Drawing tool settings

This page explains every setting in the PowerFib Retracement drawing’s Properties window. The drawing marks the swing you want to trade, draws the fib levels, and builds the volume profile that the strategy’s volume profile features read. Open it by double-clicking the drawing, or right-click it and choose Properties.

Quick start

Most traders only need these:

1. Fib level set — the same set as the strategy.
2. Anchor snap — leave on NearestHighLow so the anchors land exactly on the swing’s high and low.
3. Enable alerts — only if you want alerts from this drawing.
4. Show volume profile — keep it on if you use any volume profile feature in the strategy.

Change the drawing’s settings while you’re flat. During a trade the strategy keeps working from the drawing it entered on, so a setting changed mid-trade may not reach it until the trade closes.

A few terms used below:

• Swing — the move between the drawing’s two anchors, 0 and 100.
• Volume profile — a sideways histogram of how much volume traded at each price.
• POC (point of control) — the price with the most volume.
• Value area — the range of prices where most of the volume traded. VAH is its top, VAL its bottom.
• Shelf (high volume node, HVN) — a band of prices where a lot of volume traded.
• Thin area (low volume node, LVN) — a gap between shelves where little volume traded.

PowerFib

Enable alerts

Lets this drawing send alerts when price crosses its levels. Which levels, the sounds and phone alerts are set in Control Center → PowerFib → Alerts — see the alerts guide. When it’s on, the drawing’s label reads “Alerts on”.

Default: off.

Fib level set

Which set of fib levels the drawing shows. Changing it redraws the levels.

• Classic — the standard fib levels (23.6, 38.2, 50, 61.8, 78.6, and extensions such as 138.2 and 161.8).
• ICT — Inner Circle Trader levels (50, 62, 70.5, 79, and negative extensions such as -27 and -62).
• SexyAF — PowerFib’s own set, which adds 19.1, 80.9 and 119.1 to the usual levels.
• Custom — your own levels, set in Control Center > PowerFib > Level sets. Empty until you add some - see Custom level set.

Default: SexyAF.

Works with: the strategy’s Fibonacci Level Set, which must be the same, or the strategy won’t trade.

The levels come from the set and can’t be edited on the drawing, so what’s drawn is always what the strategy’s level lists and alerts offer. For different levels, use the Custom set.

Anchor snap

Moves each anchor onto the bar’s price as you place or drag it, so the swing is measured from the exact high or low.

• Off — anchors stay where you drop them.
• NearestHighLow — snaps to the bar’s high or low, whichever is closer.
• NearestOHLC — snaps to the closest of the bar’s open, high, low or close.

Default: NearestHighLow.

PowerFib Volume Profile

This profile covers the swing itself, between the two anchors.

Show volume profile

Shows the swing’s volume profile. When it’s off the profile isn’t worked out at all, so the strategy’s volume profile trail, HighVolumeNode tighten trigger and volume profile confluence have nothing to read, and volume profile alerts stop.

Default: on.

Profile width %

How wide the profile is drawn, as a percentage of the swing’s width on the chart.

Default: 30.

Profile side

Which end of the swing the profile grows from: Left or Right.

Default: Left.

Profile opacity

How solid the profile looks, from 0 (invisible) to 100 (solid).

Default: 55.

Value area %

The share of the swing’s volume that makes up the value area. VAH and VAL are the top and bottom of it.

Default: 70.

Works with: the strategy’s volume profile confluence and volume profile alerts, which use VAH and VAL.

Ticks per row

How many ticks tall each price row of the profile is. Bigger rows give a smoother, blockier profile. Very wide swings use bigger rows automatically.

Default: 1.

Clip to swing range

Counts only the volume traded between the 0 and 100 levels. Off, it also counts volume from wicks that went beyond the anchors.

Default: on. Leave it on — the strategy’s settings are built around the swing’s profile covering 0 to 100.

Show POC line

Draws a line at the POC.

Default: on.

Show value area lines

Draws lines at VAH and VAL.

Default: on.

Show volume node lines

Draws lines at the shelves and thin areas the drawing has found, on both profiles.

Default: off. Turn it on to see which shelves the strategy’s volume profile features are working with.

Node smoothing

How much the profile is smoothed before shelves are found. Decimals are allowed. 0 is off, about 1 is moderate, and 2 or more is coarse. More smoothing merges small bumps, so you get fewer, broader shelves.

Default: 1.

Works with: Node prominence %. Together they decide what counts as a shelf for the strategy’s volume profile trail and HighVolumeNode tighten trigger.

Show label

Shows a line of text above the drawing: whether alerts are on, which drawing the strategy trades (“Active” or “Inactive”, when a chart has more than one PowerFib drawing), and where the profile’s data came from (for example “Volumetric (bid/ask)” or “Approximated (OHLC)”), with the row size, total volume and the time of the last bar counted.

Default: on.

Node prominence %

How clearly a shelf must stand out from the thin areas around it to count. Higher means fewer, stronger shelves. The default keeps the clear shelves on a typical swing; lower it toward 20 to see smaller ones.

Default: 40.

Works with: Node smoothing.

PowerFib Developing Profile

A second profile, drawn to the right of the swing beside current price. It shows how volume is building after the swing.

Show developing profile

Shows the developing profile.

Default: off.

Include swing volume

On: the right-hand profile shows the swing’s volume plus everything traded since. Off: only the volume traded since the swing ended. The profile between the anchors always shows the swing alone.

Default: on.

Developing width %

How wide the developing profile is drawn, as a percentage of the space from the end of the swing to the latest bar.

Default: 30.

Developing side

Which end the developing profile grows from. Right grows leftward from the latest bar, which keeps it beside current price. Left grows from the end of the swing.

Default: Right.

Show developing POC / value area

Draws the POC, VAH and VAL lines of the developing profile.

Default: on.

PowerFib Colours

Buy volume colour

The colour for volume bought (traded at the ask) in the profile bars.

Default: dark cyan.

Sell volume colour

The colour for volume sold (traded at the bid) in the profile bars.

Default: crimson.

POC colour

The colour of the POC line.

Default: gold.

Value area colour

The colour of the VAH and VAL lines.

Default: orange.

High volume node colour

The colour of shelf lines.

Default: green (medium sea green).

Low volume node colour

The colour of thin-area lines.

Default: red (indian red).

Custom level set

Custom is your own set of levels, for when none of the built-in sets is the one you trade. It’s one set, shared by every chart: the drawing draws it, the strategy’s Entry and Target lists offer it, and alerts can use it.

1. Open Control Center > PowerFib > Level sets.
2. Type a level, like 78.6, or several at once, like 23.6, 38.2, 61.8, and press Enter or click Add. To start from a built-in set, click Copy to Custom beside it, then add or remove levels. Click the × on a level to remove it.
3. Click Save.
4. Set Fib level set to Custom on the drawing, and Fibonacci Level Set to Custom on the strategy. The strategy’s Entry Level and Target Level lists now show your levels.

The rules:

• 0 and 100 are always in the set. They’re the anchors, and the strategy uses them to tell a long swing from a short one.
• Levels go from -500 to 1000, with up to two decimals, and a set holds up to 30.
• Custom is drawn the Classic way: extensions above 100 project past the 100% end.

When you change it, drawings on Custom redraw as soon as you save. A running strategy picks the change up once it’s flat - an open trade keeps the levels it started with. If you remove a level the strategy enters or targets on, it stops taking new trades and its status card says which level to fix.

The set is saved on your computer, in Documents\NinjaTrader 8\PowerFib\custom-levels.txt.

NinjaTrader’s own settings

The drawing also has the standard settings of NinjaTrader’s Fibonacci retracement, such as the price level lines, anchor line and extending lines left or right. They work as they do on NinjaTrader’s own tool. The price levels come from the Fib level set, so NinjaTrader’s price level editor is hidden - change levels in the Custom level set instead.

Next: Strategy settings