Impulse Leg

Impulse Leg classifies every completed leg of a swing zigzag against five measurable criteria and labels the qualifiers on the chart. Each leg is judged relative to its neighbors — travel and per-bar speed versus the prior legs' average, directional candle share, bar-to-bar overlap, and internal pullback — so an impulse leg is recognized as traders read one: more ground in less time, one-sided, barely resting.

How to Trade the Impulse Leg?

• Impulse label: a fast, one-sided leg that also took out the prior same-side swing — trend direction is defined by these.
• Candidate label: dashed and faded — impulse quality without the structural break, an early sign of pressure building.
• Origin level: the dotted line at the latest impulse's start doubles as invalidation — price back through it fully unwinds the leg.
• Extreme level: with the origin it frames retracement and projection measurements; hover a label for its statistics.

The dashboard scores the newest completed leg criterion by criterion, so borderline classifications are transparent rather than binary.

Impulse Leg Settings

• Swing Length (default 10): bars each side to confirm a swing.
• Prior Legs to Compare (default 4): the neighbor baseline legs are judged against.
• Min Distance Ratio (default 1) and Min Speed Ratio (default 1.25): required multiples of the prior legs' average travel and distance per bar.
• Min Directional Candles % (default 60): minimum share of candles closing in the leg direction.
• Max Bar Overlap % (default 50): average overlap allowed between consecutive candle ranges.
• Max Internal Pullback % (default 50): deepest pause allowed as a share of total travel.
• Break Requires Close Beyond Swing (default disabled): require a close beyond the prior swing point.
• Line width, labels, candidates, the swing framework, levels, and the dashboard are style options.

Frequently Asked Questions

What separates an impulse leg from a corrective leg?

An impulse covers more distance in less time with one-sided candles; the corrective leg that follows is slower, overlapping, and retraces part of it. This build turns that contrast into thresholds, so the label is measured rather than eyeballed.

Why did a fast leg only print as a candidate?

It met every quality criterion but never took out the prior same-side swing point — the structural break is what confirms an impulse. Read candidates as pressure that has not yet broken structure.

Do the labels repaint?

A classification can upgrade while its end swing extends, so the current leg redraws. Once an opposite swing confirms, the leg locks; each classification alerts once per leg.