What it does
A Moving Average Ribbon plots a series of moving averages of increasing length, for example eight EMAs from 20 to 55 periods, on the same chart. The visual spread, ordering, and slope of the lines together describe trend direction, strength, and maturity. The computation is simply many standard moving averages stacked; the information is in how they fan out, compress, and flip order.
Typedraws on the price chart
How to add it
Click Indicators (ƒx) in the header.
Search “Moving Average Ribbon” and click the result.
Hover its legend row and click the gear to open settings.
How traders use it
- A ribbon fully ordered with the shortest average on top and all lines sloping up confirms a strong uptrend; the inverse ordering confirms a downtrend.
- A widening ribbon shows an accelerating trend, while contraction and braiding of the lines warns of consolidation or an impending reversal.
- In a trend, pullbacks into the ribbon that hold and bounce offer lower-risk continuation entries with a stop beyond the far side of the ribbon.
- A full ribbon twist, where the averages flip their stacking order, is a slower but higher-conviction trend-change signal than any single MA cross.
Inputs
| Input | Type | Default | Range / Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| MA #1 | boolean | On | — |
| MA #1 Type | select | SMA | SMA / EMA / SMMA (RMA) / WMA / VWMA |
| MA #1 Source | select | close | Close / Open / High / Low / HL2 / HLC3 / OHLC4 |
| MA #1 Length | number | 20 | 1–5000 |
| MA #2 | boolean | On | — |
| MA #2 Type | select | SMA | SMA / EMA / SMMA (RMA) / WMA / VWMA |
| MA #2 Source | select | close | Close / Open / High / Low / HL2 / HLC3 / OHLC4 |
| MA #2 Length | number | 50 | 1–5000 |
| MA #3 | boolean | On | — |
| MA #3 Type | select | SMA | SMA / EMA / SMMA (RMA) / WMA / VWMA |
| MA #3 Source | select | close | Close / Open / High / Low / HL2 / HLC3 / OHLC4 |
| MA #3 Length | number | 100 | 1–5000 |
| MA #4 | boolean | On | — |
| MA #4 Type | select | SMA | SMA / EMA / SMMA (RMA) / WMA / VWMA |
| MA #4 Source | select | close | Close / Open / High / Low / HL2 / HLC3 / OHLC4 |
| MA #4 Length | number | 200 | 1–5000 |
| Timeframe | select | Chart | Chart / 1 minute / 5 minutes / 15 minutes / 30 minutes / 1 hour / 1 day / 1 week / 1 month |
| Wait for timeframe closes | boolean | On | — |
Plots & styling
| Plot | Style | Default color |
|---|---|---|
| MA #1 | line | #f6c309 |
| MA #2 | line | #fb9800 |
| MA #3 | line | #fb6500 |
| MA #4 | line | #f60c0c |
Every plot's color, line width and visibility can be changed on the Style tab. Precision, price-scale labels and status-line values are configurable at the bottom of the Style tab.
Tips
- Its price-scale label can be switched off per-indicator at the bottom of the Style tab if the axis gets crowded.
- Drag the indicator to its own pane from the legend ⋯ menu if it crowds the price chart.
- Double-click any of its lines to jump straight into the settings dialog.
- A custom timeframe input lets it compute on a higher interval than the chart.
Watch out for
- All component averages lag, and the longest ones lag most, so ribbon twists confirm reversals late.
- In ranging markets the ribbon compresses into an unreadable braid and generates no useful signal until a trend re-emerges.