Most accurate ZigZag indicator?

Attached is a compiled version of my ZigZag indicator in a ready-to-use state. From the source documentation:


A ZigZag indicator with non-repainting price reversals suitable for automation
The ZigZag indicator provided by MetaQuotes is of little use. The algorithm is flawed and the implementation performes badly. Furthermore the indicator repaints past ZigZag reversals and can't be used for automation.

This indicator fixes those issues. The display can be changed from ZigZag lines to reversal points (aka semaphores). Once the ZigZag direction changed the semaphore will not change anymore. Like the MetaQuotes version the indicator uses a Donchian channel for determining legs and reversals but this indicator draws vertical line segments if a large bar crosses both upper and lower Donchian channel band. Additionally it can display the trail of a ZigZag leg as it developes over time and supports manual period stepping via hotkey (parameter change via keyboard). Finally the indicator supports signaling of new ZigZag reversals.


Installation
The indicator setup consists of multiple files. All files are required for the indicator to work.
Unpack the attached ZIP file somewhere. Then open your terminal's data folder by clicking "Main menu" -> "File" -> "Open Data Folder".

The content of "<zip-file>/mql4/indicators/" goes into "<data-folder>/mql4/indicators/".
The content of "<zip-file>/mql4/libraries/" goes into "<data-folder>/mql4/libraries/".
The content of "<zip-file>/mql4/scripts/" goes into "<data-folder>/mql4/scripts/".
The content of "<zip-file>/sounds/" goes into "<data-folder>/sounds/".

Restart your terminal. Go to "Main menu" -> "Tools" -> "Options". Click on the tab "Expert Advisers" and check the option "Allow DLL imports". Now you can load the indicator in the usual way.

All files are open source. The indicator sources can be found here: https://github.com/rosasurfer/mt4-mq...ors/ZigZag.mq4
The DLL sources can be found here: https://github.com/rosasurfer/mt4-expander

As the name of the indicator conflicts with the built-in MetaQuotes indicator you may rename it to whatever you like (rsf is short for the Github project of "rosasurfer").


Inputs parameters (from the source documentation)
• ZigZag.Periods: Lookback periods of the Donchian channel.
• ZigZag.Periods.Step: Controls parameter 'ZigZag.Periods' via the keyboard. If non-zero it enables the parameter stepper and defines its step size. If zero the parameter stepper is disabled.
• ZigZag.Type: Whether to display ZigZag lines or ZigZag semaphores. Can be shortened as long as distinct.
• ZigZag.Width: Controls the ZigZag's line width/semaphore size.
• ZigZag.Semaphores.Wingdings: Controls the WingDing symbol used for ZigZag semaphores.
• ZigZag.Color: Controls the color of ZigZag lines/semaphores.
• Donchian.ShowChannel: Whether to display the Donchian channel used by the internal calculation.
• Donchian.ShowCrossings: Controls the displayed Donchian channel crossings.
"Off": No crossings are displayed.
"First": Only the first crossing per direction is displayed (the moment when the ZigZag creates a new leg).
"All": All crossings are displayed. Displays the trail of the ZigZag leg as it developes over time.
• Donchian.Crossings.Width: Controls the size of the displayed Donchian channel crossings.
• Donchian.Crossings.Wingdings: Controls the WingDing symbol used for Donchian channel crossings.
• Donchian.Upper.Color: Controls the color of upper Donchian channel band and crossings.
• Donchian.Lower.Color: Controls the color of lower Donchian channel band and crossings.
• Max.Bars: Maximum number of bars back to calculate the indicator (performance).
• Signal.onReversal: Whether to signal ZigZag reversals (the moment when the ZigZag creates a new leg).
• Signal.onReversal.Sound: Whether to signal ZigZag reversals by sound.
• Signal.onReversal.SoundUp: Sound file used for signaling ZigZag reversals to the upside.
• Signal.onReversal.SoundDown: Sound file used for signaling ZigZag reversals to the downside.
• Signal.onReversal.Popup: Whether to signal ZigZag reversals by a popup (MetaTrader alert dialog).
• Signal.onReversal.Mail: Whether to signal ZigZag reversals by e-mail.
• Signal.onReversal.SMS: Whether to signal ZigZag reversals by text message.
• Sound.onCrossing: Whether to signal all Donchian channel crossings (widening of the channel).
• Sound.onCrossing.Up: Sound file used for signaling a Donchian channel widening to the upside.
• Sound.onCrossing.Down: Sound file used for signaling a Donchian channel widening to the downside.
• AutoConfiguration: If enabled all input parameters can be overwritten with custom default values (via framework config).


Chart legend
In the chart legend the indicator shows the period configuration, the length of the known ZigZag trend, the number of bars with a still unknown trend, the channel level to cross for creating a new ZigZag reversal, and the active signaling options.

If in the below picture price advances further and crosses the upper Donchian channel the 4 bars of an "unknown" trend will become a new uptrend of length "4" (a ZigZag reversal occurred). If price turns around and crosses the lower channel band the 4 bars of an "unknown" trend will be added to the existing "known" trend (5 bars), and the overall "known" trend will become 9.

The sign "+" or "-" in front of the known trend shows the direction of the current ZigZag trend.


Signaling via email and/or text message
These are advanced signaling options which I use to be independant of the MetaQuotes ecosystem. They require a special setup and for text messages a payed subscription with a telco service provider. I use it only on the server and have a subscription with Clickatell, so I'll skip it for the moment.


In the following post I'm going to explain parameter navigation via keyboard. This allows the user to explore the parameter space of the ZigZag similar to the optimizer in tester.

Hello Emmzett,

Would it be possible for you to add a third value zz to your indicator. See example.
Could you create an mtf dashboard based on zzrsf.

Thanks

Sorry but I don't understand your feature request. What exactly do you have in mind with "a 3rd value zz"? Your screenshot doesn't help much either. What is your intent? Does your text "Add this, if possible" refer to the red arrow or to the white line? What does "6.8", "15.3" and "5.5" mean? Please explain better.

Imho every possible piece of data is already included. Open the "Data Window" and hover over the reversals to understand what data is displayed in which buffer. All historic swing lengths and distances are there. It shows even more: the distance between ZigZag extrem (semaphore) and next reversal. Also every data point in the chart has a tooltip showing the exact price an event occurred.

Hello Emmzett,

"6.8", "15.3" and "5.5" indicate the number of points made by the zz.

On the image in post 62, the indicator would show "" zigzag(12) +41/-9/3 next reversal @0.9696'0

Why a 3rd value :

I noticed, that when 2 zz had the same duration, the third zz was, often, an impulsive zz. On the example of eur/usd attached, the
double zz6.
A dashboard would make it easier to track several pairs, several periods of zz...

Maybe a bit too personal as a request

Thank,s

Now I understand you better. Thank you.

1) I'm not a friend of dashboards, not at all. So this is not going to happen. Sorry for that.
2) Price distance between two semaphores: I understand why this could be useful. Let me think about it. :-)

Hi, I think it would be great to have multiple Time frames or periods in the same chart. For example, in a 1M chart watch the 5M and 15M signals of Donchian first touch. Every breack-out begins in lower timeframes. Whith this in mind, there is a huge chance to trade a trend in lower time frames (smaller Stop-Loss) confirmed by 2 higher time frames. If we get to know when a new fractal begins, as said, then it is possible to wait the first price correction and start the trade in the lower TimeFrame at the very beginig of the wave 3 (the money wave)
It will bring the chance of:
1. Very small Stop-Loss = Larger Position Size
2. Draw-Down near to 0.00 or very small
3. Surf a trend of higher Time Frame = +PIPS
4. Accurate Take Profit with real time price action

Im already implementing this analysis to trade with your indicator, joint to my work system. It is amazing. I found a way to have two Time Frames in the same chart. renaming the indicators file and setting one of them to show the ZigZag and the other, semaphores.
The way I see it, is to have the donchian channel crossing signals at the same chart and semaphores of different colors added tho the last ZigZag point once a new TimeFrame or period touches the donchian channel in its own Higher TF. Thorat way we could visualize the points of multi time frame confluences and to identify the trend from the very beginning.
I dont know If I explained myself, but anyways, I want to thank you very much for your amazing job!!! Thanks Again!!!!

This is what I meant to say. I think its only matter to add an option to move the coordinate of the semaphore so it not overwrite one each, or by the other hand, change the semaphore simbol to the same used for signals, just the border and transparent inside. That way its only matter to input differents sizes of Semaphores and we will see them inside each other.
Could You please make this for us?
Thank you very much.

It tends to be a very trailing indication because values for the Zig Zag indicator are only drawn after the close of each time period and because the Zig Zag will only draw a permanent new line once price has moved sufficiently. I use them sometimes for fibonacci projections and retracements although they are not very predictive.

Good indicator - I found it very useful, but is it possible to make so that info label is with on/off option...

I would like to use your zigzag on candle, but the calculation should disregard the wick high or tail low, would you provide such a tool to set. my zigzag line should auto detect the cases when previous candle and current candle fall i the scenario so it check candle for candle, because this is CPU intensive, I like to have limit like check for only 500 last candle:
Open(1) = Close(0)
Close(1) = Close(0)
Open (1) = Open(0)
Close (1) = Open(0)

Or better version do like this if these cases happen, then check each candle, else going back to the default setting for backtest/deviation/step liek 12/5/3 or 5/3/3 or 3/1/1

Hi emmzett, after a few time ussing your ZIGZAG (amazing by the way) I think it would be probable to make it better than what already is. The idea is to add dynamic periods. it will give the hability to the indi to auto adjust to the actual market conditions. I have the indicator that can bring that info, the only need is to call it as external indicator in order to get the dynamic periods data. I am very curious and 99% sure, it would be a very interesting result from that. If you are interested, I can bring you feedback and tha base code of the indicator. Thanks a lot for you great job here in FF.

Description of the ZigZag parameter stepper

Attached is an updated version of my ZigZag indicator. The most important change is the rewritten signaling. For this some of the input parameters had to be slightly renamed. Signal configuration should be easier now. Additonally the indicator now supports signaling of ZigZag breakouts, especially signaling of the "1-2-3 pattern".
For a description see: 123 Pattern EA

I also added the requested option to show or hide the chart legend. However, the main purpose of this post is to describe the already mentioned parameter stepper.

In the attached bin archive you will find two scripts: "ParameterStepper.Up" and "ParameterStepper.Down". Select these scripts in the "Navigator" window of your MT4 and assign two hotkeys of your choice to them. For example I use Alt-L for "ParameterStepper.Down" (L for lower) and Alt-K for "ParameterStepper.Up" (K is next to L on my keyboard, makes handling easy). It should look like in the following screenshots.



Copy the sound files from the bin archive to your MetaTrader "sound" directory (installation or data directory). You will know that you are in the right directory if you can see the other MetaQuotes sound files.


Now load the ZigZag indicator onto your chart. The indicator has an input parameter "ZigZag.Periods.Step". Set it to a non-zero value, e.g. to "2". After closing the input dialog you will notice a change in the chart legend. In front of the displayed period value there will be a prefix "step:". This prefix serves to indicate that the parameter stepper is active and waits for your commands.


Now if you hit one of the previously assigned key combinations, a command is sent to the ZigZag indicator to either increase or decrease dynamically the parameter "ZigZag.Periods" and recalculate the indicator. You will immediately see the effect of the different period on your chart and can now play forward/backward as you like, until the displayed ZigZag version fits your taste or the volatility of the chosen instrument best.

Don't hit the keys too fast. Give the terminal a bit time to recalculate the indicator, at least 0.7 seconds. If you hit keys too fast it may happen that the indicator gets stuck. You will notice. That's it.


Finally, how to trade with the ZigZag: From all the indicators in our toolbox the ZigZag is probably the most valuable. That's because a correctly implemented ZigZag is non-lagging and many professionals use it to trade breakouts (don't try with the broken MetaQuotes version, that one is useless). A long time ago a famous (or infamous?) ForexFactory member used it successfully.
Details here: Re-igniting DancingPhil's ZigZag strategy

ps: The updated MT4Expander contains a little wrapper around the Windows Media Control Interface. With this MetaTrader is able to play not only ".wav" files but all sound files supported on your system (e.g. MP3 or MIDI). Also with this update MetaTrader can play multiple sounds simultaneously. This is used by the sound event handler in the indicator. Now multiple sound events happening at the same tick don't cancel each other out anymore. Instead you will hear both sounds playing together.

pps: If you have multiple ZigZag indicators in your chart only one of them can have the parameter stepper enabled.

Edit - I just tried again and it works!

Thanks again for your indicator - I'll give it a try as it look amazing.


Hi emmzett, your zigzag indicator looks very interesting. I tried adding to a tick chart (generated using FX Blues custom timeframe expert). It gives a fatal error - am I right in saying it just cannot work on a tick chart?

Thanks
D

It can work. Let's say, it should. Please unzip the attached DebugView. Start it with admin rights (it doesn't need any installation), load the filter "include-rosasurfer.ini" (also in the ZIP file) and try to reproduce the error. Save the debug output to a file and post that file here.

How to load the filter? Click on the button with the blue marker, then on "Load", navigate to "include-rosasurfer.ini" and load it.

Bionic has a nice zigzag indicator.

Hi,
I find that the zigzag in Ctrader is very accurate. Does anyone perhaps have that zigzag for the use in mt4?
Thanx in advance

emmzett First of all thank you for your indicator and explanations .

May i ask you , can you make the indicator multi timeframe so we can apply it to a timaframe of our choise ? And make the stepper legend adjustable ? in my case i want to bring it down a little.

thank you

Currently I'm working on an update. There are also some other bugs in the last version here, which need to be fixed too.

There is already a way to do that. Since my ZigZag is based on a Donchian Channel, you can simply convert the Donchian Channel to any other time frame. However, you can only display the ZigZag of a higher time frame on a lower time frame, not the other way around. For example, you can display a ZigZag(12),M5 on period M1. To do this, simply multiply the period of the ZigZag by the number of minutes, e.g. 5 * 12 = 60. The ZigZag(60),M1 is identical to the ZigZag(12),M5. Naturally, this does not work in the other direction, because in many cases it would result in two ZigZag semaphores on the same bar, which cannot be properly displayed.

Yes, that can be done via an additional offset input. Will implement it.

Hi rosasurfer,we should use last zigzag upload by you or wait for your updated version? B.R

You can definitely use the last uploaded version here, if it works for you. Some traders with a terminal not running in portable mode experience a nasty bug which needs to be fixed. But if it works, then all good.

At the moment I have little time for the forum because I'm in the process of starting a new project which will occupy me for at least another week.