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2008issue C101-4

A nine-cell directional scoreboard for multi-horizon entries

A three-by-three grid of short, intermediate, and long determinates is completed before any trigger is taken. Consecutive cells on the next wider horizon decide whether a matching shorter-horizon rule is treated as trend-aligned or handed to countertrend gates.

  • Short, intermediate, and long cells are each marked up, down, or neutral from that horizon's high-low pattern, producing nine readings.
  • A trigger is treated as trend-aligned only when the next wider interval shows two consecutive cells in the same direction.
  • Direction is never taken from any interval shorter than 60 minutes, even when a trigger is taken on a five-minute chart.
  • Without consecutive agreement, the scoreboard classifies the market as countertrend and requires a support or resistance location plus a price-momentum divergence.
Entries in this reading3 entries
Current trackAverage Directional Index71 readingsTrend filter137 readingsRule-based entry174 readings

The scoreboard comes first

The directional construction is a three-by-three grid whose short, intermediate, and long cells are each marked up, down, or neutral from that horizon's high-low pattern, producing nine readings. Each cell is a determinate: the up, down, or neutral reading for one defined horizon length. The completed three-by-three arrangement of determinates is the directional-ratio, used to classify a market as trend-aligned or countertrend before a trigger is taken.

In this workflow the average directional index is that nine-cell directional scoreboard. The scoreboard is built so longer-horizon and intermediate-horizon cells can be read together before an entry is placed on the short horizon.

EUR/JPY nine-cell directional scoreboard, 29 April 2008

Read consecutive cells on the next wider horizon before any shorter trigger. On this board the 60-minute intermediate and short cells are both down, so a 15-minute sell is trend-aligned, while the 240-minute long and intermediate cells are both up, so a 60-minute buy is the matching trend trade. The nine values are the Figure 1 directional-ratio grid printed in the source for EUR/JPY on 29 April 2008, mapped as up = 1, neutral = 0, down = −1.
Read consecutive cells on the next wider horizon before any shorter trigger. On this board the 60-minute intermediate and short cells are both down, so a 15-minute sell is trend-aligned, while the 240-minute long and intermediate cells are both up, so a 60-minute buy is the matching trend trade. The nine values are the Figure 1 directional-ratio grid printed in the source for EUR/JPY on 29 April 2008, mapped as up = 1, neutral = 0, down = −1.EUR/JPY · Daily, 240-minute, and 60-minute determinates · 2008-04-29T00:00:00.000Z to 2008-04-29T00:00:00.000Z

The printed table records only Up, Neutral, and Down. Those three states are mapped to +1, 0, and −1 so the nine cells can be plotted. No close series is taken from the candlestick screenshots because they carry no readable price scale.

How a trigger becomes trend-aligned

A trigger on one sampling interval is treated as trend-aligned only when the next wider interval shows two consecutive cells in the same direction. That pass condition is the trend filter.

Two consecutive 60-minute cells in one direction make a matching 15-minute trigger a trend entry. Two consecutive 240-minute cells make a matching 60-minute trigger a trend entry. Direction is never taken from any interval shorter than 60 minutes, even though a trigger may be taken on a five-minute chart.

The same trigger can be a trend entry on one horizon and a countertrend entry on a shorter horizon, depending on which cells are consecutive.

The trigger catalog and countertrend gates

The entry trigger itself is one of three rules: a five-and-five moving-average cross, a close through a doji high or low, or an inside bar at support or resistance.

When no adjacent horizons show the same consecutive direction, the scoreboard classifies the market as countertrend and the support-resistance-plus-divergence gates apply. A countertrend entry is allowed only when the trigger occurs at support or resistance and the trigger interval shows a divergence between price and a momentum measure.

A five-minute trigger still requires 60-minute directional agreement plus a same-direction turn in stochastic, MACD histogram, or RSI on the 15-minute interval. The rule-based entry is that fixed trigger catalog plus the extra location and momentum-divergence gates when the scoreboard does not show consecutive agreement.

Educational research material, not investment advice. Historical source context does not establish present-day performance.
36 of 56 in the Average Directional Index track
201020-31 pp.Next on Average Directional IndexBuilding a Vortex Indicator from high-low distancesThe Vortex Indicator sums the distance from the prior low to the current high for the up component and the distance from the prior high to the current low for the down component.
All readings on this track · 56 readings
  1. 1986Cycle-aligned directional trend indicator
  2. 1987What crossover and directional entry rules actually compare
  3. 1988A directional-line cross needs a trend filter, an extreme-point rule, and a dollar stop
  4. 1988Constructing true range by offset addressing
  5. 1988Constructing directional movement from bar range
  6. 1988Average directional index construction: recursive smoothing and lookback offset
  7. 1988Staged Average Directional Index construction with Relative Strength Index confirmation and stop alerts
  8. 1988Average Directional Index construction with frozen true range and directional rules
  9. 1991Constructing the average directional index from range expansion and true range
  10. 1991Constructing five-session forecasts from stochastic, ADX, and MACD inputs
  11. 1993Constructing the average directional index from directional movement and true range
  12. 1993Confirming n-bar breakouts with ADX and DX filters
  13. 1994Constructing a Bollinger band-width trend filter
  14. 1994A pre-trade checklist that can refuse a long three ways
  15. 1997An ADX threshold and a moving average as a trend filter
  16. 1998Regime filters for mutated indicators
  17. 1999Building the average directional index from range extension and true range
  18. 2000Evaluating ADX, RSI, and moving averages in a multi-stock warehouse
  19. 2000Stochastic pop as a filtered continuation setup
  20. 2000Onset and exit from one average directional index
  21. 2002Joint ADX and MACD readout for trend strength and direction
  22. 2003Adaptive Donchian breakout with implied volatility and volume
  23. 2004The average directional index as a regime gate for the relative strength index and the stochastic oscillator
  24. 2004Constructing true-range-specified volume as a directional filter
  25. 2005Constructing a multi-filter penny stock breakout procedure
  26. 2005Construct one playbook that flips with session regime
  27. 2005Combining Bollinger Bands, the average directional index, and Fibonacci retracement on currency pairs
  28. 2006Assembling an adaptive price zone from double-smoothed averages
  29. 2006An ADX strength gate for MACD and the stochastic oscillator
  30. 2007Directional movement as a filter plus trigger
  31. 2007Constructing a veto-first trend permission stack
  32. 2007ADX gates for trend end, range, and reversal
  33. 2008Constructing a nine-cell directional-ratio grid
  34. 2008Average directional index and directional trend indicator lookbacks as trend-filter parameters
  35. 2008A holding-matched market lens from averages and directional-line crosses
  36. 2008A nine-cell directional scoreboard for multi-horizon entries
  37. 2010Building a Vortex Indicator from high-low distances
  38. 2010Constructing ADX, RSI, and MACD price filters
  39. 2011Constructing a volume zone oscillator with a moving-average and Average Directional Index regime filter
  40. 2011A volume zone oscillator conditioned by an Average Directional Index filter
  41. 2011Candlestick names need volume-price, ADX, and moving-average checks
  42. 2012Clustered average-directional-index traces as a trend-start filter
  43. 2012Average Directional Index cluster filters for trend-start signals
  44. 2012Confirming a trend start or turn with a triple ADX cluster
  45. 2013Constructing a late-entry stack from a signed DMI oscillator
  46. 2013A directional oscillator and its stochastic as a stacked timing filter
  47. 2013ADX cluster lookbacks are a locked specification, not a chart label
  48. 2013Combining moving averages, stochastics, and ADX in a daily scan
  49. 2015Assembling the Average Directional Index from directional movement
  50. 2016How an Average Directional Index filter and a breakout entry form one procedure
  51. 2016Score RSI and stochastic crossings only when ADX confirms the trend
  52. 2018Constructing an ADX filter for intraday breakouts
  53. 2018An ADX volatility gate for prior-day breakouts
  54. 2019Exponential deviation bands with a moving average, RSI and ADX
  55. 2020A normalized-slope trend filter from linear regression
  56. 2020Gating volatility-momentum divergences with a Trend filter
By fieldIndicators and filters682 readingsBy year200867 readings
All 71 readings tagged Average Directional Index
Also on Average Directional Index5 readings
1993Confirming n-bar breakouts with ADX and DX filters1994Constructing a Bollinger band-width trend filter1997An ADX threshold and a moving average as a trend filter1998Regime filters for mutated indicators2007Constructing a veto-first trend permission stack