STRATA USER MANUAL

Introduction

Composite Man’s Strata is a multi-moving average indicator engineered for traders who want maximum information from a single, clean overlay. Instead of adding five separate moving average indicators to your chart — each cluttering the settings panel — Strata gives you up to five fully independent MAs in one unified tool, each configurable with its own type, period, source, color, and line thickness.

The philosophy behind Strata is convenience without compromise. Whether you trade trends, pullbacks, or dynamic support/resistance, Strata adapts to your methodology by letting you mix MA types freely. You could run a 20 EMA for momentum, a 50 TEMA for trend, a 200 WMA for structure, and a VWMA for volume-weighted context — all simultaneously, all in one indicator slot.

 

Supported Moving Average Types

Each of the five MA slots supports the following calculation methods:

  • None: Disables the slot entirely. No line is drawn, no resources consumed. Use this to run fewer than 5 MAs cleanly.
  • SMA (Simple Moving Average): Calculates the arithmetic mean of the chosen source over the period. Straightforward, unweighted, excellent as a baseline or long-term structure marker.
  • EMA (Exponential Moving Average): Weights recent prices more heavily using an exponential decay factor. Responds faster to price changes than SMA. The most commonly used MA in active trading.
  • TEMA (Triple Exponential Moving Average): Applies EMA three times and combines the result (3*EMA1 – 3*EMA2 + EMA3) to dramatically reduce lag while remaining smooth. Highly responsive without the noise of a raw fast EMA.
  • WMA (Weighted Moving Average): Assigns a linear weight to each bar — the most recent bar receives the highest weight. Faster than SMA, smoother than EMA in many configurations.
  • VWMA (Volume-Weighted Moving Average): Weights each price by its corresponding volume. Bars with higher trading activity exert more influence on the average. Particularly useful in futures and equity markets where volume distribution matters.

 

Source Selection

Each MA can calculate its average from a different data source. This is a powerful feature that most traders underuse. Available sources:

  • Close: The closing price of each bar.
  • Open: The opening price.
  • High: The highest price of the bar.
  • Low: The lowest price of the bar.
  • HL2: (High + Low) / 2. The midpoint of the bar’s range.
  • HLC3: (High + Low + Close) / 3. Typical price, widely used in pivot calculations.
  • OHLC4: (Open + High + Low + Close) / 4. The average of all four price points.
  • Volume: Uses raw volume as the source input. Useful for exotic averaging purposes or experimental setups.

💡 Mixing sources across your five MAs adds a dimension of analysis that single-source indicators can’t provide. For example, a VWMA on Close tracks volume-confirmed trend, while an EMA on HL2 tracks structural midpoints.

 

Settings Reference

The settings panel is organized into five identical groups — MA 1 through MA 5. Each group contains:

Setting Group Default Description
Type MA 1–5 None (MA1) Selects the calculation algorithm for this slot. Set to None to disable the slot.
Period MA 1–5 20/21/50/100/200 The lookback period for the moving average. Higher = smoother, slower. Lower = faster, noisier.
Source MA 1–5 Close The price data point used as input for the calculation.
Color MA 1–5 Varies per slot The display color of the line. Supports full ARGB including transparency.
Line Thickness MA 1–5 1 Pixel thickness of the drawn line. Thicker lines are more visible on busy charts.

 

💡 Default periods are set to 20, 21, 50, 100, and 200 — classic widely-watched levels. All five slots default to ‘None’ (disabled) so the chart remains clean until you choose your setup.

 

Default Color Scheme

Strata ships with a professionally chosen color palette designed to be visually distinct and easy to read on both dark and light chart backgrounds:

  • MA 1: Red-pink (#F3141D) — fast/momentum MA
  • MA 2: Amber (#F5A300) — secondary fast MA
  • MA 3: Yellow (#FFD400) — medium-term trend
  • MA 4: Cream/vanilla (#F7E1A1) — long-term structure
  • MA 5: Sky blue (#B1E7F6) — macro/200-period

All colors are fully customizable in the settings panel.

 

Suggested Configurations

Classic Trend-Following Setup

  • MA 1: EMA 20 (Close) — short-term momentum
  • MA 2: EMA 50 (Close) — medium-term trend
  • MA 3: SMA 200 (Close) — long-term structure
  • MA 4 & 5: None

 

Volume-Aware Confluence Setup

  • MA 1: EMA 20 (Close) — fast signal
  • MA 2: VWMA 20 (Close) — volume-weighted comparison
  • MA 3: TEMA 50 (Close) — low-lag medium trend
  • MA 4: SMA 200 (HL2) — structural midpoint
  • MA 5: None

 

Multi-Timeframe Feel on a Single Chart

  • MA 1: EMA 9 — scalping reference
  • MA 2: EMA 21 — intraday trend
  • MA 3: EMA 55 — swing reference
  • MA 4: SMA 100 — session structure
  • MA 5: SMA 200 — macro context

 

Technical Notes

  • All five MAs are computed fully independently. Changing one slot’s settings does not affect others.
  • TEMA requires a warmup period of approximately 3× the specified period before its values fully converge. This is normal behavior for triple-smoothed EMAs.
  • VWMA requires candles with valid volume data. On instruments or timeframes where volume is unavailable, results will be unreliable. The indicator will return zero for those bars.
  • Line rendering is performed via a custom draw loop (OnRender), which skips zero-value bars cleanly — you will never see a line artificially snapping to zero.
  • The indicator draws on both Historical and Final layout layers, meaning lines remain sharp and accurate during live bar updates.