Learn hubBlogCover MSI — labels on candles where three conditions met: the trade delta, its direction and a stretched price — and what “Strategy” changes.
The only indicator without its own pane. Labels with the letter S are drawn right on the candles: red above the candle — Signal UP, green under the candle — Signal DOWN.
A mark appears when three conditions line up on the same bar:
Signal UP — a spike of buys with the price stretched up. Signal DOWN — a spike of sells with the price stretched down. The label stands where one side overdid it, not where the price will go.
The exact windows, multipliers and limits are inside the indicator. “Strategy” changes them as one package.
After a mark, a level marker stays for a while: Ray UP / Ray DOWN.
So you don't have to watch the delta by hand. The indicator marks bars where trades swung sharply to one side while the price was already stretched.
For example.
| Field | Options | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market | SPOT Futures | SPOT | Whose trades to count: the spot or the futures market. SPOT or FUTURES in the pane legend. - Want trades from people buying the coin itself — SPOT. - Want trades with leverage — FUTURES. On Coinbase, Hyperliquid and Deribit the switch does nothing: Coinbase is spot only, Hyperliquid and Deribit are futures only, the value is set by the exchange itself. |
| Strategy | Type 1 … Type 6 | Type 1 | A parameter bundle: averaging window length and delta threshold. From Type 1 to Type 6 the window is longer and the threshold higher. Type 1 is the most sensitive: more labels, including on small spikes. Type 6 is the strictest: only rare and strong spikes. - Want to see small spikes too — Type 1. - Want only the rare and strong ones — Type 6. |
| BTC pairs | ALL USDT only | ALL | Works only on Binance and only for BTC. ALL or USDT ONLY in the legend. ALL — the sum of three pairs: BTCUSDT + BTCUSDC + BTCFDUSD. USDT only — only the BTCUSDT pair. For other Binance coins the data is always for the USDT pair; the setting changes nothing. Does nothing on Coinbase and Hyperliquid: Bitcoin has one pair there. On Deribit too: the two BTC contracts are not added together. - Want all of Binance's Bitcoin — ALL. - Want to compare with a source that counts only BTCUSDT — USDT ONLY. |
| Exchange | Chart Binance Coinbase Hyperliquid Deribit | Chart | Which exchange to take data from: Chart — the same one as the chart. Binance — spot and futures, USDT pairs. Coinbase — spot only, USD pairs. Hyperliquid and Deribit — perpetual futures only, USDC pairs. The list holds only exchanges where the coin trades. Without a subscription there is no field. - Want to compare one coin across exchanges — add the indicator several times and pick a different exchange in each. |
In the Style tab — label colours and size: tiny and small shrink both the letter S and the plate under it, so that on a small timeframe the labels do not cover the candles.
Metric COIN MSI. Condition fields:
“Direction” — LONG / SHORT. “BTC pairs” appears only when the coin is BTC.
MSI is the only indicator without a pane. The S label is placed above the candle (UP, a buy imbalance with the price stretched up) or under it (DOWN, a sell imbalance with the price stretched down). The label appears when three conditions meet: the trade delta is several times its window average, it is one-sided, the price is outside the normal deviation from the average. “Strategy” is a package of the averaging window and the threshold: from the sensitive Type 1 to the strict Type 6.
Where is MSI drawn?
Correct answer: As marks right on the price chart