# Stop Hunts

> Counts stop hunts above swing highs (short stops) and below swing lows (long stops) over a chosen period, with their volume, as a normalized balance from −1 to +1 and an activity rank from 0 to 1.

Updated: 2026-10-29T03:08:08Z · https://chartrider.com/docs/indicators/stop-hunts/

## What you see
A pane below the chart. By default (**Pane shows: Balance**) it has a fixed scale from −1 to +1 with a zero line and dotted lines at ±0.5: the bars are the **balance** of the period – up in red when more short stops were hunted, down in green when more long stops were hunted – and the line is the same balance weighted by volume. With **Number of hunts** or **Volume of the hunt candles** the pane shows **Long hunts** (green) and **Short hunts** (red) as two lines, scaled to the visible candles, with the net value (short minus long) as bars around zero. Small triangles mark the hunt candles themselves – at the top of the pane for a short hunt, at the bottom for a long hunt. The legend shows, for the candle under the crosshair, the count and volume of each side, the balance and the activity.

## How it is calculated
- **Swing high:** a candle whose high is above the highs of the `Swing: candles before` candles before it and not below the highs of the `Swing: candles after` candles after it. It is confirmed when the last of those later candles has closed and counts from the next candle on. Swing lows work the other way round.
- **Short stop hunt:** a candle trades above a swing high that has not been taken yet – where short sellers keep their stops – and closes back below it.
- **Long stop hunt:** a candle trades below a swing low that has not been taken yet – where buyers keep their stops – and closes back above it.
- A level counts once. Once price has traded beyond it, it is used up, also when the candle closes beyond it; that is a breakout, not a hunt. A candle that takes several levels on one side is one hunt.
- **Period:** the last N candles, or all candles that opened in the last N hours or days (`Period unit`), always including the current one. Volume is the volume of the hunt candles in that period.
- **Balance** = (short hunts − long hunts) / (short hunts + long hunts) in the period, from −1 (only long hunts) to +1 (only short hunts); 0 when both are equal or there were none. **Volume balance** is the same with the volume of the hunt candles.
- **Activity** = percentile rank of the number of hunts in the period (short + long) among the last `Activity: rank over candles` candles, ties counted half: 0.9 means more hunts than at 90 % of the recent candles, 0.5 is typical, near 0 is unusually quiet.

A value only uses the current candle and the candles before it and does not change once the candle has closed. While a candle is still forming, it can become a hunt and stop being one again until it closes.

## How to read it
- Balance towards +1: price keeps running the stops above highs and getting pushed back – buyers fail above resistance, often near tops or inside ranges.
- Balance towards −1: stops below lows are taken and price recovers – sellers fail below support, often near bottoms.
- Balance and activity are normalized, so the same filter works on every market and timeframe: e.g. balance below −0.5 together with activity above 0.7 means unusually many hunts, mostly of long stops.
- Few hunts make the balance jump (one long hunt alone is −1); combine it with activity or use a longer period when that matters.

## Using it in strategies
Outputs: `value` is the balance (−1 to +1), as are `balance` and `volumeBalance`; `activity` is the rank from 0 to 1. Raw values: `longCount`, `shortCount` and `net` (short minus long) count hunts in the period; `longVolume`, `shortVolume` and `netVolume` sum their volume; `longHunt` and `shortHunt` are 1 on a hunt candle and 0 otherwise. In the [Trade Setup](https://chartrider.com/docs/strategies/trade-setup/), "Against" on `value` with center 0 allows longs while long stops dominate and shorts while short stops dominate; "Compare" with `activity` above 0.7 limits entries to busy phases, and `longHunt` above 0 is a trigger on the candle that took the long stops. In [WickScript](https://chartrider.com/docs/wickscript/): `use indicator "Stop Hunts" with period 24, periodUnit "hours" as sh`, then for example `sh.balance < -0.5 and sh.activity > 0.7`.

## Settings

Open the settings with the slider icon next to the indicator (Indicators, `F3`). Numeric settings can be swept as Step 1 / Step 2 parameters when you run a strategy.

### Inputs

| Setting | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Number | `50` | Length of the period in the chosen unit. (min 1) |
| Period unit | Choice | Candles | Candles counts the last N candles; Hours and Days count every candle that opened within that time, so the period is the same on every timeframe. Options: Candles, Hours, Days. |
| Swing: candles before | Number | `5` | Candles before a swing that its high (low) has to be above (below). Larger values keep only more prominent swings. (min 1) |
| Swing: candles after | Number | `2` | Candles after a swing that must not go beyond it; the swing counts once they have closed. Larger values confirm later. (min 1) |
| Activity: rank over candles | Number | `500` | Number of recent candles whose hunt counts the current count is ranked against for activity. (min 10) |

### Styles

| Setting | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pane shows | Choice | Balance −1 … +1 (normalized) | Balance draws the normalized balance (bars) and volume balance (line) on a fixed −1 to +1 scale; the other two draw long and short hunts as lines, as counts or as volume. The outputs always contain everything. Options: Balance −1 … +1 (normalized), Number of hunts, Volume of the hunt candles. |
| Net histogram (short − long, count/volume view) | On/off | on | In the count and volume views: bars for short hunts minus long hunts around the zero line. |
| Mark hunt candles | On/off | on | Triangles at the hunt candles: top for short hunts, bottom for long hunts. |
| Long hunts | Color | `#22c55e` | Color of long hunts: their line, triangles and the bars below zero. |
| Short hunts | Color | `#ef4444` | Color of short hunts: their line, triangles and the bars above zero. |
| Volume balance line | Color | `#f59e0b` | Color of the volume balance line in the balance view. |
| Height | Number | `80` | Height of the indicator pane. (min 30) |

## Outputs

These values can be used in Trade Setup triggers, filters and exits (see [Trade Setup](https://chartrider.com/docs/strategies/trade-setup/)) and in WickScript.

| Output | In WickScript | Description |
|---|---|---|
| value | `value` | Same as balance: −1 (only long hunts) to +1 (only short hunts) in the period. |
| balance | `balance` | (shortCount − longCount) / (shortCount + longCount), 0 without hunts. |
| volumeBalance | `volumeBalance` | (shortVolume − longVolume) / (shortVolume + longVolume), 0 without hunts. |
| activity | `activity` | Percentile rank (0 to 1) of shortCount + longCount among the recent candles. |
| shortCount | `shortCount` | Short stop hunts in the period (stops above swing highs taken, close back below). |
| longCount | `longCount` | Long stop hunts in the period (stops below swing lows taken, close back above). |
| net | `net` | shortCount − longCount. |
| shortVolume | `shortVolume` | Summed volume of the short hunt candles in the period. |
| longVolume | `longVolume` | Summed volume of the long hunt candles in the period. |
| netVolume | `netVolume` | shortVolume − longVolume. |
| shortHunt | `shortHunt` | 1 on a candle that is a short stop hunt, otherwise 0. |
| longHunt | `longHunt` | 1 on a candle that is a long stop hunt, otherwise 0. |

## Use in WickScript

`use indicator` creates this indicator inside a script, with settings by their ID. Each output is a field of the name after `as`. See [WickScript indicators](https://chartrider.com/docs/wickscript/indicators/).

```wickscript
wickscript 1
indicator "Stop Hunts from the list" in pane
use indicator "HUNTS" with period 50 as myHunts
show myHunts.value as line "value"
```