summary: how to read entry, take-profit, and stop-loss visuals across all 3 edgeful algos — ORB, IB, and engulfing — in one place. trade signals come from the algos (all access plan), not from the indicators or what's in play.
where trade signals come from — and where they don't
first, the thing that trips up the most people: entry, stop-loss, and take-profit signals come from edgeful's algos — not from the TradingView indicators or what's in play. worth knowing the difference before you go looking for signals in the wrong place.
algos (ORB, IB, engulfing) — the only thing that plots an actual entry, TP, and SL and can automate the trade. they're on the all access plan, and this article is about reading them.
TradingView indicators (the 50+ library) — these draw data and levels on your chart: ranges, gaps, pivots, sessions, zones. they help you see context and build a bias, but they don't hand you a buy/sell entry with a stop and target.
what's in play — shows which report setups are active right now and your directional bias for the day. it's a daily-prep read, not an entry/TP/SL signal.
so if you want the entry/SL/TP signals this article walks through, you need the algos — included on the all access plan. the indicators and what's in play are for reading the data and building a bias, not for handing you a trade to take. if you're deciding which plan fits, that's the line that matters.
the 3 things every algo signal shows you
every edgeful algo plots the same 3 elements on your TradingView chart when a signal fires:
entry — where the algo would open a position
take-profit (TP) — where the algo would close the position with a win
stop-loss (SL) — where the algo would close the position with a loss
different algos calculate these levels in different ways — some use the size of an opening range, some use the engulfing candle itself. but the 3-element structure is the same across the board.
once you can read these 3 elements on one algo, you can read them on all 3.
if your edgeful indicators aren't showing up on TradingView yet, start here: TradingView indicators: access, updates, and troubleshooting.
ORB algo — what's on the chart
triggers when price breaks above or below the opening range (typically the first 15 minutes) and closes outside it.
entry — plotted at the opening range high (long breakout) or low (short breakout)
take-profit — drawn at extension levels of the range size (0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x). some variants show 2 TPs
stop-loss — fixed level, typically a fraction of the range size
unique to ORB: the algo draws the opening range itself as a box. the extension lines are anchored to the range, so as the range timeframe shifts, the levels shift with it.
variants you'll see on the chart:
standard — single TP, fixed SL
2TP — scales out at 2 profit levels
breakeven stop — moves SL to entry after TP1 hits
deep dive: using the ORB algo.
IB algo — what's on the chart
triggers when price breaks above or below the initial balance range (first hour high/low), then pulls back into the range at a configurable retracement level (25%, 50%, or 75%).
entry — plotted at the retracement level inside the IB range after a breakout
take-profit — drawn at IB extension levels (1x, 1.5x, 2x IB height beyond the breakout level)
stop-loss — fixed level, placed just inside the IB range on the opposite side of the breakout
unique to IB: the algo draws the IB range itself (the first hour's high and low) as a box on the chart. you'll see the range plot before the entry line appears — the entry only fires after the breakout-and-retrace sequence completes.
a breakeven-stop variant exists for IB as well — moves SL to entry after TP1.
deep dive: using the initial balance (IB) algo.
engulfing candle algo — what's on the chart
triggers when the current candle's body completely engulfs the previous candle's body — bullish engulfing for upside, bearish engulfing for downside.
entry — plotted at the close of the engulfing candle
take-profit — customizable per day of the week. the standard engulfing plots a single TP; the 2 TP engulfing variant plots two and moves the stop to breakeven after the first hits
stop-loss — fixed level, customizable per day of the week
unique to engulfing: the algo highlights the engulfing candle pattern itself on the chart so you can see exactly which candle triggered the setup. day-of-week controls determine which days long vs. short signals are enabled.
variants you'll see on the chart:
standard engulfing — single TP, fixed SL
2 TP engulfing variant plots two take-profit levels and moves the stop to breakeven after TP1 hits
deep dive: using the engulfing candle algo.
what to do when a signal fires
reading the signal on the chart is half the work. the other half is what happens after — alert routing, webhook delivery, broker execution, and the various error states. that's covered in detail elsewhere:
how the algo automation chain works — TradingView → edgeful → broker
using the algo dashboard — monitoring active signals and trades
my algo didn't trade — start here — when the chart shows a signal but no trade fires
common questions
do the TradingView indicators or what's in play give me entry/TP/SL signals?
no — only the algos do. the indicators draw levels and data on your chart, and what's in play shows your daily bias. the entry, take-profit, and stop-loss come from the 3 algos, which are on the all access plan. see algos — overview.
why don't I see entry/TP/SL lines on my chart?
the algo only plots those levels when a signal is active. before the trigger conditions hit, you'll see the underlying setup (the ORB box, the IB box, the engulfing pattern) but not the entry/TP/SL.
the entry line appeared, then disappeared. what happened?
the algo invalidated the setup before the trade fired — usually because price moved against the setup before entry conditions completed. the visuals clear automatically when conditions reset.
can I adjust where the TP and SL are drawn?
yes. each algo has its own settings — TP multipliers, SL distance, retracement %, day-of-week toggles. those settings live in the algo dashboard and are documented in each algo's deep-dive article.