Scissors&Knifes V3.1

✂️ The Scissors (PAG Chop V4 Engine)
🧠 Core idea

Scissors measure market compression and breakout readiness.
They use a modified Choppiness Index that looks at the relationship between:

True Range volatility (ATR × period length)

The total high–low range over the same window.

The smaller the ratio (sum of TR vs range), the more directional and impulsive the market is.
The higher the ratio, the more “sideways” the market trades.

This version smooths the result over PAG_SMOOTHLEN bars and applies several color bands that correspond to volatility states.

🎨 Color code meaning
Range State Color Interpretation
≤ 30 Strong Red #8B0000 Momentum exhaustion on downside, sellers dominating — about to reverse or already strong down-trend.
30 – 38 Brick Red #A52A2A Fading downside pressure; often the “bleeding edge” of a bearish climax.
38 – 55 Transparent black (α≈100) Neutral chop zone — indecision, range-building.
55 – 61.8 Yellow (optional) #DAA520 Early compression pocket where volatility starts contracting; the calm before a trend.
61.8 – 70 Bright Green #556B2F Energy release phase: volatility breaking out upward.
≥ 70 Strong Green #355E3B Sustained bullish drive, often continuation leg of a trend.

🪶 Secret nuance:
The transition bands (38–45 and 45–55) are treated as fully transparent to mark “dead zones.”
When PAG Chop sits here, all label activity pauses — the system resets its cluster memory so the next colored print begins a new “cluster”, letting you clearly see where fresh directional momentum starts.

🧩 Cluster logic

Every time a colored (non-transparent) reading appears, it belongs to a “color cluster.”
Grey labels (= count 1) mark the genesis of a new cluster, and following counts 2, 3, 4 … represent the internal continuity of that trend state.
You can optionally hide the first N grey or count 2 labels to reduce clutter on the initial stabilization bars.

✂️ Label meaning

Each label shows:

Emoji ✂️

Current count (e.g. ✂️ = 3 means 3 timeframes are simultaneously firing)

Optional list of the timeframes that contribute.

So a high count (e.g. 8–10) means many lower TFs are synchronizing volatility breakout — a multiframe alignment, often just before an acceleration burst.

🔪 The Knife (Mr Blonde V4 Engine)
🧠 Core idea

Mr Blonde converts the slope of a long EMA into an angle-of-attack metric — literally the “tilt” of market momentum.
It computes the EMA gradient relative to price span and rescales it into degrees (-5 ° to +5 °).
The steeper the angle, the stronger the directional push.

🎨 Color code meaning
Angle range Color Interpretation
≥ +5 ° Transparent (Black 1) Fully over-extended up move — wait for reset.
+3.57 – +5 ° Dark Red Strong upward slope, momentum apex.
+2.14 – +3.57 ° Orange Medium upward slope, trend acceleration zone.
+0.71 – +2.14 ° Light Orange Mild upward bias, pre-momentum phase.
0 to -0.71 ° Yellow Neutral transition.
-0.71 – -2.14 ° Olive Green Soft bearish slope.
-2.14 – -3.57 ° Olive Drab Building bearish momentum.
-3.57 – -5 ° Hunter Green Strong downward angle, aggressive push.
≤ -5 ° Transparent (Black 2) Oversold/over-tilted — likely exhaustion.

🪶 Secret nuance:
Mr Blonde uses a “span normalization” factor that divides EMA slope by the dynamic range of highs and lows.
This lets it compare angles fairly across assets with different volatility profiles (e.g. BTC vs ES) — it’s one of the rare EMA-angle implementations that self-scales properly.

🗡 Label meaning

Emoji 🔪

Count = how many TFs share the same momentum angle bias.

When many TFs show the same slope polarity (e.g. knife = 8), you’re in a deep momentum cascade — a “knife trend.”

💫 Yellow knife

The yellow state marks neutrality or slope flattening.
If you enable yellow visibility (mb_show_yellow), you can see where momentum cools off — often the earliest reversal hint.

⚙️ Shared mechanics between ✂️ and 🔪
Multi-timeframe sweep

The script cycles through 1 m → 10 m by default, running both engines once per TF.
Each returning true adds +1 to the count.
So:

sc_hits = count of timeframes where PAG fires + 1

knife_hits = count of timeframes where MB fires + 1

That “+1 shift” means there’s always at least 1, letting count = 1 represent the local TF itself.

Cluster limiter

If Limit max labels per cluster is on, you cap how many total symbols (both ✂️ & 🔪, including trails) can appear within one color phase — avoiding chart spam during extended trends.

Trails

Each printed label seeds a short-lived “trail” sequence — faded copies extending N bars forward.
Trails visualize the linger effect of the last signal, useful for visually connecting bursts in momentum.

Grey or count = 1 labels can have shorter or longer trails depending on your overrides (*_trail_bars_grey).
They’re purely visual and do not affect alerting.

Alerts

Alerts fire independently of whether you hide labels — unless you enable “respect filters”.
This guarantees you never miss a structural signal even if you suppress visuals for clarity.

🌈 Interpreting Both Together
Scenario Interpretation
✂️ = low (1–2) + 🔪 rising (red/orange) Market just leaving chop, early thrust stage.
✂️ = high (≥ 5) + 🔪 green Fully aligned breakout continuation — trend in progress.
✂️ = yellow cluster + 🔪 yellow Volatility squeeze, energy buildup — next expansion near.
✂️ = green cluster → 🔪 turns red Cross-state conflict; likely transition or correction.
✂️ = grey + 🔪 grey Reset condition — both engines cooling; stand aside.

💡 Hidden edge:
Scissors signal potential, Knife measures kinetic force.
The perfect storm is when ✂️ goes from yellow→green one bar before 🔪 shifts from orange→green — it catches the birth of directional flow while volatility is still tight.

🧭 Reading the labels intuitively

Grey ✂️/🔪 = 1 → embryonic state, may fizzle or bloom.

✂️/🔪 = 2 or 3 → expansion taking hold.

✂️/🔪 ≥ 4 (mid black) → strong synchronized drive across TFs.

Transparent gap → cluster reset; prepare for new phase.

Trail lines → echo of previous cluster strength.

Final secret tip 🗝

Because both engines are mathematically uncorrelated (volatility vs EMA angle), when they agree in color polarity on multiple TFs, you have one of the cleanest probabilistic trend windows possible.
If you ever see ✂️ = 6 + 🔪 = 6 both pointing the same way — that’s a “knife-through-the-scissors” moment: volatility expansion and directional slope synchronized — those are the bars where institutional algorithms tend to add size.