Axiom DC

Axiom DC is a multi-timeframe Donchian Channel stack for the chart symbol. Up to three slots run in parallel at the timeframes you choose, each one drawing an upper channel, a lower channel, and a smoothed basis. Above those three slots sits a fourth, user-weighted composite — the blended channel — that summarizes whatever the reader has chosen to blend, by the rule the reader has set.

Where this version sits

Axiom indicator families use a Base -> CTX -> STR progression when the full set exists. Base is the free, focused version: three context slots, chart-symbol only, limited filtering through the MA surface, and one global bar-close posture. CTX expands that same Donchian logic into broader context: up to ten slots, per-slot symbol and timing control, and the larger Extended MA surface. STR is the structure expansion at the end of the series: CTX-style per-slot controls with fewer slots because the extra processing budget goes into structure on the blended output itself.

This page covers Base. Use it when three Donchian context slots are enough and you do not need cross-asset tickers, per-slot repaint control, the Extended MA surface, or blended-line structure. Reach for CTX when ten-slot context breadth is the job. Reach for STR, where available, when you want the more advanced structure read around the blend and are willing to trade away CTX slot breadth to get it.

What you are looking at on first load

With the shipped defaults, the chart carries:

• A teal slot on the 5-minute timeframe with an upper channel, a basis, and a lower channel.

• A blue slot on the 15-minute timeframe, same three lines.

• A purple slot on the 60-minute timeframe, same three lines.

• A red blended channel drawn on top of the three slots, with a translucent red fill between its upper and lower lines and a lime basis through the middle.

The blended weights ship at 40, 35, and 25 across Slots 01, 02, and 03. Those numbers are a posture — they lean the composite toward the faster timeframes — but they are not an optimized setting and they are not a ranking. Change them deliberately when you have a reason. Leave them alone when you do not.

The problem this tool is responding to

Most serious readers already carry some version of a multi-timeframe range read in their head. The problem is getting it onto a single chart without the three views quietly contradicting each other.

Stack three off-the-shelf Donchian scripts by hand and you end up with three subtly different instruments. One smooths the basis on the chart's timeframe and pretends it is a higher-timeframe read. Another happily draws a live higher-timeframe value on a historical bar and forgets it was live later. A third treats the basis and the outer bounds as if they were the same kind of line when they are not. Each script is honest on its own; the stack is not honest with itself. You spend your attention reconciling the scripts instead of reading the market.

Axiom DC collapses that reconciliation into a single overlay with one posture for every slot. Every slot resolves its higher-timeframe read through the same pattern. Every basis passes through the same smoother catalog. Every slot respects the same global repaint switch. The blended channel summarizes whatever you told it to summarize, using a rule this pack states in plain arithmetic so you can predict where the composite will land before you look at the chart — and disagree with the result by changing the weights rather than by distrusting a line you cannot explain.

Who this trim is for

You will get value out of this trim if you are the kind of reader who:

• Already reads range envelopes and wants a clean multi-timeframe Donchian picture on one chart without relitigating which script is telling the truth.

• Wants explicit control over the repaint tradeoff. You would rather flip a switch you understand than trust a vendor's quiet default.

• Cares that the outer bounds are raw Donchian levels and the basis is the only smoothed line — and would rather read that sentence out loud than discover it the hard way at two in the afternoon.

• Will configure the stack one slot at a time, with a reason for each change, instead of sliding every knob and hoping the result makes sense.

• Is not looking for the indicator to decide. You want a working composite you can predict, argue with, and change when the argument wins.

Who should skip this trim

This is not the right tool for you if:

• You want a single buy-or-sell flag on a channel touch, a basis flip, or an alignment event. Axiom DC does not ship those. It surfaces computed conditions; you still do the reading.

• You need to overlay a second symbol's range on this chart. The Base trim has no alternate-ticker input and no configuration here will produce one. For that, reach for the CTX trim (axiom-mtf-dc-ctx).

• You need to run one slot under the on-bar-close posture and a different slot on the live bar at the same time. The Base trim's repaint switch is global. For a per-slot switch, the CTX trim is the right tool.

• You want more than three slots on a single chart. That is a deliberate ceiling here. The CTX trim opens a wider surface.

Base is the focused starting surface and CTX is the context expansion. Pick Base when the three-slot read is the cleaner answer. Pick CTX when the question genuinely needs more slots, per-slot timing, or cross-symbol context.

What the tool is not

• Not a signal generator. No entry arrows, no breakout flags, no confirmation markers. A channel touch is a touch. A basis flip is a flip. What happens next is the reader's call.

• Not a predictor. Every state on the chart is a computed condition about the lookback window you set. It is not a claim about what the next bar will do.

• Not repaint-proof. Repaint behavior is a choice you make with On Bar Close?. ON is slow and stable; OFF is live and can redraw on the current bar until each slot's higher-timeframe bar closes. Neither posture is hidden from you.

• Not a cross-symbol overlay. Every slot reads highs and lows on the chart symbol. If you need to read another symbol's range on this chart, you are reaching for the wrong trim.

• Not a wide workbench. The ceiling is three slots, on purpose. More slots is a different tool, not a better setting.

Where to go from here

• First time loading the indicator — read Quick Start. It gets the three default slots on your chart, walks a first verification drill, and names the traps a new reader usually steps in.

• Configuring a slot deliberately — read Settings. Every high-impact knob is there, in slot-lifecycle order, with the tradeoff named.

• Reading the chart — Visuals & Logic covers what every line and fill actually means, how to read agreement versus cancellation in the blend, and where the most common misreads happen.

• Setting up alerts — Alerts lists every alert this trim ships, what each one confirms, and what each one does not.

• Before you touch On Bar Close? — read MTF & Repainting. The single most consequential switch on this indicator lives there. The switch is global; flipping it changes the posture of every slot at once.

• When a chart decision is pressing — Workflows walks four named routines end to end, plus the anti-patterns that tend to land readers in trouble.

• When something feels wrong — Troubleshooting maps symptoms to causes and helps you decide whether a behavior is a configuration surprise, a documented tradeoff, or a genuine scope limit on the Base trim.

• When you want to understand why the HTF read and the blend rule are shaped the way they are — For the Geeks covers the two distinctive mechanics at a mental-model level, without publishing the implementation.

• For a straight read of what to trust, what to verify, and what this trim deliberately does not carry — Limitations & Trust Boundaries.

Read in the order above and the pack should take you from first chart to a configuration you understand, end to end, without forcing you to reverse-engineer the behavior.