 'spikeyness' filter (filtering out weak/rounded/unimpressive Pivot highs/lows)
•by 'nested' I mean that the pivot highs are graded based on whether a pivot high sits between two lower pivot highs or vice versa.
--for example: STH = normal pivot. MTH is pivot high with a lower STH on either side. LTH is a pivot high with a lower MTH on either side. Same applies to pivot lows (STL/MTL/LTL)
•This is a useful way to measure the significance of a high or low. Both in terms of how much it might be typically swept by (see later) and what it would imply for HTF bias were we to break through it in earnest (more than just a sweep).
•USER INPUTS: overall setting: show pivot highs & lows | Bars lookback (historical pivots to show) | Pivots: lookback/lookforward length (determines the scale of your pivot highs/lows) | toggle on/off Apply 'Spikeyness' filter (filters out smooth/unimpressive pivot highs/lows). Set Spikeyness index (determines the strength of this filter if turned on) | Individually toggle on each of STH, MTH, LTH, STL, MTL, LTL along with their label text type, and size. Toggle on/off line for each of these Pivot highs/lows. | Set label spacer (atr multiples above / below) | set line style and line width

3. Grade Sweeps:
•These are directly related to the nested pivots described above. Most assets will have a typical sweep distance. I've added some of my expected sweeps for various assets in the indicator tooltips.
--i.e. Eur/Usd 10-20-30 pips is a typical 'grade' sweep. S&P 5-10 is a typical grade sweep.
•Each of the ST/MT/LT pivot highs and lows have optional user defined grade sweep boxes which paint above until filled (or user option for historical filled boxes to remain).
•Numbers entered into sweep input boxes are auto converted into appropriate units (i.e. pips for FX, $ or 'handles' for indices, $ for Crypto. Very low $ units can be input for low unit value crypto altcoins.
•USER INPUTS: overall setting: Show sweep boxes | individually select colors of each of STH, MTH, LTH, STL, MTL, LTL sweep boxes. | Set Grade sweep (/pips) number for each of ST, MT, LT. This auto converts between pips and $ (i.e. FX vs Indices/Crypto). Can be a float as small or large as you like ($0.000001 to 11000). | Set box text position (horizontal & vertical) and size, and color. | Set Box width (bars) (for non extended/ non-auto-terminating at price boxes). | toggle on/off Extend boxes/lines right. | Toggle on/off Shrink Grade sweeps on fill (they will disappear in realtime when filled/passed through)

4. FVGs:
•Fair Value gaps. Represent 'naked' candle bodies where the wicks to either side do not meet, forming a 'gap' of sorts which has a tendency to fill, or at least to fill to midline (CE).
•These are ICT concepts. 'UP' FVGS are known as BISIs (Buyside imbalance, sellside inefficiency); 'DOWN' FVGs are known as SIBIs (Sellside imbalance, buyside inefficiency).
•USER INPUTS: overall setting: show FVGs | Bars lookback (history). | Choose to display: 'UP' FVGs (BISI) and/or 'DOWN FVGs (SIBI). Choose to display the midline: CE, the color and the line style. Choose threshold: use CE (as opposed to Full Fill) |toggle on/off Shrink FVG on fill (CE hit or Full fill) (declutter chart/see backtesting history)

////••Alerts (general notes & cautionary notes)::
•Alerts are optional for most of the levels printed by this indicator. Set them via the three dots on indicator status line.
•Due to dynamic repainting of levels, alerts should be used with caution. Best use these alerts either for Higher time frame levels, or when closely monitoring price.
--E.g. You may set an alert for down-fill of the latest FVG below; but price will keep marching up; form a newer/higher FVG, and the alert will trigger on THAT FVG being down-filled (not the original)
•Available Alerts:
-FVG(BISI) cross above threshold(CE or full-fill; user choice). Same with FVG(SIBI).
-HTF last CHoCH down, cross below | HTF last CHoCH up, cross above.
-last CHoCH down, cross below | last CHoCH up, cross above.
-LTH cross above, MTH cross above, STH cross above | LTL cross below, MTL cross below, STL cross below.

////••Formatting (general)::
•all table text color is set from the 'Pivot highs & Lows (ST, MT, LT)' section (for those of you who prefer black backgrounds).
•User choice of Line-style, line color, line width. Same with Boxes. Icon choice for chochs. Char or label text choices for ST/MT/LT pivot highs & lows.

////••User Inputs (general):
•Each of the 4 components of this indicator can be easily toggled on/off independently.
•Quite a lot of options and toggle boxes, as described in full above. Please take your time and read through all the tooltips (hover over '!' icon) to get an idea of formatting options.
•Several Lookback periods defined in bars to control how much history is shown for each of the 4 components of this indicator.
•'Shrink on fill' settings on FVGs and CHoCHs: Basically a way to declutter chart; toggle on/off depending on if you're backtesting or reading live price action.
•Table Display: applies to ST/MT/LT pivot highs and to HTF CHoCHs; Toggle table on or off (in part or in full)

////••Credits:
•Credit to ICT (Inner Circle Trader) for some of the concepts used in this indicator (FVGS & CEs; Grade sweeps).
•Credit to Icecold_crypto for the specific and novel concept of identifying CHoCHs in a simple, objective and effective manner (as demonstrated in the 1st chart below).

CHoCH demo page 1: shifting tweak; arrow diagrams to demonstrate how CHoCHs are defined:


CHoCH demo page 2: Simplified view; short lookback history; few CHoCHs, demo of 'latest' choch being extended into the future by 10 bars:


USAGE: Bitcoin Hourly using HTF daily CHoCHs:


USAGE-2: Cotton Futures (CT1!) 2hr. Painting a rather bullish picture. Above HTF UP CHoCH, Local CHoCHs show bullish order flow, Nice targets above (MTH/LTH + grade sweeps):


Full Demo; 5min chart; CHoCHs, Short term pivot highs/lows, grade sweeps, FVGs:


Full Demo, Eur/Usd 15m: STH, MTH, LTH grade sweeps, CHoCHs, Usage for finding bias (part A):


Full Demo, Eur/Usd 15m: STH, MTH, LTH grade sweeps, CHoCHs, Usage for finding bias, 3hrs later (part B):


Realtime Vs Backtesting(A): btc/usd 15m; FVGs and CHoCHs: shrink on fill, once filled they repaint discreetly on their origin bar only. Realtime (Shrink on fill, declutter chart):


Realtime Vs Backtesting(B): btc/usd 15m; FVGs and CHoCHs: DON'T shrink on fill; they extend to the point where price crosses them, and fix/paint there. Backtesting (seeing historical behaviour):