CISD Adaptive Pivots (manny_mailbox2)

This CISD indicator with projections automatically adjust the pivot strength for the current market in real-time.

Features:

• Customizable projection levels.
  
• Customizable bullish projection color, size, and width.
  
• Customizable bearish projection color, size, and width.
  
• Select the number of CISD/Projection you want to see on chart.
  
• Min/Max Adaptive Pivot Stength based on candle body or wicks
  
• Customizable smoothing factor
  
• This automated feature can be turned on/off.
  

Here's how it works:
The Adaptive Pivot Strength feature (enabled by default) dynamically calculates the optimal pivot strength based on recent market structure.


How it adapts:
Tracks pivot spacing - It monitors the distance (in bars) between the last 20 pivot highs and pivot lows
Calculates average spacing - Combines both high and low spacing to determine typical pivot frequency
Converts to strength - Uses the formula avg_spacing / 4.0 to determine the calculated strength
Smooths changes - Applies EMA-like smoothing (controlled by your smoothing_factor of 0.3) to prevent erratic jumps
Clamps to range - Keeps the result between your min (2) and max (10) pivot strength settings

Current settings:
Base strength: 3
Adaptive range: 2-10
Smoothing: 0.3 (more responsive; lower = smoother)

The table shows you the current adaptive strength in real-time, color-coded green/red/yellow based on whether it's above/below/equal to base strength
So instead of using a fixed pivot strength of 3, it dynamically adjusts between 2-10 based on how far apart actual pivots are forming in the market. Tighter markets = lower strength (more sensitive), wider swings = higher strength (less noise).

[b]What time frame does this work best on?
Optimal timeframes:
5-minute to 15-minute charts - This is the sweet spot for CISD detection with adaptive pivots. The pivot strength range (2-10) is calibrated for intraday price action where you get enough pivots to establish meaningful series without over-fitting.
1-minute charts - Can work but you'll see more noise. The adaptive feature helps here by increasing pivot strength during choppier periods. You might want to adjust your min_pivot_strength to 3-4 on the 1-min.
30-minute to 1-hour - Still effective but you'll get fewer CISD signals. The projections become longer-term targets. Good for swing context.

Why these timeframes:
Your lookback period (100 bars) needs enough history to calculate adaptive strength properly
CISD detection relies on polarity changes (bullish/bearish candles), which are more meaningful on 5-15 min
The projection levels (1x to 4x) align well with typical intraday move extensions on these timeframes

For MNQ specifically:
The 5-minute is probably your best bet - it captures the institutional order flow you're tracking while filtering out the noise of lower timeframes. The 15-minute works great for cleaner swing trades and aligns well with session-based analysis.

Idea: Use two of these on chart.
Why you might want two:

Different timeframes: One with lower pivot strength (2-5) for short-term, another with higher (7-10) for major structure
Adaptive vs Fixed: One with adaptive pivot ON, one with it OFF at a fixed strength for comparison
Different projection levels: One for conservative targets (1, 1.5, 2), another for extended targets (3, 4, 5)
Different CISD settings: One showing all CISDs, another filtered to show only recent ones4

I'm displaying the CISD's and projection with Fadi's Order Blocks, SMT's, and Daily Standard Deviation just to show how it might be used.

Good Luck and be good to each other!