Elder Impulse System

The Elder Impulse System colors every price bar by the agreement between trend and momentum: green when both a 13-period EMA and the MACD histogram are rising, red when both are falling, and a neutral color when they disagree. Alexander Elder's design is a veto rather than a trade call — each color rules out one side of the market, keeping entries aligned with pressure that is actually building.

This build is the plain, unmodified system: the trend component is the slope of an EMA of closes, the momentum component the slope of the standard MACD histogram (12, 26, 9), applied as a bar-color overlay — no separate pane, no extra logic.

How to Trade the Elder Impulse System?

• Green bars: EMA and histogram both rising — longs permitted, shorts off the menu.
• Red bars: both falling — shorts permitted, buying off the menu.
• Neutral bars: the two disagree; either side is allowed, or stand aside.
• Flip to green after red or neutral: upward pressure has re-aligned — a continuation prompt that still needs its own entry trigger.
• Green degrading to neutral: agreement behind a long is dissolving — many plans tighten stops or take partials.

It also works as a higher-timeframe gate — weekly color restricting daily trades. Alert conditions fire on each state change: turned green, turned red, turned neutral.

Elder Impulse System Settings

• EMA Length (default 13): the trend EMA on closes whose bar-to-bar slope supplies the trend component; longer is stickier, shorter flips states more often.
• MACD Fast Length (default 12) / MACD Slow Length (default 26): the fast and slow EMAs of the MACD line; widening the gap emphasizes slower momentum swings.
• MACD Signal Length (default 9): the EMA of the MACD line that defines the signal line (histogram = MACD minus signal); longer smooths the histogram.
• Bullish/Bearish/Neutral Bars: the three style inputs set each state's color.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Elder Impulse System a buy/sell signal?

No. Green does not command a purchase — it takes the short side off the table, and red does the reverse. Entries, exits, and sizing still come from your own rules; the color decides which of them you may currently act on.

Should I change the default 13 / 12-26-9 settings?

The defaults are Elder's published configuration. Longer EMA or MACD lengths give steadier colors with later changes; shorter ones catch turns earlier at the cost of neutral flicker in chop.

How do I combine it with other tools?

Use the color as a filter: take pullback or breakout entries only where the color allows, and let a higher-timeframe color gate the timeframe you execute on. Support/resistance or divergence work supplies the entries the system deliberately does not.