Congestions is a supply/demand indicator for Metatrader 4 (MT4) that identifies prices staling points, while making sure there was significant demand or supply over these bars (these are congestion bars). Based on the congestion bars, it then draws the congestion zones, which are zones where the price is likely to stall or reverse in the future.

These bars show the points of buying and selling identified over a range of bars. The volumes and price formation play an important role in identifying whether the market is normally trending, or if it’s stalling due to buyers/sellers coming in. These are slow buying/selling patterns, much easier to miss compared to the standard ones, but just as important nonetheless.

The indicator will show these bars as small diamonds below or above price candles, as green or red. They can also be set to be drawn as rectangles instead.

• When these bars show up, a sideways movement or an upturn is likely soon
• When there is a confirmation of strength by the next few bars, a congestion zone is formed, and entries can be considered ahead (more on the subsection below)
• Look out for the low of the strong congestion bar – a breakout to the downside often means a downtrend will ensue. Likewise for weak congestions

A congestion zone is a critical price area, where there was confirmed supply/demand. These zones are useful to keep track of since there will be a big amount of volume orders at these prices.

A strong congestion is formed when there are large traders buying the market, over a series of bars, which is detected by the prices and volumes behavior. Two things can then happen:

1. Buying doesn’t have a follow-up (no upside reaction). This can happen in the case the buying comes from short positions closing, or from a much shorter-term timeframe speculation. The congestion bars should be seen as a temporary setback in the downtrend.
2. The subsequent prices won’t go below the congestion bars, and it may even rally a bit. This is a follow-up, that shows the market is being supported.

The second case is when the congestion zone will be drawn, within the price range of the congestion’s bar high and low. In this price area, you can expect almost surely more buying to show up in the future, and a resistance to the prices.

Long-term and Short-term Zones

The indicator will distinguish between long-term and short-term zones, based on the number of bars that the zone is active for. Short-term zones are much more likely to be broken, and should be seen as a minor resistance – if the prices got back to a buying zone so rapidly, it’s probably because there wasn’t enough buying to sustain higher prices.

Very High Volume and High Volume Zones

The volume of a zone is determined by the volumes when the congestion was formed, compared to the session average. The indicator can be set to draw just very high volume zones, just high volume ones, or both (default). In very high volume zones, a high volatility is more likely due to the amount of orders present in the cluster.

Whereas standard resistances don’t take into account the volume traded at the high, Congestion Zones looks for the volumes to determine whether it’s a significant resistance or not formed from a buying/selling zone. Therefore, when price gets to one of these zones, either a ‘touch-and-reverse’ reaction is to be expected, or more congestion bars, which would signal re-accumulation. If that’s not the case, it means the buyers aren’t active enough, and the congestion zone is probably going to get broken anytime soon – the buyers who had bought previously, have either unloaded their positions already, or the buying that took place could have been due to traders just taking profits (common on long downtrends), which won’t give enough support for an uptrend to take place.

Support holding signs:

• Prices ‘touch-and-reverse’ – prices don’t stay very long inside the zones, as such would signal lack of accumulation from the previous buyers
• If in uptrend, congestion bars near the drawn zone show more buying and the trend being supported. Going to a lower timeframe can be useful to provide a better timing
• Beware of fake-out bars used to hunt stops along these areas. These can happen inside, or slightly below a zone

Support breakout signs:

• Steep downtrend into a zone usually precedes a breakout
• Prices inside the congestion zone for several bars (10+), or not rallying shortly after touching the zone
• On a long downtrend, zones represent minor setbacks, and breakouts are more likely

Other uses:

• High volatility is more likely near congestion zones
• Avoid trading in highly congested zones (the chart will have congestion zones just above and below the current prices). These are also usually volatile zones, where sudden movements in either way are likely
• Even if broken, a zone is a resistance to prices nonetheless. To break a previous buying zone there needs to be significant effort, and those sellers will most likely prevent prices from rising through their selling point
• Watch out for the breakout of a congestion zone in a lower timeframe – a true breakout will usually show high volumes

The indicator has 3 type of alerts implemented:

1. There is a congestion bar – alerts when a strong or weak congestion bar appears (drawn as diamonds, as default)
2. The price goes in a congestion zone – this alert will activate on the first time of this occurrence, for each of the drawn zones.
3. The price breaks out a congestion zone – this alert will activate on the first time of this occurrence, for each of the drawn zones.

Settings

The indicator’s default settings are good to be used, but you can always customize and tweak them to your preference.

General

Product Registration Key – Your user key

Set to true to set GMT Offset – Set to true in case indicator hasn’t detected GMT offset automatically

Set your broker’s GMT Offset – Set your broker’s GMT offset in case indicator hasn’t detected GMT offset automatically

Check for updates automatically – If true, indicator automatically looks for updates

DRAWING OPTIONS

Number of bars to look back – The indicator will compute the number of bars chosen here

Arrow Type – Choose between different drawing styles

Draw Congestion Bars – Choose if the indicator should draw congestion bars

Draw Congestion Zones – Choose if the indicator should draw congestion zones

Draw Zone from Origin – Choose if the indicator should draw the congestion zones from the origin (warning: if set to ‘Yes’, the indicator will backpaint. It’s set to ‘No’ as default)

Congestion Zones Drawing Option – Choose the way the indicator should draw congestion zones. ‘Smart’ – the indicator will draw until it determines the zone is permanently broken-out. ‘Fixed number of bars’ – the indicator will draw the zones for a chosen number of bars.

Drift threshold (for ‘Smart’ option) – Threshold as ATR multiplier, from where the indicator will consider a zone temporarily broken-out.

Number of bars to draw (for ‘Fixed number of bars’) – The zones will be drawn for this amount of bars

High volume for Congestion Zones – Choose between ‘Auto’ and ‘User-Defined’. With ‘Auto’ the indicator will automatically determine what’s very high volume, which will vary by timeframe. With ‘User-Defined’ the indicator will use the below setting to define very high volume, as a multiplier of session’s average volume.

Maximum rectangle height in ATR’s – Maximum average true range height for the congestion zone’s rectangles.

Number of bars to consider long-term – After this number of bars, the drawn congestion zone’s color will change to long-term.

ALERTS

Alert when there is a congestion bar – If set to ‘Yes’, the indicator will send out an alert when there is a congestion bar

Alert when price closes inside zone – If set to ‘Yes’, the indicator will send out an alert on the first time the price closes inside a zone (rectangle).

Alert when there is a breakout from zone – If set to ‘Yes’, the indicator will send out an alert on the first time the price breakouts the zone (rectangle).

Activate standard Metatrader alerts – If set to ‘Yes’, the indicator will send out Metatrader alert’s.

Send alert to Smartphone – If set to ‘Yes’, the indicator will send the alerts to your Smartphone. In Metatrader, go to Tools > Options > Notifications to configure it.

Send alerts to Email – If set to ‘Yes’, the indicator will send the alerts to your email. In Metatrader, go to Tools > Options > Email to configure it.

COLORS

In this module, you can choose the colors for each one of the drawn zones. The colors for the drawn arrows are set in ‘Colors’ tab.