Bill Williams Fractals
Marks local five-bar highs and lows after the pattern is complete.
Start with the input, not the story.
Confirmed local turning points in a fixed-width window.
A high fractal needs two lower highs on each side; a low fractal needs two higher lows. That five-bar pattern means the marker becomes known only when the second candle on the right has finished.
In a backtest, shift the fractal to its confirmation bar. Using it on the centre candle quietly adds future information.How traders commonly use Bill Williams Fractals
Confirmed fractals can provide mechanical swing labels, breakout references or a trailing structure rule.
Mark fixed-width local highs and lows once the two candles to the right have completed.
Keep this job separate from entry timing, stop placement and position size.
A useful counterexample
The marker appears over the centre candle but was not knowable until two candles later, so using it earlier creates look-ahead bias.
Fractals for confirmed swings, EMA for context, ATR for buffers
Each part has a different job. If two tools answer the same question, remove one and compare the result.
Labels confirmed local structure at its true availability time.
Supplies a separate directional context.
Normalises breakout or trailing buffers.
Follow the same order every time
- Identify the five-candle pattern only when the second right-hand candle closes.
- Place the observation timestamp on the confirmation candle, not the centre candle.
- Record the EMA context at that same time.
- Measure any buffer beyond the fractal in ATR units.
- Replay candle by candle to verify no future marker was used.
The indicator is one part of the method
These strategy pages show the market conditions, entry, stop and exit around the indicator.
Trend pullback
Research whether shallow retracements inside an objective trend resume in its direction.
- ENTRY
- After eligibility is true, place a market order at the next H1 open when the signal candle closes beyond the highest high of the previous two pullback bars for a long, or below their lowest low for a short.
- STOP
- Place the stop 0.25 × ATR(14) beyond the pullback extreme. Size so entry-to-stop risk equals 0.50% of demo equity, rounded down to 0.01 lot; never widen the stop.
- EXIT
- Place a fixed target at 2R immediately after entry. If neither stop nor target trades first, exit at market after 24 completed H1 bars.
Weekly swing breakout
Tests slow breakouts above or below pre-existing weekly structure.
- ENTRY
- Enter at Monday 00:00 UTC after the qualifying Friday close, provided the opening gap is no greater than 0.50 × weekly ATR.
- STOP
- Stop 0.25 × weekly ATR beyond the breakout candle's opposite extreme. Risk 0.35% equity and round down to 0.01 lot.
- EXIT
- Exit at the Monday open following the first weekly close through the most recent confirmed opposite-side swing; initial stop remains active.
Support and resistance rejection
A framework for testing reactions at levels that genuinely predate the trade.
- ENTRY
- Enter at the next H1 open after the first qualifying rejection close back above the prior-day low or below the prior-day high.
- STOP
- Place stop 0.20 × ATR beyond the rejection candle extreme. Risk 0.50% of equity and round down to 0.01 lot.
- EXIT
- Take profit at 2R. Exit after 12 completed H1 bars if neither stop nor target trades.
Set up Bill Williams Fractals on your platform
Match the lesson's period, price input, smoothing and candle timing. Similar names can still produce different values across feeds and platforms.
MT4
Built inAvailable in the standard MT4 indicator library. Names and default settings can differ.
MT4 technical analysisWickAtlas MT4 setup guideMT5
Built inAvailable in the standard MT5 indicator library. Names and default settings can differ.
MT4 and MT5 comparisonWickAtlas MT5 setup guideTradingView
Built inAvailable in the standard TradingView indicator library. Names and default settings can differ.
TradingView indicatorsWickAtlas TradingView guide“Built in” means the standard platform library contains the underlying indicator. It does not mean its defaults or calculation match every third-party version. Compare the platforms.
Plain-language formula
The same indicator can look slightly different across platforms because the price input, smoothing and rounding may change. Note your settings before comparing two charts.
Where it may help
Mechanical swing labels and trailing-reference research.
Where it struggles
Real-time turning calls because confirmation necessarily arrives late.
What to pair it with
Pair it with something that answers a different question, such as volatility or market direction. Try the indicator on its own before adding more tools.
The shortcut to avoid
Reading the marker as if it existed on the centre bar in real time.
Try this on a chart
Shift availability to the actual confirmation bar to eliminate look-ahead bias.