Ehlers Instantaneous Trendline

Ehlers Instantaneous Trendline plots the compact recursion John Ehlers published as the simplified form of his low-lag smoother, computed on the bar midpoint, together with its trigger — a lag-reduced projection: twice the current trendline value less the reading from two bars earlier. The pair keeps the promise of the original Instantaneous Trendline: trend following with far less delay than a comparable fixed average. Both lines and the fill between them hold the bullish color while the trigger sits above the trendline, and the bearish color below.

How to Trade the Ehlers Instantaneous Trendline?

• Trigger above the trendline: long bias; trigger below: short bias — the conventional read of the pair.
• Trigger crossings: the classic entry and exit events, covered by alerts and optional circle markers.
• Slope reversals: the trendline turning up or down is the slower, moving-average-style bias read, with its own pair of alerts.
• Fill width: a wide, glowing fill marks trending separation; a tight braided pair warns that crossings are churn.

Because the recursion needs history, the first bars of a chart use Ehlers' FIR warm-up average: the trendline appears a few bars in, the trigger two bars after that.

Ehlers Instantaneous Trendline Settings

• Source (default hl2): the price series the trendline is computed on; the published construction uses the bar midpoint.
• Alpha (default 0.07): the smoothing coefficient — Ehlers' published default. Smaller is smoother and slower; larger hugs price more closely.
• Style toggles: Gradient Fill defaults on; Crossover Markers default off, with the crossover alerts firing regardless.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does this compare to the Ehlers SuperSmoother?

Both are Ehlers recursions, read differently. The Ehlers SuperSmoother is a low-pass filter specified by a cutoff period and traded as a single smoothed line, while this build is a trendline-plus-trigger pair whose crossings are the primary event. Pick the smoother for filtering, the pair for timing.

What does Alpha actually control?

How much of each new bar enters the recursion. At the published 0.07 the line is smooth enough for swing work; raising Alpha tightens it toward price for faster crossings at the price of extra noise; lowering it does the opposite.

Why does the line start a few bars into the chart?

The recursion is seeded empty rather than with a guess, so nothing plots until enough source history exists; early bars then use the FIR warm-up average before the full recursion takes over. The first plotted values stay honest instead of anchoring to an arbitrary seed.