Purpose of Fractals
Fractals, developed by Bill Williams, mark turning points on the chart. An upper fractal is a high with two lower highs on each side; a lower fractal is a low with two higher lows on each side. In the Trade Rule block, Fractals return the price of the most recent confirmed fractal, which you can use as a breakout level.
How It Works
When you select Fractals in the Trade Rule block, you can configure it with the following settings:
Mode of Fractals (Which fractal to use)
Upper: The most recent confirmed swing high.
Lower: The most recent confirmed swing low.
Time Frame of Fractals
Sets the chart time frame for the Fractals calculation.
Can be replaced with a variable or input for quick testing and optimization.
Candle ID of Fractals
Defines which candle the calculation starts from.
0: Current candle (still forming).
1: Most recently closed candle.
Higher IDs refer to older candles.
Adjust of Fractals (Modify the Result)
Apply an adjustment to the calculated value by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing by a number.
How the value is chosen
A fractal is only confirmed once the two candles after it have closed, so the value never changes afterwards.
The indicator looks back from the selected candle up to 500 candles and returns the most recent confirmed fractal.
If no fractal is found (for example with very little history), it returns 0 and writes a warning to the log.
Example
If you set:
Mode: Upper
Candle ID: 1
You get the price of the most recent confirmed swing high. A rule like "Close > Fractals (Upper)" detects a breakout above that high.
Use Cases
Trade breakouts above the last upper fractal or below the last lower fractal.
Use fractals as recent support and resistance levels.
Combine with the Alligator to trade breakouts only in the direction of the trend.
⚠ Tip: Use > or < with Fractals. Crosses Above and Crosses Below are not available for Fractals; the builder shows a message if you try.
⚠ Note: Fractals cannot be used as a stop-loss, take-profit, pending-order price or Modify SL/TP reference, because there is no fractal value on most candles.