Troubleshooting

Written By Axiom Admin

Last updated 22 days ago

Troubleshooting

When something on the chart does not match what you expected, the question is almost always one of three: did you configure something that produces this behavior, is this documented behavior you have not yet internalized, or have you run into a scope limit on what the Base trim carries. A fourth category exists — a genuine bug in the tool — but it is rare and you should rule the first three out before assuming it.

This page maps the symptoms you are most likely to hit to the cause they point to and the fix you can apply. Read the symptom-to-cause table first. The sections after it explain the two classes of case that a one-row lookup cannot resolve, and close with what to bring when you reach out for help.

Symptom-to-cause table

Symptom	Most likely cause	Fix
Red error banner across the top of the chart reading `DC NN timeframe cannot be lower than the chart timeframe.`	The named slot's `TimeFrame:` is below the chart timeframe.	Open the inputs dialog and set that slot's `TimeFrame:` to an empty string (inherits chart timeframe) or to any timeframe equal to or higher than the chart's. Error clears on the next recompute.
All three slots' lines move during the current chart bar, then move again, then settle.	`On Bar Close?` is off — the switch is global and flipping it changes posture on every slot at once.	If you meant to run live-bar, this is the expected behavior. If you meant confirmed-bar, turn `On Bar Close?` back on.
Blended channel is not moving even though price is doing something.	Either the composite's inputs are not actually moving (look at the slot bases), or `Enable Blended DC` is off, or every contributing slot's weight is zero, or the contributing slots are still warming up.	Confirm the blended channel is enabled. Confirm at least one enabled slot has a non-zero weight and valid plotted data. If both hold and the composite still sits still, the slots are genuinely agreeing on stasis — that is data, not a defect.
Blended channel is moving and you cannot find a slot on the chart that is moving with it.	A hidden-plot slot with a non-zero weight is steering the blend without drawing its lines.	Open the inputs dialog and look for a slot with `Hide DC NN Plot` on and a non-zero `Blended Weight`. Either unhide it, set its weight to zero, or disable it.
Alignment alert has not fired despite two slots agreeing on direction.	Alignment requires every enabled slot to agree. The third slot is enabled, possibly hidden, and not agreeing.	Open the inputs dialog. If a slot is hidden and you do not want it in the alignment vote, disable the slot (hiding the plot does not remove it from alignment). If all three slots should be voting, check the third slot's `Basis Trend Length` and basis-trend state.
A slot is enabled but its three lines are not visible.	Either `Hide DC NN Plot` is on, or the slot's values are `na` on the bars visible on the screen (early-bar warmup), or the line width is too thin to notice.	Check `Hide DC NN Plot`. Scroll forward to see whether the lines come in after the slot's `Length` window has accumulated. Raise `Line Width:` on the slot if the lines are being drawn but hard to see.
Per-slot basis-trend alerts fire constantly on one slot.	`Basis Trend Length` on that slot is too short for the timeframe. At `1`, the alert effectively fires on "is the basis higher than its last bar" — which flickers.	Raise `Basis Trend Length` on that slot to a value that matches how deliberate you want the trend read to be. Shipped default is `3`.
Outer upper / lower look ragged while the basis looks calm.	`Length:` is set short enough that the highs and lows are chasing noise. The outer bounds are raw and `Basis MA Length` does not smooth them.	Raise `Length:`. If that smears the range too far, the timeframe may be wrong for the read and a different slot timeframe is the real fix.
Changed `Basis MA Type` (for example from SMA to EMA) and the basis looks identical.	`Basis MA Length` is at its default of `1`. At length `1`, the length-based MA types mostly collapse to the raw midpoint.	Raise `Basis MA Length` above `1` before judging whether a length-based `Type` change is doing anything. SWMA is the exception because it uses TradingView's fixed SWMA behavior rather than the user length.
Slot lines are missing on the left edge of a fresh chart.	Early-bar warmup — the slot has not yet accumulated enough higher-timeframe bars to fill its `Length` window.	Scroll forward on the chart until each slot has enough history. If a slot's lines stay missing deep into the chart, its `Length:` may be too long for the history the chart has loaded.
A basis-trend alert fired while you were looking at the chart under `On Bar Close? = OFF`, and the chart now looks different than the alert implied.	The alert was gated at chart-bar close, but under OFF the underlying basis value may have been a live higher-timeframe read that redrew.	If you want alerts you can trust unsupervised, run with `On Bar Close?` on. See MTF & Repainting.

Configuration surprises versus documented behavior

Several of the symptoms above are the indicator behaving as designed, not as broken. The table already names them — hidden slots contributing to alignment alerts, the Basis MA Length = 1 pass-through for length-based MA types, the SWMA exception, and the outer bounds staying raw under basis smoothing — but the distinction is worth stating on its own because it is the single most common confusion on this indicator.

If a behavior is documented in Settings or Visuals & Logic, and you are seeing it on the chart, the tool is telling you the truth about the configuration you gave it. A reader who did not know that hidden slots still steer the blend will describe that behavior as a bug; the cause, specifically, is a configuration whose consequence was not obvious. Turning that cause into a symptom that is easy to spot is the job of these pages.

A quick mental check when a behavior surprises you: is the surprise coming from a slot you configured, a switch you flipped, or a default you have not changed? If the answer is any of those, the cause is in the configuration and the fix is there. If the configuration looks right and the behavior still seems wrong, the next question is whether you are reading the behavior against a mental model that does not match the tool — for example, expecting the outer bounds to smooth when Basis MA Length changes, or expecting Hide DC NN Plot to remove a slot from the math.

Three checks that resolve most "the tool is broken" moments before they reach support:

Open the inputs dialog and read every slot's Enable, Hide, TimeFrame, and Blended Weight out loud. Invisible configuration causes a lot of apparent bugs.
Flip On Bar Close? to on if it is off, and re-watch the behavior through a full bar close on the affected slot. Many "the lines are moving" reports are the OFF posture working as documented.
Raise Basis MA Length above 1 before concluding that a length-based Type is broken, or raise Length before concluding the outer channel is. The knob that can change the thing you noticed is almost always the specific one; the knob next to it usually cannot.

If all three checks come back clean and the behavior still does not make sense, the last section of this page is where to go next.

When the symptom is really a scope limit on the Base trim

Some symptoms do not have a fix inside this trim because the behavior you are reaching for is not what this trim carries. A few to recognize:

You want to point a slot at a different symbol. The Base trim has no alternate-ticker input. No setting you can change will produce cross-symbol range context. If that read is what you need, reach for the CTX trim (axiom-mtf-dc-ctx).
You want Slot 01 on On Bar Close? = ON and Slot 03 on OFF simultaneously. The Base trim's repaint switch is a single global control. Per-slot repaint control lives on the CTX trim.
You want a fourth slot. The ceiling on this trim is three. CTX opens a wider surface.
You want a specific Pro-catalog smoother for the basis. The Base trim's basis smoothing runs through the MA Lite library. The Pro catalog lives on the CTX trim.

These are not troubleshooting issues — they are decisions about which trim you are running. If you find yourself trying to configure your way to one of the behaviors above, take a pass through Limitations & Trust Boundaries and then move to the trim that carries it. That is faster than working around a scope the Base trim was deliberately not designed to cover.

Where to ask if something is still stuck

If the symptom you are hitting is not on this page, if a setting behaves in a way the pack does not predict, or if you want a human to look at your chart, reach out through the Axiom support channel you have on file. The pack does not hard-code a specific support URL because the right destination can change, and an out-of-date link helps nobody. If you do not yet have a support destination, the Axiom site's contact page is the right starting point.

When you ask, it helps to bring:

A screenshot of the chart with the symptom visible.
The indicator's inputs dialog, either as a screenshot or as a note of what you changed from defaults.
The chart timeframe and the symbol you are on.
Whether On Bar Close? is on or off at the moment of the symptom.
The exact alert name if the symptom involves an alert.

Those five things usually narrow the conversation to the right page of the pack — or to a genuine issue worth escalating.