The Ozymandias System is a free MT5 chart-window indicator that plots a self-adjusting trailing trend line wrapped in an ATR-based channel, then highlights the exact candles where price pushes outside that channel. It’s an instant download, and because it draws directly on the price chart rather than a separate window, you can read trend direction and breakout strength at a glance without cluttering your workspace.

How Ozymandias System Actually Calculates Its Line

Underneath the single colored trend line, the indicator is running three separate MT5 handles every tick: an ATR(100) for volatility, and two moving averages built from iMA() on PRICE_HIGH and PRICE_LOW using the Length and MAType inputs (these are internally referred to as HMA and LMA in the code, not to be confused with a Hull Moving Average). For every new bar it also grabs the highest high and lowest low over the last Length bars.

A small state machine then decides whether the trend is up or down. It watches for the high-based moving average dropping below the recent swing-low extreme while price closes under the prior bar’s low (a bearish flip), or the low-based moving average rising above the recent swing-high extreme while price closes over the prior bar’s high (a bullish flip). Once a flip condition is confirmed, the main line resets to that new swing extreme; otherwise, on every other bar, the line simply carries forward the previous bar’s value. That’s why the line looks “flat” for stretches and then jumps at reversals, rather than curving smoothly like a moving average.

Around that trend line, the indicator adds and subtracts half of the ATR(100) value to draw the Upper and Lower Ozymandias lines (plotted in RosyBrown). This forms a volatility-scaled channel: wider when the market is choppy, narrower when it’s calm. Finally, a fourth plot draws colored candlesticks (Gold, Brown, Green, and Lime Green) but only on the bars where the close pushes beyond the Upper or Lower Ozymandias line — every other bar is left empty, so the highlighted candles work as a visual breakout flag layered on top of your normal chart candles.

Reading the Indicator on Your Chart

• Line color — the main Ozymandias line switches between DeepPink and DodgerBlue depending on which side of the state machine the trend currently sits on, giving you a fast read of directional bias.
• Channel width — the gap between the Upper and Lower Ozymandias lines expands and contracts with the ATR(100) reading, so a widening channel is telling you volatility is picking up, independent of direction.
• Highlighted candles — a colored candle appearing above the Upper line or below the Lower line marks a bar where the close moved further than the current ATR-based band would normally allow, which many traders treat as a momentum or breakout signal worth paying attention to.

Input Parameters (Actual Defaults From the Code)

• Length = 2 — the lookback used both for the high/low moving averages and for the highest-high / lowest-low swing extremes. A small default value like 2 makes the swing detection react quickly; raising it smooths the trend switches out but also delays them.
• MAType = MODE_SMA — the averaging method applied to the high-based and low-based moving averages. Any of MT5’s standard method enums (SMA, EMA, SMMA, LWMA) can be selected here.
• Shift = 0 — shifts the plotted lines left or right on the chart by the given number of bars; it does not change the underlying calculation, only where it’s drawn.

Where This Fits in a Trading Plan

Because the trend line, the ATR channel, and the highlighted candles are all derived from the same swing-extreme state machine, Ozymandias System reads best as one unified trend-and-volatility view rather than a stack of separate confirmations — the color of the line tells you direction, the width of the channel tells you volatility, and the highlighted candles tell you when a close has genuinely outrun both. That combination makes it a reasonable base overlay for swing-style position management: watching for the line to flip color as an exit or reversal cue, while using the ATR channel width as a rough gauge of how much room a trade needs before it’s considered a real breakout rather than noise.

Honest Limitations

Because the ATR period is hard-coded to 100 inside OnInit() (it is not exposed as an editable input), the indicator needs at least 100 bars of history before it will plot anything at all, and you cannot tune the volatility window independently of the Length input that drives the trend-flip logic. That also means the channel width always reflects a fairly long-run volatility average, which can feel sluggish immediately after a sharp regime change in volatility. The state machine itself is a fairly simple two-branch flip based on swing extremes and adjacent-bar closes — it does not filter for chop, so on a ranging market you should expect more frequent, lower-quality flips than on a trending one. As with any trend-following overlay, it works best paired with a separate volatility or momentum filter rather than traded on its own signals in isolation.