Body Momentum Ribbon
Momentum tools usually smooth an oscillator; this one reads it straight off the candles. A "streak" is a run of consecutive bars where each body is both the same direction as, and strictly larger than, the immediately prior body - genuine accelerating momentum, not just "several bullish bars in a row" (which includes plenty of stalling, shrinking-body runs that aren't accelerating at all). The streak resets to 1 the moment a bar breaks direction or fails to expand on the prior body, so the ribbon only stays "strong" while expansion is actually continuing. Native MQL4 has no DRAW_COLOR_LINE (that family is MQL5-only), so per-bar colour is built with the standard split-buffer trick used elsewhere in this catalogue: four buffers - strong bullish, weak bullish, strong bearish, weak bearish - each holding EMPTY_VALUE everywhere except the bars in that exact state, all anchored at the same price offset below the Low so together they read as one continuous multi-colour ribbon rather than four separate lines. The offset itself is sized from ATR rather than a fixed point value, so the ribbon sits a sensible distance below price on both a tight-spread major and a wide-range instrument like gold or an index CFD without needing per-symbol tuning. Notes and limitations A doji-like bar (Close == Open exactly) has no direction and breaks any streak in progress rather than continuing or reversing it - documented behaviour, not an edge case bug. The streak comparison looks only at the immediately prior bar's body, so a strong-looking multi-bar move that alternates slightly larger and slightly smaller bodies bar-to-bar will not read as one continuous streak even though the overall move is genuinely strong; that is a real limitation of a purely bar-to-bar expansion test versus a smoothed momentum measure. This is a visual momentum read only - it does not predict continuation or reversal and does not manage a trade.
Indicator · MT5 · v1.0 · Free
About Body Momentum Ribbon
Body Momentum Ribbon is an indicator for MetaTrader 5 based on ATR. It has 3 settings, such as Strong streak, Atr period and Offset atr mult. MQL source code included.
Files in the download: BodyMomentumRibbon.ex5, BodyMomentumRibbon.mq5, BodyMomentumRibbon.txt.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Strong streak | 3 | Consecutive expanding bars needed to count as "strong" |
| Atr period | 14 | ATR period used to size the ribbon's offset below price |
| Offset atr mult | 0.5 | Ribbon offset below Low, as a multiple of ATR |
How to install
- Download the ZIP from your PolyMaria library and unzip it.
- In MetaTrader 5 open File → Open Data Folder, then go to MQL5 → Indicators.
- Copy the .mq5 file(s) there. Put any .mqh files in MQL5 → Include.
- Open the .mq5 file in MetaEditor and press Compile (F7) if MetaTrader does not show it.
- Drag the indicator from the Navigator onto a chart and adjust the settings.
Tags: Momentum · Oscillator · ATR · MT5 Indicator · MQL5 Source Code