Each candle is the story of one time slice: the body spans open→close, the wicks mark the high and low. Green = closed above open, red = closed below. Long wick + small body = a fight where one side got rejected. One candle means little — where it prints (at VWAP, at a band, after a trend) is everything.

A moving average that weights recent prices more. EMA9 = fast (reacts quick), EMA21 = medium, EMA50 = the bigger trend. When the fast crosses the slow, momentum just flipped. How your bots use it: the scalper's trigger is literally the EMA9/21 cross — but only when 6 other filters agree, because a naked crossover strategy backtested at a LOSS (-$362). The filters are the edge, not the cross.

The average price paid today, weighted by volume — the institutions' benchmark for "fair value." Above VWAP, buyers who bought the average are in profit (bullish); below, sellers control. How your bots use it: the scalper only longs above / shorts below VWAP, must be at least 0.12x ATR away (out of the chop zone) but no more than 1.0x ATR (chasing an extended move mean-reverts into your stop — the exact bug that cost v2 money).

Momentum on a 0–100 scale: how strong were recent up-moves vs down-moves. Above 70 = overbought (stretched up), below 30 = oversold. It does NOT mean "instantly reverse" — strong trends stay pinned overbought for a while. How your bots use it: the hourly brain treats it as a quality filter — it refused a short today because RSI was 26.8 (shorting into oversold = selling the bottom).

The gap between EMA12 and EMA26 (the MACD line), plus an EMA9 of that gap (the signal line). Line above signal = momentum building up; the histogram shows the gap growing or shrinking. It's a trend-momentum gauge that lags a little but filters noise. How your bots use it: the hourly brain requires MACD to agree with the trend before it takes a setup.

The average size of a bar, including gaps — the market's volatility ruler. ATR doesn't say direction; it says how far things move, which sets your stop distance and position size. How your bots use it: scalper stop = 1.4x ATR, target = 3.0x ATR; the hourly bot uses 1.5x ATR stops with a 2.5:1 reward ratio. Contracts = risk-$ ÷ (stop distance × point value). This is why size SHRINKS when volatility grows.

Trend strength (not direction) on 0–100. Under ~18 the market is chopping — crossover signals fire constantly and lose constantly. Over 25 = real trend. How your bots use it: the scalper's v4 regime gate refuses any entry with ADX below 18. Lesson learned the hard way: 7 of its first 8 losses came from trading the 9:30 open chop.

A 20-bar average with bands 2 standard deviations out — ~95% of closes fall inside. Touching a band = stretched; tight bands (a "squeeze") = energy loading for a breakout. How to use them: in chop, fade the bands back to the middle; in a trend, price can WALK the band — that's why you check ADX first.

The math that keeps you alive: risk a fixed small amount per trade and make winners bigger than losers. At 2.5:1 reward-to-risk you're profitable winning just 30% of trades; at 1:1 you need 55%+. Your real settings: $667 max daily loss (1/3 of the TopStep $2,000 floor), $133 max per trade (so 5 straight stops can't end the day), 2.5:1 targets, flat before news events and before the close. Amateurs blow up on size, not on entries.