Three Line Strike Marker
The Three-Line Strike is a documented four-candle pattern (catalogued in Thomas Bulkowski's candlestick pattern encyclopedia): three consecutive same-colour candles, each closing further in the trend's direction than the one before it, then a fourth candle that opens beyond the third candle's close and closes back past the FIRST candle's open - visually engulfing the whole three-candle run in a single bar. The trap most naive implementations fall into is treating the fourth bar's colour as the signal: a big opposite-colour candle after three trend candles looks like a sharp reversal, so it is tempting to mark it as one. Bulkowski's published statistics say the opposite - the pattern most often resolves as a CONTINUATION of the original three-candle trend, not a reversal. This indicator plots the bullish version (three rising-close green candles + a red engulfing bar) as a BULLISH signal and the bearish version as a BEARISH signal, matching the published behaviour rather than the candle colour of the fourth bar. It only marks bars matching the exact published shape - it does not filter by trend context, volume, or any other confirmation, and it takes no view on where price goes after the marked bar beyond stating the documented tendency in this description. Notes and limitations This is a pure pattern marker with no trend, volume, or support/resistance filter - the exact same four-candle shape can and does appear at different points in a chart with different reliability, and Bulkowski's published statistics are base rates across a large historical sample, not a promise for any individual occurrence. Because bar 0 (the still-forming bar) is always excluded, the marker only ever appears on the immediately preceding closed bar at the earliest.
Indicator · MT4 · v1.0 · Free
About Three Line Strike Marker
Three Line Strike Marker is an indicator for MetaTrader 4. It draws buy and sell arrows on the chart and can alert you with a pop-up, sound, email or push message. It has 1 setting, such as Alerts. MQL source code included.
Files in the download: ThreeLineStrikeMarker.mq4, ThreeLineStrikeMarker.txt.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Alerts | true | Alert once per closed bar on a new confirmed strike |
How to install
- Download the ZIP from your PolyMaria library and unzip it.
- In MetaTrader 4 open File → Open Data Folder, then go to MQL4 → Indicators.
- Copy the .mq4 file(s) there. Put any .mqh files in MQL4 → Include.
- Open the .mq4 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: Candlestick Patterns · Trend · Buy/Sell Arrows · Alerts · MT4 Indicator · MQL4 Source Code