Do you use Fibonacci ratios in your technical analysis? Are you looking for an accurate auto Fibonacci indicator for MetaTrader 4 (MT4)? If so, this article is for you.
I recently wrote an article about how to use Fibonacci retracement and extension levels. I personally prefer to use the manual Fibonacci retracement tool in MT4.
The reason I prefer the default tool is that most auto Fibonacci indicators for MT4 are not accurate. They do not usually choose the correct highs and lows for drawing the retracements or extensions.
However, after much searching, I finally found an auto Fibonacci indicator for MT4 that works most of the time. In fact, if you don’t mind making a small adjustment to the indicator from time to time, it can be 100% accurate.
An Accurate Auto Fibonacci Indicator for MT4
The indicator that I found is called the KISS Auto Fib. Like its name suggests, this indicator is simple but it’s accurate. In the image below, you can see an example of it in action.
This indicator displays the Fibonacci retracement and extension of the most recent swing in price. It also displays the price of each respective level.
As you can see from the example, this indicator obviously has a simple, clean design. However, the thing that really separates this indicator from the others is the ability to adjust the look back period.
24 is the default “lookback” value (in candlesticks/bars), which I found to be pretty accurate most of the time. On a few occasions, it was necessary to increase the value to 30 or even 40 in order for the measurements to be done off of the correct highs and lows.
Note: To adjust your indicator settings once the indicator has been added to your chart, right-click and go to “Indicators List” (or hit Ctrl+I). Then select your indicator and click “Edit”.
The ability to adjust the look back period makes this the most accurate auto Fibonacci indicator for MT4 that I have used. If you’re not going to manually measure your Fibonacci retracements and extensions, this is the next best thing.
There is also an option to adjust the “lastbar” value, which is 0 by default. A value of 1 would tell the indicator to ignore the current candlestick/bar when measuring. A value of 5 would exclude the last 5 candlesticks/bars from the measurement.
I didn’t find this setting to be nearly as useful as the “lookback” setting. However, this may come in handy if you want the indicator to continue to display the same measurement as price leaves the retracement area and heads into the extension area (by default it would adjust the measurement).
Installation Instructions:
- Download and extract the KISS Auto Fib indicator.
- Place it in your “Indicators” folder (MetaTrader 4 > MQL4 > Indicators).
- Start or restart MetaTrader 4.
- Open your “Navigator” window (Ctrl+N).
- Drag the indicator onto your chart.
- Adjust your desired settings and colors and click the “OK” button.
Using Fibonacci retracement and extension levels can help you qualify better trades and choose better take profit levels. They can work in conjunction with just about any trading system, which is one reason Fibonacci trading is so popular.
If you’re a Fibonacci trader and you’ve been looking for an accurate auto Fibonacci indicator for MT4, I hope this simple indicator will be a breath of fresh air to you. If you found this indicator useful, please be sure to share this article with others! They will thank you.
Does this indicator repaint for next day?
This indicator updates candle by candle, so it will eventually adjust to the most recent swing. You can change the “lookback” value to suit your needs.
Hi, actually i dont understand whenever the indicator found the new high low and it’s refreshed to the new level, it’s seem like the price already make some movement…
It does that just to increase the chances of marking the correct levels, so it’s not repainting all the time.
Can i use this for 1m candle in 60 second minute expiry?
Are you asking if this indicator will show you the Fibonacci levels from a different time frame? It can’t do that. It can only work off of the current time frame you are viewing.
pls whats the best settings you use for the indicator
Hello nweke,
Thanks for the comment. There is no best setting, but the default lookback setting of 24 often works just fine.
You need to make adjustments to the “lookback” setting of the indicator from time to time in order for it to be 100% accurate. See my article on the Fibonacci retracement and extension basics to learn more about how to properly use Fibonacci levels.
thanks so much for ur quick response,what figure should i use while adjustment and how does it work,i trade 4hr n daily time frame.
You should only really need to adjust the “lookback” variable. That variable simply tells the indicator how far to look back in order to draw the Fib levels. If you make the number too large, the indicator may draw the Fib levels off of a swing too far in the past. If you make the number too small, the indicator may incorrectly draw levels based on only part of the current swing.
One shortcut is to take the measuring tool in MT4 (the one you use to measure pips), start from the last candle on the right of the chart and measure back to the swing high or low that you want the indicator to draw off of. Since the measurement tool also measures candlesticks you will get the exact number. Take that number and add, at least, 5 or 10 more so that future candles don’t mess up the measurement.
Time frame doesn’t matter. This indicator works off of the number of candlesticks. This indicator will not do the work full time for you. As I said before, there isn’t one setting that works best. If you don’t already know how to use Fibonacci levels, this indicator will be useless to you.
Can you please keep doing the 100 trade test. I was a huge fan of that series
I’m not planning to do another one at this time. They take a long time to do, and I’m too busy with other projects at the moment. I may bring it back in the future, but at this point I’m actually moving this site away from reviewing and testing many systems to only reviewing and recommending the really profitable systems that I know you guys will find value in.
I don’t want to have tons of options to choose from and confuse new readers who don’t spend a lot of time on this site.
I noticed in my link tracking that readers were clicking through even to the systems that I’ve reviewed and tested that weren’t profitable. The idea was to get readers onto this site that were thinking about buying those trading systems, and direct them to something that actually works, like DTFL.
Maybe I’m not being clear enough, but it seems that a good chunk of my readers are visiting those sites anyway. I don’t want to give those sites more traffic, and I don’t want to be responsible for directing any of my readers to something that I personally know does not work. So I’m changing it up for now.
Hi chris. thanks for sharing this. im new in using fibo and a bit confuse why this fibo set the level -0.272 as 127.2 and level -0.618 as 161.8. what i’d learn before is 127.2 and 161.8 located after level 100. not before level 0. can u clarify on this? or is it normal?
What you’re seeing is that this indicator shows the retracement and extension at the same time. In other words, on one side of the 0 level is the retracement, and on the other side is the extension.
It’s not wrong to label these levels as -0.272 and -0.618 if your talking about retracement only. The levels are the same, as you pointed out. It’s also not wrong to label them as 127.2 and 161.8 if you’re talking about extension levels, but then the retracement levels would all be negative numbers.
I can see how combining these could be confusing. It would also be confusing to some traders who intend to take their first take profit, for instance, at the 127.2 extension level, but they don’t see a 127.2 level. Instead they see a -0.272 level.
It’s just showing both traditional measurements at once. If it bothers you too much, you can just edit the code. It’s fairly strait forward. Hope that helps.
This is by far the best FIB indicator and I’ve been using it for about 2 weeks and very accurate and helps a lot to get the swing high/swing lows needed for FIBS. Thank you!!
Thanks for the comment, Mimi. I agree. This is the best auto Fib indicator that I’ve seen. I knew some of you would appreciate it.
Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.
Thanks for visiting the site and for the kind words.
Thanks alot Chris I find this indicator really using, wish I had it sooner, I am more pipful now, thanks alot
Realy useful*
Awesome, friend! I love to hear that. Thanks for reading.
which TMF bettre?
Typically, longer time frames are stronger. However, which time frames will work best for you depends on which time frames you will be able to consistently trade and which ones provide you with enough trades to let your edge play out.
This is the most common question asked on this site. There is no one answer that will work best for everyone. For me, the daily chart consistently provides me with the strongest signals. However, if I only traded the daily chart, I would not get enough trades to meet my trading goals.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been trading the 15-minute chart a lot, because that’s what we use at Day Trading Forex Live. That system has worked out very well for me for many different reasons. Like I said, it really depends on what you can trade consistently and what works best with your system.
thanks your advicing
No problem. Thanks for reading.
Hello Chris,
This is the best fibo indicator I have seen. I wanted to customize it a little, if its ok with you, I wanted to change the colors of the individual levels for easier viewing. I have some coding experience but wanted to see if you could tell me what code to use for, I believe, each individual line in the “ObjectSet” area. Thanks
Hello Joe,
I didn’t create this indicator, I just found it (don’t remember where). I decided to share it with you guys because it was the best Fibonacci indicator that I had found, and I knew you guys would find it useful. With that in mind, I can’t help you with coding questions.
Hey Chris, have you had any trouble yourself with using this indicator on things like gold/oil? Seems to only work on the monthly chart when I use these pairs.
Sorry. I don’t trade gold or oil.
Thanks alot Chris, i really like this indicator. Nicely, tks so much!!!
I’m glad you found this useful. Thanks for reading.
Hi Chris
Do you have an example on how to read the levels into an EA?
I’m not sure what you mean, kostas. If you’re asking a coding question, you’ve got the wrong guy. I only know enough to get myself into trouble.
ok thanks any way
why cant u use Fibonacci values as input 21,34,55,89,144,233,377..
Thanks for the comment, subramani. The Fibonacci levels used by traders aren’t the Fibonacci sequence numbers themselves. They are percentages that are derived by dividing certain numbers in the Fibonacci sequence by other numbers in the sequence.
For example, the 23.6% ratio is derived from dividing any number in the Fibonacci sequence by the number three places to the right, e.g., 55/233 = .2360 or 23.6%.
The retracement level 61.8% is literally the inverse of the Golden Ratio in terms of percentage, which is useful to traders in applying Fibonacci ratios to trend retracements for example.
The 50% level isn’t part of the Fibonacci sequence. It’s just a logical trading level when it comes to measuring retracements, so most traders include it. I hope that helps.
How can i remove it from chart…?
Ctrl+I opens your “Indicators List” window. You can delete it from the list there.
If you’re interested, I wrote an article about all of the most useful MT4 hotkeys and shortcuts that I use. You can check it out, here.
would be possible to it show buy or sell market direction? Blue to buy, red to sell
I’m sure it’s possible, but it’s unnecessary, IMO – especially for an automatic Fibonacci indicator like this one. The indicator isn’t always measuring in the direction you want to be trading. If you’re serious about using Fibonacci levels for trade entries, you should be manually measuring these. I wrote an article about how to do that, here.
Will this fib indicator tell you when is it right to put in your buy/sell order ?
Any Fibonacci indicator, including this automatic one, is only a tool. If used correctly, it can aid in determining good entry or exit points. The rules of your trading system should determine whether or not you should enter or exit a trade, though.
If you don’t know how to use Fibonacci levels for trading, you can check out my article here to get started. There’s also a link to a free eBook that I wrote which details a profitable Fibonacci trading method, if you’re interested.
Hi i’ve dropped the extracted file into the indicator folder, and have closed and re-opened mt4 but the indicator still doesn’t appear. Any suggestions?
ok so got it appearing in experts folder which appears in navigation tab in mt4. But now when i drop into a chart no fibs appear? Markets are closed now, does that make a difference?
That shouldn’t matter because this indicator looks back. It doesn’t depend on live tick data. It’s working for me right now on a the latest OANDA MT4 build. The market is still closed.
You could try setting “lastbar” to 1 just to be safe. Also, make sure you’re using MT4. I know it sounds silly, but the Metaquotes website is force installing MT5 onto peoples computers now – even when they select the MT4 download.
How do I edit the levels or add more levels
You’ll have to edit the code in MetaEditor.