What does the Qstick indicator measure?

Qstick measures a moving average of signed candle bodies: close minus open. This page uses a simple moving average. Positive values mean the bodies sum to a positive number over the window. They do not prove that most candles were positive or that the price rose from the previous close.

What is the Qstick formula in Pine Script?

For the SMA version, use ta.sma(close - open, length). The result has the same units as price. High, low and volume do not enter this calculation. An EMA of close minus open is a different smoothing choice and should be identified when comparing scripts.

How do I add Qstick to TradingView?

Paste the complete Pine Script v6 example into Pine Editor, save it and add it to a standard candle chart. Set Length to 3 to inspect three-bar averages. The Data Window also shows the current candle body and the gap from the previous close. Create an alert separately from one of the named conditions if needed.

What are the best Qstick settings?

There is no universal best length. The example starts at 14 to match the Pineify Qstick configuration. Fourteen daily bars and fourteen 5-minute bars measure different intervals. Keep symbol, session, chart type and smoothing method fixed when comparing lengths, then test any trading rules on data you did not use to choose them.

Can Qstick be negative while price rises?

Yes. A bar can gap from a previous close of 100 to an open of 110 and close at 109. Its candle body is -1 even though its close-to-close change is +9. Repeated upward gaps with negative bodies can leave Qstick below zero during a rising price sequence.

The current value changes while the chart bar is open because its close changes. This example waits for barstate.isconfirmed before marking or alerting a crossing. It uses no future bars or higher-timeframe requests. Data revisions and changes to chart settings can still change historical calculations.

Is Qstick the same as the Momentum indicator?

No. Momentum subtracts a past close from the current close. Qstick averages the bodies inside the window and omits gaps between bars. If every open equals the previous close, an N-bar SMA Qstick equals N-bar Momentum divided by N. Otherwise the accumulated gaps explain the difference.

TradingView indicator guides

Qstick indicator: candle-body momentum

Qstick averages the difference between each candle's close and open. The SMA version is ta.sma(close - open, length). A positive reading means positive bodies outweigh negative bodies in price units. Gaps between bars are excluded, so Qstick can disagree with the direction of the closing prices.

Qstick(3) = (-1 - 1 + 4) / 3 = +0.6667

Two negative candles, one positive result. Body size matters; Qstick does not count winning candles.

View the Pine Script example

Formula and zero-line meaning

For N valid bars, add their signed bodies and divide by N: Qstick = sum(close - open) / N. High, low and volume do not enter the calculation. A value of +0.50 means an average positive body of 0.50 price units, not a 0.50% return or a probability.

MotiveWave documents close minus open and a selectable moving average, with SMA as its default method. This guide uses SMA throughout. The default length of 14 in the code matches Pineify's configuration; it is not a standard shared by every Qstick implementation.

Reading	What it establishes	What it does not establish
Above zero	The sum of signed bodies is positive.	Most bars were positive, or price rose over the window.
Below zero	The sum of signed bodies is negative.	The next bar will fall.
Rising below zero	The average becomes less negative.	The average body is already positive.
Cross above zero	Current average is positive; previous average was zero or negative.	A complete entry, exit or profitable strategy.

A four-bar OHLC calculation with a large gap

These invented prices use a three-bar SMA. Assume no earlier history and a previous close of 100 before bar 1. High and low are included to make the candles inspectable, although Qstick ignores them.

Hypothetical prices; Qstick rounded to four decimals.
Bar	Open	High	Low	Close	Body	Qstick(3)
1	100	101	97	98	-2	Not ready
2	98	99	96	97	-1	Not ready
3	110	111	108	109	-1	-1.3333
4	109	114	108	113	+4	+0.6667

At bar 3, Qstick is (-2 - 1 - 1) / 3 = -1.3333. Yet price has risen from the preceding close of 97 to 109. The +13 gap from 97 to 110 and the -1 body combine into a +12 close-to-close move. Qstick records only the -1 body.

At bar 4, the -2 body leaves the window and +4 enters. Qstick becomes (-1 - 1 + 4) / 3 = +0.6667 and crosses zero. Two of the three bodies remain negative. The change in Qstick is (+4 - (-2)) / 3 = +2, showing how an old observation leaving the window can affect the line.

Why it differs from Momentum

For the same N bars, close-to-close Momentum equals the sum of bodies plus the sum of gaps. At bar 3, Momentum(3) is 109 - 100 = +9: body sum -4 plus gap sum +13. If every open equals the preceding close, all gaps are zero and Qstick(N) = Momentum(N) / N. This is an algebraic identity under that assumption, not a claim that market data always satisfy it.

Compare the Momentum indicator

Qstick Pine Script v6 with closed-bar crossings

Paste the complete example into TradingView Pine Editor, save it and add it to a standard candle chart. Change Length to 3 to check the arithmetic above on your own observations. The code is an indicator; it places no strategy orders.

Pine Script v6

//@version=6
indicator("Qstick: candle-body average", overlay = false, precision = 4)

length = input.int(14, "Qstick length in bars", minval = 1, maxval = 500)
body = close - open
qstick = ta.sma(body, length)

plot(qstick, "Qstick (price units)", color = color.blue, linewidth = 2)
hline(0, "Zero", color = color.gray)
plot(body, "Current candle body", display = display.data_window)
plot(open - close[1], "Gap from previous close", display = display.data_window)

crossUp = ta.crossover(qstick, 0)
crossDown = ta.crossunder(qstick, 0)
confirmedUp = crossUp and barstate.isconfirmed
confirmedDown = crossDown and barstate.isconfirmed

plotshape(confirmedUp, title = "Confirmed cross up", style = shape.triangleup, location = location.bottom, color = color.green, size = size.tiny)
plotshape(confirmedDown, title = "Confirmed cross down", style = shape.triangledown, location = location.top, color = color.red, size = size.tiny)
alertcondition(confirmedUp, "Qstick crossed above zero", "Qstick crossed above zero on a closed chart bar.")
alertcondition(confirmedDown, "Qstick crossed below zero", "Qstick crossed below zero on a closed chart bar.")

The line uses chart open and close. The Data Window exposes the raw body and gap for inspection.
The SMA needs N non-missing body values before it appears. An absent early value is not zero momentum.
The live line can move before close. Triangles and alert conditions wait for barstate.isconfirmed.
Create a TradingView alert separately using the named up or down condition. An alert condition in the source does not create an active alert.

Confirmation follows TradingView's bar-state rules. Syntax validation checks code, not signal usefulness or trading returns.

Settings, sessions and failure modes

Length counts chart bars. With complete data, N = 1 returns the current body; a longer SMA dilutes a single body across more bars. Fourteen 5-minute bars cover 70 minutes of bar duration, while fourteen daily stock bars cover fourteen trading sessions. Breaks mean elapsed clock time can be longer. No length is established here as optimal.

Session boundaries change the question

On an intraday stock chart, including extended hours adds bars and changes which bodies fall inside a fixed-length window. A regular-session opening gap may instead appear across several extended-hours bodies. Compare regular and extended sessions as different input series, using TradingView's session definitions. This script does not reset its average at each new session.

On a continuously traded market, bar boundaries still matter. Combining small candles into a larger candle can turn intermediate moves into one net body. For many futures, the default regular session includes electronic trading hours; stock-session labels do not transfer directly. Keep feed, interval and session settings in any saved comparison.

Near zero, small bodies or an outgoing large body can produce repeated crossings with little follow-through.
One unusually large body can dominate the average until it leaves the SMA window.
Raw Qstick values are not comparable across instruments with different price scales. Any price or volatility normalization needs its own formula and tests.
Volume is absent, so the result cannot identify institutional activity or actual buyer-initiated order flow.
Heikin Ashi and other non-standard charts can supply synthetic inputs. Use standard candles for market-price calculations.

Turn a Qstick idea into explicit rules

Pineify's Pine Script AI Coding Agent can help write or modify a script from a stated formula. For a trend-filter experiment, specify the filter separately from Qstick. The prompt below is a test specification, not a proven trading method.

Create a Pine v6 indicator using SMA(close - open, 14). Mark a long candidate only when Qstick crosses above zero on a closed chart bar and that bar closes above its 50-bar SMA of close. Show the unfiltered cross and the filtered candidate separately. Use chart data without future-bar references. Do not place orders.

If price moves above its SMA one bar after the Qstick crossing, this rule produces no candidate on that later bar. That is different from a state rule requiring only Qstick > 0 and price above its SMA. Check this timing distinction in the generated output.

Compare raw bodies, Qstick and each condition on several closed bars in TradingView. A later strategy version needs explicit exits, order timing, sizing, commissions and slippage. Freeze any chosen parameters before evaluating a separate period. The agent writes code; chart validation and strategy evaluation remain separate steps.

Customize Qstick with Pineify

Educational examples, not investment advice. No return or signal-accuracy guarantee.

Qstick questions

Sources and related guides

Official documentation checked October 17, 2026. Numeric examples and algebraic comparisons are original calculations.

TradingView indicator guides Rate of Change: percentage momentum Momentum: close-to-close difference