Trend Engine
How Artemis Pro computes trend direction with the SSL channel, why the color can flip on a single candle, and how indecision is painted.
The trend engine decides the one thing every candle on your chart broadcasts: whether the market reads long or short right now. This page explains how that direction is computed, why it can flip on a single candle, and how indecision is painted.
The SSL Channel
At its core, the trend is an SSL channel: a simple moving average of the highs and a simple moving average of the lows, both over the Trend Speed period (default 10).
- Close above the SMA of highs — the trend flips to up, and candles appear neon green.
- Close below the SMA of lows — the trend flips to down, and candles appear neon red.
- Close inside the channel — the trend remains unchanged.
Trend Speed is the most influential trend setting. Lower values switch faster and hug price; higher values switch later and ride through more noise. The default of 10 is tuned for intraday chart timeframes from 1 to 15 minutes.
The Range-Breakout Quick Switch
Moving averages lag. To keep the color honest during fast moves, the engine adds a quick switch: when a candle closes beyond the last three highs, the trend flips up immediately, even if the close has not yet cleared the SMA of highs. A close below the last three lows flips it down the same way.
This is what keeps the chart from staying red halfway up a vertical rally while the averages catch up.
Only Decisive Candles May Flip The Trend
A candle whose body is less than 30 percent of its range is indecisive, and indecisive candles are not allowed to change the trend — not through the SSL channel and not through the quick switch. A long-wicked doji poking through the channel is noise, not a regime change, and the engine treats it that way.
The 30 percent line is the same threshold that drives the indecisive body fill below, so what you see and what the engine does always agree.
Pattern-Forced Flips
The pattern engine can overrule the averages entirely. When a reversal pattern confirms on bar close — a Star, Hikkake, Three-Line Strike, Three White Soldiers, Three Black Crows, Piercing Line, Three Outside Up/Down, or Bump and Run — the trend flips to the pattern's direction on that bar instead of waiting several candles for the SMAs to cross.
The reasoning: a confirmed reversal pattern is a statement about direction. If the engine kept painting the old trend color for three more bars, the chart would contradict its own signal.
The Two-Bar Grace Period
An instant flip needs protection from instant whipsaw. For two bars after a pattern-forced flip, the SSL rule is not allowed to flip the trend back against the forced direction as long as price keeps confirming the new side (bullish candles after a bullish force, bearish after a bearish one). If price genuinely rejects the new direction, the grace period does not apply and the trend flips back normally.