2011issue C0728-31
Color-coded volume bars for rule-based swing entries
Each session gets a volumeBarColor by comparing close and volume with a fixed lookbackWindow. Those four states then become one colorGatedLong procedure with a named delayedTrailingStop as the only specified exit.
- A volumeBarColor is a four-state session label from comparing that session's close and volume with the same two series at a fixed lookbackWindow.
- Green and orange are confirmationState labels, where close and volume both rise or both fall versus the lookback session. Blue and red are nonconfirmationState labels, where the two series disagree.
- The mechanical procedure is a colorGatedLong: participate on green or blue sessions and stand aside on red or orange sessions.
- The specified exit is a delayedTrailingStop, a 1 percent trailing stop that begins after a one-period delay, with no separate sell or cover order.
What the archive specifies
The archive workflow labels each session with a volumeBarColor. That label comes from comparing the session's close and volume with the same two series at a fixed lookbackWindow.
Those four labels are then the only participation filter in a long-only procedure. The specified exit is a delayedTrailingStop.
Four colors from one comparison
A session is labeled green when both its close and its volume are higher than they were two weeks earlier. That pairing is a confirmationState on the upside.
A session is labeled blue when the close is higher than two weeks earlier while volume is not. That pairing is a nonconfirmationState with a higher close.
A session is labeled orange when both the close and volume are lower than they were two weeks earlier. That pairing is a confirmationState on the downside.
A session is labeled red when the close is lower than two weeks earlier while volume is not. That pairing is a nonconfirmationState with a lower close.
When the procedure is long and when it stands aside
The mechanical procedure is long-only. It participates on green or blue sessions and stands aside on red or orange sessions. That rule is a colorGatedLong: long exposure is allowed only on the two higher-close colors, and abstention is required on the two lower-close colors.
The specified exit is a delayedTrailingStop: a 1 percent trailing stop with a one-period trailing-stop delay. No separate sell or cover order is defined.
How the lookback was written down
The base lookbackWindow is two weeks. Chart and code implementations treat that reference as a 10-trading-day lookback of close and volume.
A spreadsheet version assigns the same four labels from the two-week percent change in price and the two-week percent change in volume.
The comparison lookback was treated as a tunable input and shortened from 10 trading days toward five days in later checks.
The same map in other setups
The same color map can be restricted to one bullish color, inverted for short-side experiments, paired with other stop types, or applied to any instrument that reports volume.
Editorial notes on evaluating the rules
Editorial reading: the object to evaluate is the full procedure, not a single bar color. A complete test keeps the four-state map, the colorGatedLong participation rule, the chosen lookbackWindow, and the delayedTrailingStop together. Changing the lookback, keeping only one bullish color, inverting the map, or swapping the stop is a different hypothesis.
Editorial reading: green and orange ask whether price and participation moved together versus the lookback session. Blue and red ask whether a higher or lower close arrived without a matching volume move. The archive supplies those labels and the long-only gate. It does not, in the approved record, rank the four states.
All readings on this track · 19 readings
- 1989T-bond volume-price boxes and a withheld rectangle top
- 1990Constructing ease of movement from volume-scaled boxes
- 1990Weekly four-stage mapping with average, range, and volume
- 1996Constructing volume-confirmed average-cross entries
- 1996Constructing four MFI bar states from range and volume
- 2001Building in-gear volume-price overlays
- 2004Constructing index volume for price-volume signals
- 2004Auditing volume-on-retest rules for prior highs and lows
- 2004Wait-rule collapse in a mistaken sale cascade
- 2005Constructing a volume and change weighted moving average
- 2005Daily average support and Friday volume holds
- 2007Match a volume-price oscillator to a range, not to a policy rebound
- 2008Volume confirms chart pattern breakouts
- 2011Color-coded volume bars for rule-based swing entries
- 2012Go or no-go checklist at repeated resistance
- 2012Pocket-pivot volume rules before a later breakout
- 2014Constructing defended price lines from volume spikes
- 2016Closing score from range location as a volume-checked sentiment filter
- 2019Volume follows price as auction state