Troubleshooting

This page is for the moment when something on the chart looks wrong and you do not yet know whether the indicator is broken, you misconfigured it, or it is doing exactly what it is documented to do and your expectatio...

Written By Axiom Admin

Last updated 22 days ago

Troubleshooting

Stating the bias of the page plainly: most "broken" reports that arrive at an indicator like this one are the third case. The indicator does several things by design that surprise readers the first time they see them. Most of those surprises are the tool being honest about something the reader was quietly assuming it would not be honest about — the hidden-plot trap, the runtime-error guard, the live-bar revision under OFF, the blend aggregating over slot disagreement. Walking the symptom-to-cause table below before assuming a defect will save you time and, more importantly, will teach you the tool's posture faster than any other page in the pack.

Read this first: the three categories

Every symptom this page covers falls into one of three buckets.

You configured something unexpected. A value you set has a downstream effect you did not anticipate. The fix is a configuration change. The tool is working.
The tool is operating as documented and the documentation is the answer. The behavior is by design and lives somewhere in this pack. The fix is to read the relevant page.
A platform-side or data-side issue. TradingView, the data feed, or the chart symbol itself is the cause. The fix is outside the indicator's control.

Each row in the table below is labeled. When you have a symptom not in the table, walk the three categories in order before reaching for "the tool is broken."

Symptom-to-cause table

Symptom	Most likely cause	Category	Fix
Chart goes blank, indicator shows a runtime error like `BB 01 timeframe cannot be lower than the chart timeframe.`	A slot's `TimeFrame:` is set to a value lower than the chart's timeframe.	Configured something unexpected	Set the offending slot's `TimeFrame:` to a value equal to or greater than the chart timeframe, or leave it blank to inherit the chart timeframe. See MTF & Repainting on the slot timeframe guard.
Slot's lines drift on every chart-bar tick instead of stepping with the higher timeframe.	The slot's `On Bar Close?` is false (OFF).	Operating as documented	Set the slot's `On Bar Close?` (in its PU group) back to true if you want the step-and-hold posture. See MTF & Repainting.
Blended band moves but no slot's lines visibly moved.	An enabled-but-hidden slot is still steering the blend, or a slot just stepped at its higher-timeframe close while the chart is between higher-timeframe boundaries.	Operating as documented	Check `Hide BB NN Plot` on every enabled slot. Hidden slots still contribute. To remove a slot from the blend, set its `Blended Weight = 0`. See Visuals & Logic.
`All BB Slot Bases Uptrend` alert is silent while every visible slot is in uptrend.	An enabled-but-hidden slot is in downtrend state.	Operating as documented	Walk the slot list and check every enabled slot's basis-trend state, including hidden ones. Disable slots you do not want to participate in alignment. See Alerts.
Cross-ticker slot's bands sit far above or below price.	The alternate symbol's volatility regime is very different from the chart symbol's, or sessions are mismatched and the alternate symbol's data is stale.	Operating as documented	Verify session compatibility. Check the alternate symbol's native chart for the same period. The scaling preserves shape, not absolute distance. See Limitations & Trust Boundaries.
Slot is enabled, lines are not appearing on the chart.	One of: `Hide BB NN Plot` is true; the slot has not yet accumulated `Length:` bars on its higher timeframe; `Optional Ticker:` was set to a symbol with no data on this timeframe.	Mixed (configured + data)	Confirm `Hide BB NN Plot = false`. Scroll the chart back enough bars for the slot's higher-timeframe history to fill. If `Optional Ticker:` is set, confirm the alternate symbol exists on TradingView and trades on a session compatible with what you are watching.
Basis-trend alert fires repeatedly during a single higher-timeframe bar (with `On Bar Close? = OFF`).	The slot is on OFF and the live higher-timeframe basis is crossing back and forth across the trend-length threshold.	Operating as documented	If you want a single alert per higher-timeframe bar, set the slot's `On Bar Close?` to true. The alert will then fire only on chart-bar closes where the previous, confirmed higher-timeframe basis-trend state held. See Alerts and MTF & Repainting.
`Basis Trend Length:` is small (1 or 2) and the basis-trend state flickers on noisy data.	The trend-length window is so short that small basis movements toggle the state.	Configured something unexpected	Increase `Basis Trend Length:` to a value that resolves your noise. There is no objectively right value; pick one whose flickers no longer exceed your tolerance. See Visuals & Logic.
Changed `Type:` from SMA to ALMA (or another non-SMA), the basis curve looks wrong.	The slot's PU group has the matching MA-type parameters at default values that may not be sensible for your symbol.	Configured something unexpected	Open the slot's PU group, set the relevant MA-type parameters deliberately. The semantics of those parameters live in the Axiom MA Pro Library manual.
Indicator stops updating mid-session (lines freeze, price keeps moving).	TradingView's per-symbol or per-account `request.security` quota was hit, or the session reached a chart-side throttle.	Platform-side	Reload the indicator (remove and re-add) or refresh the chart tab. If it recurs, reduce the number of enabled slots; each enabled slot uses a `request.security` call per ticker/timeframe combination.
Disabled a slot, blended band did not change.	The slot was not contributing to the blend because its `Blended Weight` was already zero, or its values happened to match the weighted composite closely enough that the change was not visible.	Operating as documented	This is expected. The blend includes enabled slots with non-zero weight; disabling a zero-weight slot has no visible effect on the blend.
Enabled a new slot, blended band did not change.	The slot's `Blended Weight` is zero, which is the default for slots 04–10.	Operating as documented	If you want the slot to steer the blend, set its `Blended Weight:` to a non-zero value after the slot has real plotted values. A non-zero weighted slot during warm-up can distort the blend because missing values are normalized before blending.
Blended trend flipped without any individual per-slot trend visibly flipping.	A slot with a small basis-trend lookback flipped on the most recent chart bar, just enough to tip the weight-majority vote.	Operating as documented	Check each contributing slot's basis-trend state at the chart-bar where the blended trend flipped. The slot whose state changed is usually obvious once you look. See For the Geeks for the exact vote rule.
Cross-ticker slot's bands look correct intraday but go stale at certain times.	Session mismatch: the alternate symbol is closed while the chart symbol is open, or vice versa.	Operating as documented	Use cross-ticker slots only during overlapping sessions. The scaling does not compensate for one symbol being closed; it just keeps drawing the last available value. See Limitations & Trust Boundaries.
Indicator load is slow, takes several seconds to render after a chart change.	A higher slot count, deeper lengths, and especially several `Optional Ticker:` slots increase the cost per chart load.	Platform-side	Reduce the number of enabled slots and especially the number of cross-ticker slots. The cost scales roughly with enabled slots × ticker variety.

Symptom walkthroughs

The table is fast. The walkthroughs below are for symptoms where readers most often misdiagnose the cause.

"The blended band is moving and I cannot see why."

The blend is the weighted average of every enabled slot with a non-zero weight. Anything that moves in that set will move the blend. On early bars after a load, missing slot values can also pull the composite around because they are normalized before blending. Walk the checklist below in order; you will usually catch the cause within three checks.

Is any enabled slot hidden? (Hide BB NN Plot = true on an enabled slot.) Hidden slots steer the blend.
Did a higher-timeframe slot just step at its higher-timeframe close? On a 1-minute chart with a 60-minute slot, the slot's value will jump exactly at the top of the hour. The blend jumps with it.
Did the chart symbol just print a price-driven move that pulled the chart-timeframe slot? If the blend includes a slot at the chart timeframe, that slot reacts to every chart-bar close and pulls the blend.
Did you change a setting recently? Even a small change to Length: on one contributing slot can shift the basis enough to move the blend.
Is any Optional Ticker: slot in your blend? A move in the alternate symbol can shift the scaled bands and pull the blend.

"The runtime error came back even though I set the timeframe."

Two patterns produce this.

You set the timeframe on the wrong slot. The error names the slot. Reread it carefully. BB 03 timeframe cannot be lower than the chart timeframe. is about Slot 03, not Slot 01.
You set the timeframe to a value that is lower than the chart timeframe in seconds, even though it looks higher in your head. "45S" is 45 seconds and is lower than a 1-minute chart. "1H" is 60 minutes and is higher. Use TradingView's standard timeframe codes; if you are unsure, leave the field blank to inherit the chart.

"An alert fired but the chart does not show what the alert says."

This is almost always one of three causes.

The alert is firing under a slot configuration that is no longer on the chart. TradingView stores the configuration with the alert when you create it; subsequent edits to the indicator's settings do not retroactively change the alert. To reconcile, re-create the alert with the current configuration.
The slot fired its alert on On Bar Close? = OFF and the underlying higher-timeframe basis-trend state has since flipped. The alert reported what was true at the chart-bar close; by the time you look, the live higher-timeframe value may have moved. See MTF & Repainting.
The slot is hidden and you are looking at the visible slots. Check Hide BB NN Plot on every enabled slot.

"I disabled a slot but the chart still feels different than before."

Disabling a slot removes it from plots, the blend, and alerts. If the chart looks different in a way you did not expect, the most likely cause is that a chart-bar elapsed and other slots stepped, or the chart's price moved. Compare the chart against a saved layout from before you changed the slot to confirm what is actually different.

"The cross-ticker slot is drawing strangely."

The most common surprise: the scaled band's distance from the chart's price is large because the alternate symbol is in a different volatility regime. The scaling preserves the alternate symbol's relative envelope; if QQQ's recent volatility is several times SPY's, a QQQ band scaled into SPY's price space will sit further from SPY's price than SPY's own bands do.

That is not a defect. It is the scaling reporting an honest difference. If you want a cross-ticker overlay that always sits "near" your price, you want a different tool — one that re-volatility-normalizes between symbols. That is a more ambitious operation, and the design choice in Axiom BB CTX is to keep the scaling simple and named rather than do something more elaborate that would still not be predictive. See For the Geeks on why this tradeoff was made.

When the tool is genuinely broken

If you have walked the checklists above and a symptom still does not have a documented explanation, it is reasonable to suspect a defect. Before assuming so, do these three things.

Reload the indicator. Remove it from the chart and re-add it. Several "stuck" symptoms — especially around slot warmup or request.security errors — clear on a reload.
Reload the chart. Refresh the browser tab or close and reopen the chart. TradingView caches significant state per session; a fresh session can rule out platform-side issues.
Test on a different symbol or timeframe. If a symptom is reproducible across a SPY 1-minute chart, an ES 5-minute chart, and a BTCUSD 15-minute chart, it is more likely to be in the indicator. If it is reproducible on only one symbol or timeframe, it is more likely to be a data-side issue with that symbol.

If after that the symptom is still unexplained, gather: the chart symbol, the chart timeframe, every enabled slot's primary inputs (timeframe, length, multiplier, MA type, ticker), every enabled slot's On Bar Close?, the runtime error message if any, and a screenshot of the symptom. That is the package an honest support conversation needs to be productive.

The support destination for this pack is to be confirmed in a future revision. When it lands, the link will be added here. Until then, do not invent a backchannel; bring the package to whichever Axiom support route you would normally use.

Where to go next

For why the runtime error guard exists and how to fix it, MTF & Repainting.
For the hidden-plot trap restated, Visuals & Logic.
For what alerts can and cannot tell you, Alerts.
For the broader trust posture, Limitations & Trust Boundaries.