Settings

Settings

This page explains every input in Axiom MA Lite, organized in the same order they appear in the TradingView settings panel. For each setting, you will find what it controls, its default value, when you might want to change it, what to watch out for, and how it interacts with other settings.

If you are looking for a quick first setup, start with Quick Start. If you want to understand what the visual elements mean before configuring them, start with Visuals & Logic.

How settings are organized

The settings panel is divided into five groups:

1. MA 01 — the first MA slot

2. MA 02 — the second MA slot

3. MA 03 — the third MA slot

4. MA Blended — the weighted composite line

5. PU Settings — global "power user" settings that affect all slots

The three MA slot groups have identical settings. Anything said about MA 01's settings applies equally to MA 02 and MA 03 — the only differences are the default timeframes and the line colors.

Per-slot settings (MA 01, MA 02, MA 03)

Enable

Turning a slot off removes it entirely. It does not plot, does not compute, does not feed the blend, and does not contribute to trend counts or alignment alerts.

This is different from hiding a slot (see Hide Plot below). Disabling removes the slot from everything. Hiding removes only the line from the chart while keeping the slot active in all calculations.

When to change: Disable a slot when you only need one or two MAs instead of three. If you are working with a two-timeframe setup, disable the third slot rather than leaving it enabled at settings you do not care about — an ignored enabled slot still affects the blend.

Watch out for: Disabling all three slots while the blend is enabled produces a flat zero blended line. The blend has nothing to work with.

Hide Plot

This is a visual-only toggle. When you hide a slot's plot, the line disappears from the chart, but the slot continues computing its MA, tracking its trend, feeding the blend with its configured weight, and participating in alert conditions.

When to change: When you want a slot to influence the blend or fire alerts without adding visual clutter to the chart. For example, you might hide the medium-term slot and show only the short-term and long-term lines plus the blend.

Watch out for: This is one of the most common sources of confusion with this indicator. If you hide a slot's plot and later wonder why the blended line does not match the visible MAs, it is because the hidden slot is still pulling the weighted average. If you want a slot out of the picture entirely, disable it — do not just hide it.

See also: Weight below for how a hidden slot's weight interacts with the blend.

Source

The source determines what data the moving average is computed from. Most traders use close. Other options include open, high, low, hl2 (midpoint of high and low), hlc3 (average of high, low, close), ohlc4, and others provided by TradingView.

When to change: If you want a smoother MA, hlc3 or hl2 can reduce noise compared to close. If you want channel-like behavior, you could set one slot to high and another to low, though this is an unusual configuration.

Watch out for: The source interacts with the MA type. Some MA types (particularly VWMA) behave differently with non-close sources and may produce unexpected results. If you change the source from close, verify that the line on the chart behaves the way you expect before building a workflow around it.

If the slot uses an alternate ticker (via Optional Ticker), the source still refers to the same price series on the alternate ticker's data — close means the alternate ticker's close, not the chart symbol's close.

TimeFrame

This is the setting that makes the indicator multi-timeframe. Each enabled slot requests its MA from the specified timeframe, which must be at least as high as the chart timeframe. Setting the timeframe higher than the chart means the MA is computed on coarser data — a 60-minute MA on a 1-minute chart uses 60-minute candle data, producing a smoother, slower-moving line that steps rather than flows on the 1-minute chart.

When to change: Choose timeframes that correspond to meaningful structure levels in your trading process. Common approaches:

• Intraday scalping: 1m chart with 5m / 15m / 60m slots (the default)

• Intraday swing: 5m chart with 15m / 60m / 240m (4h) slots

• Daily position: Daily chart with weekly / monthly slots (you will need to change the defaults, since 5m/15m/60m are below daily)

Watch out for:

• Setting an enabled slot's timeframe below the chart timeframe triggers a runtime error. The indicator stops entirely and shows an error message identifying the problem slot. This is the most common first-load problem on higher-timeframe charts.

• Setting all three slots to the same timeframe defeats the multi-timeframe purpose. You end up with three MAs of different lengths on the same data. That is just three regular MAs — no additional timeframe context.

• Extreme spreads between slots can make the longest slot nearly flat. A 1-minute slot and a weekly slot on the same chart means the weekly MA barely moves while the 1-minute MA whips around. The comparison between them carries little actionable information because the timescales are too far apart.

Length

Longer lengths produce smoother, more lagged MAs. Shorter lengths produce more responsive, noisier MAs. A length of 20 on a 60-minute timeframe means the MA is computed over the last twenty 60-minute bars (roughly 20 hours of trading).

When to change: When the default smoothness does not match your analytical needs. Common length ranges:

• Fast structure: 8–14

• Standard structure: 20–50

• Slow bias / regime context: 100–200

Watch out for:

• Very short lengths (below 5) on high timeframes can produce erratic lines that do not represent any meaningful structural level.

• Very long lengths can make the MA so lagged that it never provides context the market has not already moved past.

• Length interacts with MA type. A 20-period SMA and a 20-period EMA do not behave the same way — the EMA weights recent bars more heavily and responds faster. Changing length and type at the same time makes it hard to tell which change caused the difference. Adjust one at a time.

Type

The MA type determines how the lookback period's data is weighted. SMA gives equal weight to every bar. EMA gives more weight to recent bars. WMA uses linear weighting. ALMA uses a Gaussian kernel with configurable offset and sigma. The library provides access to multiple MA types.

When to change: When you want a different weighting scheme. Common reasons:

• EMA for faster response to price changes at the cost of more noise

• WMA for a linear weighting that falls between SMA and EMA in responsiveness

• ALMA for a Gaussian-weighted average with tunable smoothness (note that ALMA activates the PU Settings for offset, sigma, and floor)

Watch out for: Switching the MA type without understanding how the new algorithm weights data can produce lines that behave very differently from what you expect based on SMA experience. An MA that "looks right" with SMA at length 20 may behave surprisingly with EMA at the same length. If you change the type, watch the line on the chart for several sessions before building decisions around it.

Trend Length

The trend classification compares the MA's current value to its value N bars ago on the slot's timeframe. If the current value is greater than or equal to the value N bars ago, the slot is in uptrend (solid color). Otherwise, it is in downtrend (faded color).

When to change:

• Increase for more stable trend classification. A higher value requires more sustained movement before the trend flips, reducing noise and flickering during consolidation.

• Decrease for faster flip detection. A lower value makes the color respond sooner to direction changes, at the cost of more false flips during choppy markets.

• Set to 0 to effectively disable trend detection for this slot. The slot will always read as downtrend (faded color). The MA line still plots and still feeds the blend, but it always contributes a downtrend vote.

Watch out for:

• Trend Length of 1 makes the trend hyper-sensitive. The color will flip on any bar where the MA ticked up or down by any amount. On shorter timeframes, this produces rapid flickering that carries no directional meaning.

• Trend Length operates on the slot's timeframe bars, not chart bars. A Trend Length of 3 on a 60-minute slot means three 60-minute bars (3 hours), even if your chart is 1-minute.

• The >= threshold means flat MAs register as uptrend. A perfectly sideways MA will show solid color (uptrend) because its value equals its lagged value. This is a design choice, not a bug — but it means the uptrend color does not always mean "rising."

Line Width

Cosmetic only. No impact on calculations, trend, blend, or alerts. Set to your visual preference.

Blended Weight

The weight determines two things:

1. Blended value contribution: The slot's MA value is multiplied by its weight in the weighted average. Higher weight means the blended line tracks closer to this slot's value.

2. Blended trend vote: The slot's trend state (up or down) contributes this much weight to the vote. The side with more total weight determines the blend color.

Weights are relative, not absolute. 33.3 / 33.3 / 33.3 produces the same result as 1 / 1 / 1. What matters is the ratio between them.

When to change: Increase weight for the timeframe you consider most important to your process. If your 60-minute slot is your primary bias anchor and the 5-minute slot is just context, you might weight them 50 / 30 / 20.

Watch out for:

• Setting weight to 0 excludes the slot from the blend entirely. The slot still computes, still plots its line, still determines its own trend, and still fires per-slot alerts — but it does not affect the blended value or the blended trend vote. This is useful when you want the individual MA visible on the chart without it influencing the composite.

• If every enabled slot has a weight of 0 while the blend is still enabled, the blended line collapses to 0 and the blend stops being meaningful. Keep at least one non-zero weight if you plan to use the blended line or blend alerts.

• Extreme weight concentration (e.g., 90 / 5 / 5) makes the blended line nearly identical to one slot. The blend adds little information at that point and creates a false sense of "composite analysis" — you are really just looking at one MA with two minor perturbations.

• The inverse of Hide Plot: Setting weight to 0 removes the slot from the blend but keeps the plot visible. Hiding the plot removes the visual but keeps the slot in the blend. Understand which one you want before changing either.

Optional Ticker

When this is empty, the slot computes the MA on the chart symbol. When you enter a symbol (e.g., SPY, QQQ, BTCUSD), the slot computes the MA on that symbol's data instead. The resulting MA value is then scaled into the chart symbol's price space so the line appears near your chart's price action rather than at the alternate ticker's raw price level.

When to change: When you want to overlay structure from a correlated or context asset. Common uses:

• Overlay a broad index (SPY, QQQ) on an individual stock chart to see whether the broader market's MA structure supports or contradicts your thesis

• Overlay a sector ETF on a stock chart for sector context

• Overlay a related asset (e.g., gold on a mining stock) for intermarket context

Watch out for:

• The scaling uses a ratio of the two symbols' recent prices to bring the alternate MA into the chart's price region. This works well when the two assets tend to move together. When they diverge sharply, the ratio stretches and the scaled line can drift away from the chart's price action. This drift is not trend information — it is ratio noise. See For the Geeks for a deeper explanation.

• Using an unrelated asset (one with no structural connection to the chart symbol) will produce a scaled line whose movements carry no meaningful information about the chart symbol's behavior. The scaling forces the line into the right price region visually, but the line's direction and position will not tell you anything useful.

• The scaling respects On Bar Close. When On Bar Close is on, the scale ratio uses confirmed closes. When off, it uses live closes. The same repaint considerations apply to the scaling as to the MA itself.

Blended MA settings

Enable Blended MA

Turn this off if you only want the individual MA lines without a composite view. When disabled, the blended line does not plot, does not compute, and the blend-related alerts do not fire.

Hide Blended MA Plot

Like Hide Plot on individual slots: the blend still computes and blend-related alerts still fire, but the line is not visible on the chart.

Line Width (Blended)

Cosmetic only. The blend defaults to a slightly thicker line (3 vs. 2 for individual slots) to make it visually distinct.

PU Settings

These settings are global. They apply to all three MA slots simultaneously. In the Lite version, there is no per-slot override for any of these.

On Bar Close?

This is the most consequential setting in the indicator. It determines whether the chart's history is honest.

• On (default): The indicator reads the previous fully-confirmed HTF bar. What you see in history is what you would have seen live. The tradeoff is a one-HTF-bar delay on the most recent data — the newest HTF bar is not reflected until it closes. The lines step instead of flowing. That stepping is the visual cost of trustworthy data.

• Off: The indicator reads the current building HTF bar. Lines update faster and flow more smoothly. But historical bars show values that were not yet available at the time — the chart retroactively paints the final HTF close onto bars where that close was still unknown. Any backtest, visual review, or pattern study you do on past bars is working with information the market had not yet produced.

When to change: Turn it off only when you specifically need faster visual updates in real time, you understand that the historical chart picture is no longer reliable, and you will not draw any conclusions from how the indicator behaved on past bars. If any part of your process involves looking at history — and most processes do — keep this on.

This setting deserves its own page. See MTF & Repainting for the full explanation, a step-by-step verification routine, and a clear picture of what you gain and lose with each choice.

Note: In this Lite script, this single toggle governs all three slots and the cross-ticker scaling ratio simultaneously.

ALMA Floor Offset?

Only relevant when one or more slots use ALMA as the MA type. Flooring changes the position of the Gaussian kernel's center, which subtly affects how the ALMA responds to price data. Most users should leave this off unless they have a specific reason to floor the offset based on their understanding of ALMA's kernel positioning.

ALMA Offset

Lower values make the ALMA more responsive to recent price changes. Higher values add more lag by centering the kernel further back in the lookback period.

Only relevant when one or more slots use ALMA as the MA type. This is a global setting — changing it affects all ALMA-type slots simultaneously.

ALMA Sigma

A wider kernel (higher sigma) produces a smoother ALMA that responds less sharply to individual price bars. A narrower kernel (lower sigma) produces a more responsive ALMA that reacts more quickly but picks up more noise.

Only relevant when one or more slots use ALMA as the MA type. This is a global setting — changing it affects all ALMA-type slots simultaneously.

Setting dependency map

Several settings interact in ways that are not obvious from their individual descriptions. This section documents the most important dependencies.

On Bar Close is global

In the Lite version, On Bar Close is a single toggle that controls all three slots and the cross-ticker scaling ratio simultaneously. You cannot have one slot use confirmed values and another use live values.

ALMA settings are global

The ALMA offset, sigma, and floor settings apply to every slot that uses ALMA as its MA type. If you set Slot 01 to ALMA and Slot 03 to ALMA, both will use the same offset, sigma, and floor values. If only one slot uses ALMA, the settings are still global — they just happen to affect only one slot.

Hide Plot does not disable computation

A hidden slot still computes its MA, determines its trend, feeds the blend with its configured weight, and participates in alert conditions. The only thing that changes is the visual presence on the chart. If you want a slot truly removed from everything, use Enable, not Hide Plot.

Weight of 0 excludes from blend but keeps the plot

Setting a slot's weight to 0 removes it from the blended value calculation and the blended trend vote. But the slot's own MA line, trend color, and per-slot alerts continue functioning normally. This is the inverse of Hide Plot:

Enabled slot timeframe must be >= chart timeframe

Every enabled slot's configured timeframe must resolve to at least as many seconds as the chart's timeframe. If it does not, the indicator stops with a runtime error identifying the problem slot. This is a hard constraint, not a warning — the indicator will not render until the conflict is resolved.

Quick reference: defaults at a glance

The defaults give you a balanced 5m / 15m / 60m SMA 20 stack with equal blend weights and confirmed-bar safety on. They are a starting point for a 1-minute or 5-minute chart, not a recommendation. If your chart timeframe is higher than 5-minute, you will need to raise the enabled slot timeframes before the indicator will render. And even on an intraday chart, the timeframes, lengths, and weights that serve your process will almost certainly differ from these defaults. The defaults exist so you can see the indicator working immediately — the configuration that actually helps you will take some thought about what structural levels matter in how you trade.