Crypto scanner glossary: TD Sequential, volume and candle terms

This glossary defines the terms used when scanning crypto with TD Sequential, volume and candle patterns: what a setup and a countdown are, what the volume grades mean, how a candle pattern is named, and how an event chain turns several of them into one alert in Scan Events or Chains. Names match the labels you see in Moolish.

TD Sequential terms

TD Sequential

A counting method for price bars, usually credited to Tom DeMark, that marks possible exhaustion of a trend. It has two phases: the setup, which counts to 9, and the countdown, which counts to 13. Moolish scans both phases as the Sequencer 9-13 method. See the TD Sequential crypto scanner guide.

TD setup

The first phase. A buy setup is nine consecutive bars that each close lower than the close four bars earlier. A sell setup is nine consecutive bars that each close higher than the close four bars earlier. If the run is interrupted before nine, the count starts over. DeMark’s description places a price flip before bar 1: one close above the close four bars earlier, then the first close below it starts the count. Sequencer 9-13 counts from the first qualifying close and does not wait for a separate flip bar. See the TD9 indicator explainer.

TD countdown

The second phase, which starts after a setup has completed. Bar 9 of the setup can itself be countdown bar 1 when its close passes the countdown test; Sequencer 9-13 counts it that way. It counts bars up to 13: for a buy countdown, a bar whose close is at or below the low of the bar two bars earlier; for a sell countdown, a close at or above the high two bars earlier. Unlike the setup, countdown bars do not have to be consecutive, so a countdown usually takes much longer than a setup. See the TD Countdown 13 explainer.

Setup 9

The ninth bar of a completed setup. In Moolish the events are named Buy Setup 9 and Sell Setup 9. Setup 9 is the signal most traders mean by “the TD9”. It is a condition to look at, not an instruction to trade.

Countdown 13

The thirteenth counted bar of a countdown. Moolish names the events Buy Countdown 13 and Sell Countdown 13, along with the first bar of a countdown, Buy Countdown 1 and Sell Countdown 1. The 13 is rarer than the 9 because the countdown has to run to the end without being cancelled.

Non-qualified 13

A 13 that did not meet the method’s qualifier. Moolish lists Non-qualified Buy 13 and Non-qualified Sell 13 separately from Buy Countdown 13 and Sell Countdown 13, which are the qualified counts. Open each one in the picker to read its exact rule.

Perfected setup

A setup whose last bars also reach beyond the extremes of earlier setup bars. In the textbook rule for a buy setup, the low of bar 8 or bar 9 is below the lows of bars 6 and 7 (DeMARK’s word is “exceeded”; some tools also accept an equal low). For a sell setup, the high of bar 8 or bar 9 is above the highs of bars 6 and 7 (some tools also accept an equal high). The signal names in Moolish’s picker do not include a separate “perfected” label, so check perfection on the chart when it matters to you. See the perfected setup explainer.

TDST

Short for TD Setup Trend. A support or resistance level taken from the extreme of a completed setup: resistance at the top of a buy setup’s nine bars, support at the bottom of a sell setup’s. It is a reference line for reading price, not a forecast. See the TDST explainer.

Setup N and Countdown N

“Setup 6” means the sixth bar of the current setup count. “Countdown 6” means the sixth counted bar of the countdown. They are different counters on different phases, so Setup 9 and Countdown 9 are not the same event. Moolish also has a First Sell Setup 6 event, kept separate from Sell Setup 6.

Volume terms

Volume VSA

Volume spread analysis reads a bar’s volume together with its range and close. In Moolish, Volume VSA is a method that grades each closed bar’s volume relative to average volume and emits an event for the grade. The grades are listed in the next entry.

Volume grade

The named tier assigned to a bar’s volume, from lowest to highest: Very Low Volume, Low Volume, Normal Volume, High Volume, Very High Volume and Ultra High Volume. Each grade is defined relative to average volume, so a name always stands for a measurable level rather than a feeling.

High Volume or above

A compare condition, written ≥ High on the High band, that is true when the bar’s volume grade is High Volume, Very High Volume or Ultra High Volume. It lets a Scan Events card or a Chains step say “volume was strong” without caring which of the three upper grades it was.

Candle terms

Candle pattern

A shape made by one to five consecutive candles, described by how each body and shadow relates to its neighbours. The Candle editor in Moolish ships 45 presets and lets you draw your own pattern of one to five candles with relations between them. The presets are grouped below.

Doji

A single candle whose open and close are almost equal, so the body is a thin line. It signals indecision. Variants in the presets are Dragonfly Doji, with a long lower shadow, and Gravestone Doji, with a long upper shadow.

Hammer

A single candle with a small body near the top and a long lower shadow, seen after a downtrend. The same shape after an uptrend is called a Hanging Man. A small body near the bottom with a long upper shadow is an Inverted Hammer after a downtrend and a Shooting Star after an uptrend.

Bullish Engulfing

A two-candle pattern: a down candle followed by an up candle whose body opens at or below the previous close and closes at or above the previous open, so it covers the previous body. It is the confirming candle in the standard example setup. Bearish Engulfing is the mirror image.

Inside Bar

A candle whose whole range sits inside the previous candle’s range. It shows a pause. Bullish Harami and Bearish Harami are close relatives that compare bodies rather than full ranges.

Morning Star

A three-candle reversal shape: a long down candle, a small candle that sits below the first body, then a long up candle that closes well into the first body. Evening Star is the mirror image after an uptrend.

Events and chains

Event

One recorded fact about one closed bar: a symbol, a timeframe, a time and a named condition, such as Buy Setup 9 on the 1D. Events are the raw material of everything else in Moolish.

Closed bar

A bar whose time period has finished, so its open, high, low, close and volume can no longer change. Moolish detects conditions on closed bars, which is why an alert never appears and then disappears.

Forming bar

The bar that is still in progress. Its close and volume change with every trade, so a condition that looks true halfway through can be false when the bar closes. The chart shows forming bars, but the scanner waits for the close.

Timeframe alignment

The way bars of a higher timeframe line up with bars of a lower one. A 4H bar spans sixteen 15M bars, and a 1D bar spans six 4H bars. Daily bars open at 00:00 UTC and 4H bars open every four hours from that point. Weekly bars open on Monday at 00:00 UTC. Alignment does not order events in Scan Events: each card keeps its own window on its own timeframe.

Event chain

Several conditions across timeframes combined into one alert. In Scan Events it is one card per timeframe, each with a lookback, joined with AND or OR, with no order across cards. In Chains it is an ordered sequence of 2–4 event steps on one symbol. The standard example is Buy Setup 9 on the 1D, High Volume or above on the 4H and a confirming candle on the 15M. See the event chain guide and the confirmation guide.

Cross-timeframe setup

A Scan Events filter whose cards sit on different timeframes, usually a slower timeframe for context and a faster one for the trigger. A market matches when every card found its condition inside its own lookback.

Cross-asset gate

The Market condition in Scan Events: a reference pair, a timeframe and events that gate the whole scan. For example, High Volume or above on the BTC 1D can gate a trigger on an altcoin’s 15M: the BTC daily decides, and the alt’s 15M fires.

Scan Events

The part of Moolish where you add one card per timeframe, pick events or Candle shapes and a lookback for each, join the cards with AND or OR, choose one exchange to scan and save the filter as a preset with a Telegram alert.

Lookback

The number of recent candles of a card’s timeframe in which its conditions must appear. The default is 9. Each card has its own lookback.

Chains

The ordered tool, at /compositions. It takes 2–4 event steps on the same symbol, each later step within a Within window after the previous one, up to 20 symbols per step. It runs live only, fires once when the last step lands and sends the Telegram alert. Candle editor shapes cannot be steps.

How to use these definitions

Several of the terms above are textbook ideas that Moolish implements as named events. When a definition here and the description inside the app differ in detail, the app’s description of the signal is the one that decides what an alert means. If something is unclear, write to [email protected] and say which term you were reading.

None of these terms is a recommendation. They describe what a tool detects. Read the Disclaimer and Risk Disclosure before acting on any alert.