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Chop Regime Detector

Detects "don't trade this" conditions

Traders often describe days where price whipsaws and "nothing is clean." This recipe detects chop proxies (ATR contraction, moving averages tangled) and switches to no-trade or reduced mode.

House RecipePersonal8 min setup

INGREDIENTS

🔔Notifications

PROMPT

Create "Chop Regime Detector". On 15m timeframe, if the 21/50/200 moving averages become tangled (compressed within 0.3%) for 3 bars, flag chop and reduce risk to 50% and cap trades to 2.

Pain point

Chop turns normal setups into coin flips.

Triggers

  • MA stack is tangled (distance between MAs small)
  • OR ATR below a threshold (low movement)
  • OR ADX below threshold (optional)

Conditions

  • Evaluate on a higher timeframe than entries (e.g., 15m/1h)
  • Require persistence for N bars before switching modes

Actions

  • Alert: "Chop regime detected — reduce trades or stand down."
  • Reduce maxTradesPerDay and risk per trade
  • Suggest switching to observation/journaling

Parameters (defaults)

  • timeframe: "15m"
  • maPeriods: [21, 50, 200]
  • maxMADistancePercent: 0.3
  • atrLowPercentile: 25
  • persistenceBars: 3
  • riskMultiplierInChop: 0.5
  • maxTradesInChop: 2

Examples

  • If 21/50/200 MAs compress, reduce risk and cap to 2 trades.
  • If chop persists, recommend "no trade today" and run review.
Tags:#trading#regime#chop#risk-management