MACD Timeframe Alignment Strategy Diagram
One MACD is an opinion; two of them on different timeframes agreeing is a signal. The diagram measures how far MACD sits from its own signal line on half-hour candles and on four-hour candles, and opens a position only when both readings point the same way and the order book is tight enough to trade in.
Strategy Overview
- Two candle blocks work on the same instrument at two time frames: half an hour for trading and four hours for confirmation.
- Each series feeds its own MACD, and two converters take the MACD line and the signal line out of each indicator.
- A formula subtracts the signal line from the MACD line, so each timeframe is reduced to one number: positive means the fast side leads, negative means it lags.
- Market depth is cut to its best level and two converters read the best ask and the best bid; a third formula turns them into the spread.
- Sync holds all three numbers and releases them together on the four-hour beat. That is what makes the comparison honest: the book updates hundreds of times per bar, and without it the readings would never belong to the same moment.
- After Sync the two gaps are compared with zero and the spread with its limit, and a logical condition collects the three answers together with a flat position.
- Both entries are market orders of a fixed volume, taken only from a flat position.
- Position protection carries the trade: it watches the entry fills, reads the book for the current price and closes at a take-profit or a stop-loss expressed in percent.
Entry and Exit Rules
- Long entry: On the four-hour beat both gaps are positive — MACD is above its signal line on the trading timeframe and on the confirming one — the spread is inside its limit and the position is flat. Position modify buys the order volume at market.
- Short entry: On the same beat both gaps are negative, under the same spread and flat-position conditions. Position modify sells the order volume at market.
- Exit: There is no exit signal in the diagram: once a position is open, Position protection owns it and closes it at 1.5% profit or 1% loss from the entry price. Opposite readings are ignored while the position lives, so a trade is never reversed mid-flight.
Parameters
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Trading Candles | 00:30:00 | Time frame the trading MACD works on. |
| Confirming Candles | 04:00:00 | Time frame of the confirming MACD, and the beat Sync releases everything on. |
| Maximum Spread | 50 | Widest spread, in price units, that still allows an entry. |
| Order Volume | 1 | Order size, in lots. |
| Take Profit, % | 1.5 | Take-profit distance, in percent of the entry price. |
| Stop Loss, % | 1 | Stop-loss distance, in percent of the entry price. |
Diagram Details
- Both MACD blocks are set to emit only formed and final values, so an unfinished candle cannot move the decision.
- The confirming MACD is deliberately shorter than the trading one: four-hour candles are scarce in a month of history, and the standard 12/26/9 would spend most of it warming up.
- Sync names each line it holds, and both ends of every line are linked — a value sent in and never taken out would leave the block waiting and the strategy would not start.
- The spread is compared after Sync rather than where it arrives, which is the only reason a book-driven filter can sit in a candle-driven condition at all.
- Position protection is fed from the order book rather than from a candle price, so it prices the exit off the current best level.
Usage
Import the .json file into Designer, run it in the backtester on historical data, then adjust the parameters or the blocks themselves to fit your instrument before trading it live.