Repainting Vs Non-Repainting Forex Indicators

There are a lot of misconceptions about repainting forex indicators and non-repainting forex indicators I would like shade more light on.

What a repainting forex indicator is

Let’s now begin, what is a repainting indicator?, well, Repainting forex indicator refers to the indicator’s display being updated, changing what was previously displayed on the chart such as arrows which were shown disappear and show again later. If you still don’t understand how an indicator repaints, don’t worry, will show you how, just keep on watching.

What a non-repainting forex indicator is

Non-repainting indicators do not change their values after the price bar is closed, this means that arrows or signals don’t disappear and happen later again.

The difference between repainting and non-repainting forex indicator.

Now that you understand what these indicators do, what is the difference? you probably already know the difference of which will talk more later in this post.

Types of repainting

Let’s now talk about the types of repainting you should know and the first being the “Repainting the latest candle” With each new tick, nearly all technical indicators update the current candle value. It’s completely normal behavior. The current candle’s Close price changes for as long as the candle is forming, so if the indicator is based on Close prices (which is often the default applied price type), the indicator’s value will change as well. This isn’t bad, and many traders wouldn’t call it repainting at all. To avoid the effects of repainting, traders should wait for the candle to close and a new one to open before considering the value of the indicator. When the indicator price type is set to Open, however, this is no longer an issue.

The second repainting type which is “Repainting past candles” On previous candles, some indicators change their signals. It means that the code for the indicator is looking at future candles to paint the display for the previous bars. Of course, in live trading, a trader cannot rely on such an indicator because it does not see future candles when attached to a chart. This is a type of repainting that should be avoided.

Misconception #1 – why do forex indicators repaint?

The first misconception why indicators repaint is that When the indicator developer adds repainting of previous candles on purpose, it usually aims to deceive potential users by making the signals appear more accurate or timely. In some cases, that might be true because a repainting indicator can be made to look much more appealing than a non-repainting indicator, with very precise and perfectly timed historical entry and exit signals.

But here is some sad truth, An indicator can be made to repaint on purpose, but not always with malicious intent. This can be useful for making further chart analysis easier or highlighting some price action peculiarities. In any case, the developer should make the indicator’s repainting nature clear. Otherwise, the community of Forex traders considers it to be cheating or even scamming. For example the “Kaza spike detector which is the modified version of moving mini max indicator repaints on purpose, not to scam people but to help you analyze charts better.

How to know or check if a forex indicator repaints

To know or check if an indicator repaints, follow the steps below closely.

Misconception #2 – are repainting forex indicators scams or useless?

Misconception number 2 , are all repainting forex indicators scams or useless? well, many people think like all repainting indicators are scams and that they should be avoided, well, that is a misconception. If an indicator developer claims that his indicator does not repaint and then you test it yourself and find out that it repaints, then you should definitely avoid it. But when a developer mentions that the indicator repaints, then you should definitely use it and find a way of using it to your advantage such as the kaza spike detector for synthetic indices.

An example of a good repainting indicator is the zig zag indicator which is available in MetaTrader.

How to fix a repainting forex indicator

Now the important part, how can you fix a repainting forex indicator? Reprogramming the indicator is the only way to stop it from repainting. Because indicators can be very complex, it can be a simple task to change a few lines of code at times and a very difficult job to complete at other times. In most cases, once the indicator has been recoded to remove the right-hand bars, it will become a standard non-repainting indicator. Don’t be surprised if, after being converted to a non-repainting indicator, the same indicator shows mostly only losing entry signals.

Conclusion

To summarize, not all repainting indicators are bad and fixing the indicator to stop repainting can cause it to start showing false signals. This is it for today,