Quick Start

Quick Start

This page gets the indicator on your chart and confirms it loaded correctly. Configuration and interpretation come later — this is just the first load.

Adding the indicator

Apply Axiom DC Pro to any chart. It draws directly on the price chart (overlay mode), so you will see the channels layered over your candles immediately.

Before you do anything else, check your chart timeframe. The default setup expects a chart at or below 5 minutes, because DC 01 defaults to a 5-minute timeframe. If your chart is on 15-minute or daily, that slot will throw a runtime error — this script is built to reject lower-timeframe slots.

If that happens, you have two options: drop your chart timeframe to 5 minutes or below, or open the settings and raise the offending slot's timeframe to match your chart. Either way, the rule is simple: no slot can request a timeframe lower than the chart it is running on.

What you should see

With defaults, three Donchian Channel sets appear on the chart:

• DC 01 — teal lines, running on the 5-minute timeframe, length 20

• DC 02 — blue lines, running on the 15-minute timeframe, length 20

• DC 03 — purple lines, running on the 60-minute timeframe, length 20

Each set has three lines: an upper (the highest high over N bars on that timeframe), a lower (the lowest low), and a basis in between (the midpoint of the channel). The upper and lower lines are drawn at reduced opacity; the basis is the solid-color line at full opacity.

On top of those three channel sets, you will see the Blended DC: a wider red channel with a lime-green basis line and a faintly shaded red fill between the upper and lower bounds. This is the weighted composite of the enabled slots that currently carry non-zero weight.

The default blend weights are 40% for DC 01, 35% for DC 02, and 25% for DC 03. That means the blended channel leans toward the 5-minute slot's readings. If the blended channel sits noticeably close to the teal (5m) channel, this is expected — not a sign that the other slots are not working.

Slots 04 through 10 are turned off by default. You will not see them until you enable them in the settings. This is intentional. Three channels plus a blend is enough to confirm the indicator loaded correctly and to start getting a feel for the structural picture before you add more complexity.

The staircase pattern

If this is your first time using a multi-timeframe overlay with repaint protection, the channels will look different from what you might expect. Instead of smooth, continuously updating lines, the higher-timeframe channels move in a staircase pattern — flat steps that update only when the higher-timeframe bar closes, then hold steady until the next one finishes.

This is correct behavior. It means the indicator is using confirmed higher-timeframe values (On Bar Close is enabled by default). The flat sections between updates are the price you pay for knowing that what you see in history actually matched what was visible at the time. The wider the gap between your chart timeframe and a slot's timeframe, the wider the steps.

If the staircase bothers you or if you need faster updates for live decision-making, you can turn On Bar Close off for any slot. But before you do that, read MTF and Repainting to understand what you are trading away. The short version: turning it off makes the channels smoother and more responsive, but it also means the historical values on your chart may not match what was visible when those bars were live. Your backtest becomes unreliable.

First sanity checks

Once the indicator is loaded with defaults on a chart timeframe at or below 5 minutes:

1. Count the channel sets. You should see exactly three colored channel sets (teal, blue, purple) plus one red/lime blended channel. If you see fewer, check whether a slot got accidentally disabled or hidden. This catches the most common first-load mistake: accidentally toggling something off during settings exploration.

1. Check the staircase. The 60-minute slot (purple) should have the widest steps — updating only every 60 minutes of chart time. The 5-minute slot (teal) should update every five minutes. The step width tells you the channel is working correctly for its timeframe. If a channel that should have wide steps is updating every bar, its On Bar Close may be off — which means it is repainting. See MTF and Repainting if you are unsure.

1. Confirm the blend sits among the individual channels. With the default positive weights (40/35/25), the blended channel should fall somewhere between the narrowest and widest individual channels, closer to the 5-minute channel. If the blend sits outside all three channels or at a level you cannot explain from the visible channels, check for a hidden slot with weight or for a custom negative weight that is pulling the average somewhere unexpected.

1. Watch for one full cycle. Let the chart run through at least one 60-minute bar close. When the 60-minute bar confirms, the purple channel should step to its new level and the blend should shift to reflect the new values. If neither moves, confirm that the slots are enabled and On Bar Close is on. This step matters because it proves the indicator is receiving and processing higher-timeframe data correctly, not just showing stale initial values.

What to do next

If everything looks correct, you have a working three-timeframe structural stack with a blended summary. From here:

• To understand what each setting does and how changing it affects the chart, go to Settings.

• To learn how to read what the channels are telling you — and what they are not telling you — go to Visuals and Logic.

• To understand the repaint tradeoff in depth before you change the On Bar Close toggle, go to MTF and Repainting.

• To set up workflows for specific use cases (like adding a cross-market slot or hiding channels from the chart while keeping them in the blend), go to Workflows.