NomadTradingFX · The Nomad Trader
Every setting in the Inputs tab, what it does, and when to touch it. Companion to the methodology manual.
00 Orientation
The defaults are chosen to work out of the box on liquid instruments. Most users never change anything. The settings are organised into nine labelled groups in the Inputs tab; you can expand the ones you care about and leave the rest collapsed.
A note on units used below: ATR means the setting is measured in multiples of Average True Range, so it adapts to each instrument and timeframe automatically. Points are raw price points (ten points to a pip on a 5-digit feed). Bars are candles on the timeframe being measured.
01 Group
How much recent price each measurement reads. Bigger windows are steadier and slower; smaller windows are more reactive and noisier.
The number of recent bars examined to judge current conditions, where swings are detected and most factors are read. Think of it as how far back "now" reaches.
How many bars feed the trend-versus-random factor. A longer lookback gives a more statistically stable read on whether price is genuinely going somewhere.
How many bars feed the smooth-versus-jagged factor. This one is short by nature because it captures local texture. Odd values are rounded down to keep it even.
02 Group
This group controls the heart of the tool: how each factor is normalised against that timeframe's own history. A score near 50 means "normal for this market"; high means "unusually good for this timeframe right now."
How far back the engine looks to learn what is "normal" for each factor on each timeframe. This is the reference the current reading is compared against.
How many windows across that history are sampled to estimate each factor's normal range. More samples give steadier statistics, at a little more processing.
How often the baseline is rebuilt. The baseline moves slowly, so it is cached and refreshed occasionally rather than every tick.
The contrast dial. It sets how sharply a deviation from normal translates into a high or low factor value. This is the most useful single knob for the overall feel of the scores.
03 Group
How price is broken into tradeable legs. These two settings define what counts as a swing and what counts as worth trading, both measured in ATR so they port across instruments.
How far price must retrace, in ATR, before a swing is considered to have reversed. This decides how finely the engine carves price into legs.
The smallest leg, in ATR, that counts as a real trading opportunity. Legs below this are ignored. This is the single most important setting to align with your own system.
04 Group
The relative importance of the six properties the engine measures. They are auto-normalised, so only their ratios matter; they do not need to sum to anything. Raise one to make that property count for more, or set it to zero to switch a factor off. The defaults are a balanced, generic trend profile.
| Setting | Default | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| InpW_MMI | 0.22 | Trend versus random. Raise for strict trend-only conditions. |
| InpW_FDI | 0.18 | Smooth versus jagged. Raise if your system dislikes choppy texture. |
| InpW_SNR | 0.15 | Swing versus noise. Raise if entries and exits suffer when noise is high. |
| InpW_Clean | 0.13 | Trend versus whipsaw. Raise if your system bleeds in back-and-forth chop. |
| InpW_Opp | 0.14 | Setup frequency. Raise if you want more trades or faster timeframes to compete. |
| InpW_Prog | 0.18 | One-way progress versus round-trip. Raise if you need follow-through, not V-shapes. |
05 Group
A safety floor that demotes a timeframe to poor when its moves are too small to clear trading costs. It is the only absolute check in the tool, and it never taxes the score otherwise, so faster timeframes are not punished simply for being faster.
The Average True Range period used for all ATR scaling throughout the tool, including the swing thresholds. The standard value suits almost everyone.
Your broker's round-turn commission expressed in points, added to the spread so the cost gate reflects true cost. Leave at zero on commission-free spread accounts.
How many times larger than the round-turn cost the average tradeable leg must be. Fall below this and the timeframe is vetoed to poor, regardless of how good its conditions look.
06 Group
Where the 0 to 100 score is cut into GOOD, fair and poor. Since scores centre near 50 for a normal market, the defaults treat clearly-above-normal as good and clearly-below as poor.
The score at which a timeframe earns a GOOD rating and becomes a deployment candidate.
The line between fair and poor, and the bar a timeframe must clear before the hero will recommend it instead of showing STAND ASIDE. Keep it below the GOOD score.
07 Group
How responsive and how steady the panel is.
How many consecutive recalculations a new rating must hold before it is committed. This stops ratings flickering when a score sits right on a band boundary. The count is in recalculation cycles, not chart bars.
How often the whole panel recalculates. It runs on a timer, which is why it keeps updating even when the market is closed and no ticks are arriving.
08 Group
A diagnostic feed for when you want to see inside the score, mainly while fitting the weights to your own system. Off by default.
When on, each timeframe's six normalised factors, its cost ratio, and its final score are printed to the Experts tab. This is your window into why a timeframe scored the way it did.
Throttles how often the breakdown is written, so the log stays readable rather than scrolling past.
09 Group
Purely cosmetic. Size and position of the on-chart panel.
A single multiplier for the whole panel, fonts and layout together. Raise it on large or high-resolution screens, lower it to tuck the panel into a corner.
Distance of the panel from the top-left corner of the chart, across and down. Move it to keep it clear of your price action.
10 How to
Raise Score for GOOD to 65–70, or raise z-score steepness toward 1.5.
Raise z-score steepness toward 1.5. Confirm the higher timeframes have finished loading their history.
Lower Swing reversal threshold and Min tradeable leg size together.
Set Min tradeable leg size to your typical traded move, set the commission, then fit the six weights with the calibration log on.
Lower Baseline history to 600–800, and scroll the D1 or H4 chart back once to pull its history.
Raise Hysteresis to 2 or 3.
Lower Panel size, and adjust the panel position.
Raise Recalculation seconds and Baseline refresh seconds, and lower Baseline samples.
11 Reference
| Setting | Default | Group |
|---|---|---|
| Analysis Windows | ||
| InpEvalBars | 200 | Condition window in bars |
| InpMMIPeriod | 150 | Market Meanness lookback |
| InpFDIPeriod | 30 | Fractal Dimension lookback (even) |
| Self-Calibration Baseline | ||
| InpBaselineBars | 1200 | History normalised against |
| InpBaselineSamples | 16 | Sample windows for the baseline |
| InpBaselineSec | 120 | Seconds between refreshes |
| InpNormSteep | 1.2 | z-score steepness (contrast) |
| Swing Detection | ||
| InpReversalATR | 0.75 | Swing reversal threshold, x ATR |
| InpLegMinATR | 1.5 | Min tradeable leg, x ATR |
| Factor Weights | ||
| InpW_MMI | 0.22 | Trend vs random |
| InpW_FDI | 0.18 | Smooth vs jagged |
| InpW_SNR | 0.15 | Swing vs noise |
| InpW_Clean | 0.13 | Trend vs whipsaw |
| InpW_Opp | 0.14 | Setup frequency |
| InpW_Prog | 0.18 | One-way vs round-trip |
| Cost Gate | ||
| InpATRPeriod | 14 | ATR period for scaling |
| InpCommissionPts | 0.0 | Round-turn commission, points |
| InpMinLegCost | 2.5 | Min leg-to-cost ratio or veto |
| Grading | ||
| InpGoodScore | 60 | Score for GOOD |
| InpFairScore | 40 | Score for fair |
| Behaviour | ||
| InpConfirmBars | 1 | Hysteresis in recalcs |
| InpRefreshSec | 2 | Seconds between recalcs |
| Calibration Log | ||
| InpDebugLog | false | Print factor breakdown |
| InpDebugSec | 10 | Seconds between prints |
| Dashboard | ||
| InpScale | 2.0 | Panel size multiplier |
| InpPanelX | 16 | Panel X from left |
| InpPanelY | 24 | Panel Y from top |