Candle Range Theory (CRT) Strategy

Entry Setup Examples

This strategy has a single entry setup, based on the Candle Range Theory (CRT) methodology.

In short, the CRT entry model is a high-probability entry model with a defined risk/reward ratio. It's based on analyzing a candle pattern on a higher timeframe and looking for entry confirmation on a lower timeframe.

On the higher timeframe, we look to identify a CRT candlestick pattern — a sequence that respects the Accumulation, Manipulation, Distribution structure, formed across three candles:

• The first candle is a long accumulation candle.
• The second candle is a manipulation candle, where price creates a wick that pushes above the previous candle's high but comes back down and closes inside the previous candle's body.
• The third candle is the distribution candle, where price breaks the second candle's lower wick and moves into (and beyond) the first candle's low.

The entry trigger for this model is the break of the second candle's lower wick (the reverse applies for a long entry model). That trigger is analyzed on a faster, lower timeframe — for example, if the CRT candle pattern is observed on a 1-hour timeframe, entry confirmation may be looked for on the 1-minute or 5-minute timeframe.

A lower timeframe is used for entry confirmation so the trade can be entered in a timely manner — either via a Fair Value Gap, or simply by waiting for the lower timeframe to close below the second candle's lower wick.

One advantage of this model is that the take-profit/stop-loss ratio is known before entering the trade: in general, the stop loss is placed a few ticks beyond the manipulation candle (2nd candle), and the take-profit target is the first candle's low (or high, for a long entry).

Chart Examples

These examples aren't intended to show that the strategy generates profit — they're intentionally hand-picked winning trades, chosen to avoid confusion and to illustrate the best-case scenarios where the entry setup works well. Running the strategy yourself, you'll find that many similar entry setups lead to losing trades — that's the reality of trading. The goal is expected profitability over the long run, even though some individual trades are losses.

MES, 1-Minute Chart / 1-Hour Higher Timeframe

On MES, 1-minute timeframe, with the 1-hour timeframe as the higher timeframe (drawn as an overlay on the chart, which is very useful). This example shows two separate entries — the first a long entry, the second a short entry. The candles marked 1 and 2 are the candles that generated each entry, and the TP/SL markers show where the take-profit and stop-loss levels were set.

MES, 1-Minute Chart — 2x CRT Candle Take Profit

The strategy supports several take-profit and stop-loss strategies. The default CRT take profit is set to the high/low wick of the first (accumulation) candle, but this can be extended to a multiple of that range — this example illustrates the 2x factor. The 1X marker shows the first take-profit level, and 2X shows where the 2x take-profit level was set instead — producing a higher expectancy of profit over the long term.

Features

The CRT strategy has a set of unique features:

• Robust in-house implementation of the Candle Range Theory entry setup algorithm
• No pending orders are placed — only market orders, which produces no rejected orders or partial fills
• Full-auto strategy that can be scaled into multiple instances
• Precise backtesting capabilities following NinjaTrader's official best practices, achieving precise entry/exit backtesting at the tick level
• A robust in-house order management library, resistant to connection loss, that works seamlessly on Rithmic accounts or NinjaTrader brokerage accounts
• On-chart command buttons to manually manage positions when needed
• A very lightweight strategy that can be run in multiple instances, even on a low-power VPS

Dynamic Quantity and Risk Management

As with all our strategies, this strategy implements two methods for setting the quantity of open positions:

• Fixed Quantity: uses the same quantity for every position. If the stop loss is variable between positions, win/loss amounts will vary too.
• Dynamic Risk-Adjusted Quantity: calculates each position's quantity from its stop loss, the maximum risk (in $) allowed per position, and the maximum allowed quantity — producing equal win/loss amounts across all positions regardless of stop loss width.

Position Management

As with all our strategies, this strategy implements multiple position management methods:

• ATM Strategy: delegate position management entirely to your own ATM strategy, selected from a drop-down.
• SuperTrend: uses the SuperTrend indicator to trail the stop loss and manage exits dynamically.
• Classic Trailing Stop: trails the stop loss based on a trigger and a trailing amount.

The strategy also allows setting the stop loss based on multiple strategies and the take profit based on a ratio — see the Parameters section for details.

Account Management

The strategy implements daily stop-trading triggers based on the net winning position count, the net losing position count, or a target realized net profit or net loss.

Parameters

We try to keep the parameters to a minimum — only the most important are exposed.

General
Execute Historical Trades	Enables executing trades when the strategy runs in Historical, Backtest, or Optimization mode — should be unchecked when running Live.
Daily TakeProfit Target	The strategy stops for the day once this daily take-profit amount is reached after a position closes. Ignored when set to 0.
Daily StopLoss Limit	The strategy stops for the day once the daily loss limit is reached after a position closes (positive value — e.g. 300 stops trading once realized PnL ≤ -$300). Ignored when set to 0.
Stop @ Winning Count	Stops trading for the day once the net winning-trade count reaches this value. Ignored when set to 0.
Stop @ Losing Count	Stops trading for the day once the net losing-trade count reaches this value. Ignored when set to 0.
Render Opacity (1-100)	Opacity used to render objects on the chart.
Execute on Different Instrument	Executes trades on a different instrument than the active chart's — e.g. run logic on Minis but execute on Micros to better manage risk. All risk calculation happens on the execution instrument, and trades on a different instrument aren't drawn on the chart.
Execution Instrument	Choose from a list of Micros available on your NinjaTrader connection as the instrument trades execute on. Historical and live trades won't be drawn on the chart in this case.
Market Structure
Higher TimeFrame	Selects the higher timeframe the entry-setup analysis runs on. Make sure to select a timeframe higher than, and of the same type as, the active chart's — e.g. you can't select a Tick-based higher timeframe while the chart's timeframe is Minute-based.
Higher TimeFrame Period	Sets the period of the higher timeframe.
Entry Setup
Time Zone	The time zone used for the Trade Time parameter below. Futures markets operate on US Eastern time (EST), so this lets you specify the trading interval relative to your own machine's time zone instead. EST, CET, or Local Time
Trade Time	The time interval(s) during which the strategy is allowed to place trades. Some examples: EST time zone, trading only RTH (regular trading hours): 09:30-16:15 Machine on Swiss local time, trading RTH: 15:30-22:15 EST time zone, trading both RTH and ETH (extended trading hours) with gaps to avoid volatile periods: 00:01-08:00,09:55-15:55,18:01-23:59 Two things to notice on that last example: the intervals must be listed in increasing order even though 18:01-23:59 is really the first interval of a new day's session, and the interval is cut at midnight to avoid issues when stepping into a new day.
Quantity Strategy	Fixed Quantity: fixed quantity per trade; skipped if the evaluated risk exceeds Target Risk Per Trade ($) Risk Adjusted: dynamic contract size, calculated from the stop loss price and Target Risk Per Trade ($)
Max Qty	Maximum allowed quantity when Risk Adjusted is selected — useful since some prop firms enforce order-quantity limits that can invalidate an account.
Long/Short Entry Mode	Useful if you already have a directional daily bias and want to restrict trading to one direction. Long: only long trades are opened Short: only short trades are opened Long & Short: both directions are traded
Trade Entry Mode	Entry mode after a valid CRT sequence is detected. Immediate: triggers a position immediately once price breaks the first CRT candle's high/low wick by a minimum of one tick FVG: waits for a Fair Value Gap to form while price breaks the first CRT candle's high/low wick
Min CRT Ticks	The minimum size, in ticks, of the CRT candle's profit area. A CRT candle whose range is too small to be worth trading — i.e. the distance from the entry signal to the take-profit wick is very small — is skipped.
Min CRT Ratio	The CRT ratio is the win:loss ratio of the trade — the distance from the entry signal to the take-profit wick (the first CRT candle's high wick for a long, low wick for a short), divided by the distance from the entry price to the stop-loss wick (the first CRT candle's low wick for a long, high wick for a short). This parameter sets the minimum ratio allowed, skipping entries below it.
SuperTrend Entry Filter	Enables/disables using the SuperTrend indicator as an entry filter — when enabled, long trades are only allowed when SuperTrend is bullish, and short trades only when it's bearish.
Order Qty	Used only when Quantity Strategy is Fixed — the fixed quantity per trade (and per quantity increase, if the order management mechanism scales in). Typically 1 or 2.
SuperTrend
This section is only visible when SuperTrend Entry Filter is enabled.
SuperTrend Mode	ATR: ATR-based calculation Adaptive: based on candle close/high/low
Period / Multiplier / Moving Avg. Type / Smooth	Standard SuperTrend calculation parameters — period, band multiplier (a wider band the higher the value), moving-average type, and smoothing period.
Run SuperTrend on Higher TF	Calculates the SuperTrend indicator on the higher timeframe's price series instead of the chart's own timeframe.
Order Management
Order Management Strategy	ATM Strategy: delegates position management entirely to a NinjaTrader ATM strategy template of your choice, accessed from the Chart Trader panel SuperTrend: closes trades using the SuperTrend indicator — the stop loss is set one tick above/below the wick of the bar that broke the supertrend level Classic Trail Stop: trails the stop loss based on a trigger and a trailing amount (see Trailing Stop Parameters below) None: the stop loss defined by Target Risk Per Trade ($) is used instead
ATM Strategy Template Name	Only used with the ATM Strategy order management method — the exact template name of your custom ATM strategy (matching the image above, this would be template1). Must match an existing template, or no position will be opened.
On Opposite Signal	The strategy's behavior whenever an opposite signal occurs while a position is open. Breakeven: moves the stop loss to breakeven Close Position: immediately closes the position DoNothing: takes no action
Enable Price Breakeven	Enables/disables the price-based breakeven mechanism.
Breakeven Price Strategy	Points: breakeven triggers based on points Percentage: breakeven triggers based on percentage of take profit reached
Breakeven Price Trigger	Available if price-based breakeven is enabled — the trigger value needed to move the stop loss to breakeven.
Enable Time Breakeven	Enables/disables the time-based (in minutes) breakeven mechanism.
Breakeven Time Trigger	Available if time-based breakeven is enabled — the trigger value, in minutes, needed to move the stop loss to breakeven.
StopLoss Strategy	CRT Candle: the stop loss is set to the CRT candle's low wick for long entries, and its high wick for short entries Fixed Currency Value: only Target Risk Per Trade ($) is used Points: a fixed number of points from entry SuperTrend: set according to SuperTrend indicator levels
TakeProfit Strategy	CRT Candle / 1.5x CRT Candle / 2x CRT Candle / 3x CRT Candle: take profit set to a multiple (1x, 1.5x, 2x, or 3x) of the first CRT candle's range from the entry price Fixed Currency Value: based on the fixed value of the Take Profit Currency parameter Points: a fixed number of points from the entry price Fixed win/loss ratios: 1:1, 0.5:1, 1.5:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, 6:1 — calculated based on the stop-loss price at that ratio
Target Risk Per Trade ($)	Maximum risk, in dollars, per position — used before opening a trade to verify the calculated stop loss respects this limit; if not, the trade is skipped.
Max Allowed Risk Per ($)	Only used with Risk Adjusted quantity — controls how far the real calculated risk is allowed to deviate from the Target Risk (since an exact match is rarely possible).
Stop Loss Points	Available when the StopLoss Strategy is set to Points.
Take Profit Currency	The take-profit amount in dollars, used when the Fixed Currency Value take-profit strategy is selected. If not used, set this to a high value so it doesn't interfere with the ratio-based strategies.
Scale out % Qty at % Target	Closes a percentage of the position's quantity once price hits a percentage of the profit target (rounded down when fractional — e.g. 50% of a 5-lot position closes 2 contracts).
Scale out at % Target	The percentage of the profit target that triggers the scale-out mechanism.
Scale out % Qty	The percentage of the quantity closed by the scale-out mechanism.
Take Profit Points	Available when the TakeProfit Strategy is set to Points.
Trailing Stop Parameters
Trailing Stop Strategy	Available with the Classic Trail Stop order management method. Points: trigger and trailing amount calculated in points from entry Ratio: calculated as a ratio of the stop loss value, mirrored on the winning side
Trailing Stop Trigger	The trigger (in points or ratio) for the Classic Trail Stop method.
Trail Amount	The amount (in points or ratio) trailed once the trigger is hit.
Command Buttons
The strategy exposes manual command buttons on the Chart Trader panel — make sure it's displayed on your active chart.
Arm/Disarm Buttons	Manually enable/disable entering long or short trades — useful if you have a directional bias.
Close Position Button	Immediately flattens the position on the active instrument without restarting the strategy, which keeps looking for new trades afterward.
Increase / Decrease Qty Button	Adjusts the current active position's quantity by ±1 contract.
Set Breakeven Button	Moves the open position's stop loss to breakeven, if doing so would improve it.

Performance Reports

Past results are not a guarantee of future results. All backtesting results are for indicative purposes only.

• Commissions are included, using NinjaTrader's Lifetime license commission schema, for realistic results.
• We follow NinjaTrader's official guide for precise intrabar-granularity backtesting using additional tick-level data series, and only use market orders — never pending orders — in both real-time and backtest modes.

No performance reports have been uploaded for this strategy yet.

Download & Installation Instructions

Installation Steps

1

Import the downloaded .zip file into NinjaTrader using the Import NinjaScript menu item.

2

Open a new chart window, making sure the Tick Replay checkbox is checked.

3

If you don't see it, go to Tools → Options → Market Data and enable Show Tick Replay.

4

Right-click the chart and choose Strategies (or press Ctrl+S) to open the Add New Strategy dialog, and make sure the strategy's Enabled checkbox is checked.

5

After adding the strategy, it runs on the chart's historical data first, then switches to Real-Time mode and adds a license text box to the Chart Trader panel — make sure that panel is displayed.

6

Paste your license (found on the billing page) into the text box and click Check License.

7

Once verified, the "Check License" button turns green along with the next verification date — this only needs to be repeated after that date.

8

Without an active subscription, the strategy can still be run in Playback and Historical modes to test it first.

Frequently Asked Questions

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