Continuation
By LuxAlgoJun 16, 2026
Continuation is an indicator on Vela, our next-generation charting platform, written in Pine Script®.
Continuation is the definitive clean implementation of continuation trading: a state machine that establishes trend from swing structure and confirms resumption only when a pause resolves trendward with the right character. A trend arms after two rising (or two falling) swings; once price rests 3 bars without a new extreme, the pause is boxed and measured: depth, range, volume. The outcome is a confirmed continuation triangle, with the pause statistics in its tooltip, or a quiet dissolve.
How to Trade the Continuation?
- Pause box: dashed while digestion runs; it must hold inside the 61.8% retracement cap and resolve within 40 bars or it invalidates.
- Continuation triangle: prints when price clears the impulse extreme with retracement, range and volume checks passed; the tooltip carries the pause statistics.
- Stop level: each confirmed continuation drops a dotted line at the pause extreme, beyond which stops are commonly placed.
- Prior swing line: the level the trend must hold. A close through it breaks structure outright and resets the machine.
Continuation Settings
- Swing Length (default 10): pivot length behind trend structure.
- Minimum Pause Length (default 3): bars without a new extreme before a pause forms.
- Maximum Pause Length (default 40): longer pauses go stale and invalidate.
- Maximum Retracement % (default 61.8): deepest share of the impulse leg the pause may give back.
- Range Contraction (default on): pause true range must contract below the impulse leg's.
- Volume Contraction (default on): volume must thin during the pause; skipped without volume data.
- Resolution Trigger (default Close): confirm on a closing basis, or Wick for the faster read.
- Expansion On Resolution (default off): requires the resolution bar's range to expand beyond the pause average.
- Style toggles cover pause zones, invalidated pauses, the prior swing level, stop levels and colors.
Frequently Asked Questions
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