01Getting started
What is IndicatorStack?
LiveChart, a chart that reads every bar for you: one stack bias that holds through noise, a plan for where price sits in it, and five layers that each answer one question, from the higher-timeframe trend to the entry and the exit. It runs in your browser, on desktop and phone, with nothing to install.
Do I need an account?
No. Open LiveChart and it works, with the stack bias, the plan and Compass free, and the watchlist and journal kept in your browser. A free account (just your email, no password) keeps your settings, watchlist and journal on every device, and lets you subscribe to layers and get email alerts.
Which markets and intervals does it cover?
US-listed stocks and ETFs on Nasdaq, NYSE, NYSE Arca and Cboe, plus OTC names, from low-float small caps to SPY, including premarket and after-hours. Intervals are 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour and daily. Search by ticker or company name in the toolbar.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. The chart runs in any modern phone browser, with the stack panel under the chart. Sign in on each device and your settings and layers are there.
What do the Stack bias and Plan mean?
Stack bias is the one direction every layer reads against, built from the higher timeframes, price against VWAP and the trend SMA, volume flow, momentum and trend strength. It turns only after several bars of agreement (15 minutes on the 1m and 5m, three bars on longer intervals), so it holds through noise instead of flipping with every bar. Plan is what that bias and price's place in it call for, such as "Buy pullbacks to 54.80 (fast EMA) · avoid shorts". Every term is in the glossary.
Will it make me profitable?
No tool can promise that, and this one makes no such claim. It puts the context experienced traders check on the chart in plain English, which makes it easier to filter weak setups and manage the ones taken. Results depend on the trader, the risk taken and the market. See the Risk Disclosure.
02Layers and pricing
What is free?
The Core: LiveChart, the stack bias and its history on every chart, the plan and the levels to watch around price, Compass, the watchlist, the trade journal and bias-flip alerts, with no card and no time limit. The Core is the engine every layer runs on: the bias weighs five higher timeframes, VWAP and the trend SMA, volume flow, momentum and trend strength on every bar, and tunes itself to the ticker's profile. What the Core runs.
Can I see a layer before I add it?
Yes. On LiveChart, hover a layer's row in the stack panel and its marks appear on the chart; click it to keep the preview open with its read. A preview reads the chart as it stood 20 bars ago: everything after that, and the live read on every new bar, comes with the layer.
What do the layers add?
Each layer adds its read to the stack panel, its marks to the chart and its own settings: Trigger prints LONG, SHORT and CL with a stop, a target and a trailing stop, and lists them under the chart; Undertow reads the volume behind a move; Coil the momentum; and Tripwire the risk of a trap for new entries. Each is $9 a month; all four, the Full Stack, are $29. Every layer in depth.
Where should I start?
On the free chart. Then add the layer for the failure point that costs you most: late entries and no exit plan, Trigger; chasing volume with no follow-through, Undertow; entering after the move is spent, Coil; breakouts that fail on entry, Tripwire. Not sure? Help me choose asks five quick questions and suggests the layers that fit.
How does billing work?
Every layer is monthly, on one subscription. Adding a layer is charged today for the rest of your month on the card you used, then renews with the others; removing one leaves a credit for the unused part. With all four, you pay the Full Stack price, $29, instead of four times $9.
How do I change layers or cancel?
From your account page: Change layers lets you tick or untick any of them, and unticking them all cancels. You can also cancel in the billing portal. Your layers stay on until the end of the month you've paid for; then the chart goes back to the free Core, with your settings kept.
Do you have promo codes?
From time to time. If you have one, choose Add a promo code on the order panel's last step: it shows what the code takes off before you pay, and a code that covers the whole order starts your layers with no card needed.
Can I get a refund?
Cancel any time and you won't be charged again. Payments already made aren't refunded for a partly used month, except where the law requires it. If something doesn't work as described, email the desk within 30 days and we'll fix it or refund that month. Details are in the Terms.
03The Desk
What is The Desk?
An optional add-on, $19 a month: support and coaching from the people who built the engine. Help with setup, settings for the tickers you trade, what a specific read means and which alerts to use, plus practical coaching on working the layers into your trading routine. How The Desk works.
Does it tell me what to trade?
No. The Desk helps you use the chart and its reads well. It doesn't give trade calls, review your trades or give financial advice; your decisions stay yours.
How do I reach it?
Email desk@indicatorstack.com or reply to any of our emails from your account's address. A screenshot with the ticker and interval gets the fastest answer. We reply within two business days at most, usually much sooner.
Can I have The Desk without layers?
Yes. It works with the free chart too, and covers any layers you add later. Add or remove it under Change layers on your account page.
04Alerts
What can alert me?
Bias flips on every chart you have open, bias flips on your pinned tickers, and Trigger's entries and exits if you have Trigger. Choose what shows in this browser (tab, desktop, sound) in the chart's Settings, under Alerts, and what reaches your inbox under Email notifications on your account page: which alerts, which intervals, regular hours or extended, an hourly limit, and only ★ entries if you like.
Where do alerts show up?
On the browser tab (a count and a colored dot, such as "(2) ▲ SOUN LONG 4.10"), as a toast on the page, as a desktop notification if you allow it, as a short tone if you turn sound on, and by email if you're signed in and turn email alerts on.
Do I need the chart open?
Yes. Alerts come from the charts you have open, in a background tab too, so leave the tab open for each ticker you want to hear about. Browsers may slow a background tab to about one refresh a minute, so the tab you're watching is always the fastest.
Why didn't I get an email alert?
Check that alert emails are on and that the alert, its interval and its hour are ticked under Email notifications on your account page, that you're signed in on that chart, and your spam folder. Alert emails are sent once the bar closes, so an intrabar signal that disappears before the close is never emailed, and they stop for the hour once your hourly limit (10, 20 or 40) is reached.
Do Trigger's labels repaint?
With Signal timing on Intrabar (the default), a label appears on the forming bar the moment its conditions are met, and can disappear again if they stop holding before the bar closes. That is the fastest read, and the tab alert fires when it appears; email alerts wait for the close, so they never report a label that vanished. With Signal timing set to Bar close, labels appear only on closed bars and never change.
05Your account
How do I sign in?
Enter your email and we send a 6-digit code; type it in and you're signed in for 60 days on that browser. There's no password to remember or leak.
I didn't get the code.
Check spam and promotions, then send a new code from the sign-in panel. Codes work for 15 minutes. Still nothing? Email the desk.
How do I sign out of every device?
On your account page, choose Sign out everywhere.
How do I delete my account?
Email desk@indicatorstack.com from your account's address. We cancel any subscription and delete your account and settings within 30 days, keeping only the payment records the law requires.
06Watchlist, journal and sharing
How does the watchlist work?
Pin a ticker with the star beside its price on LiveChart, and open the watchlist with the grid button in the toolbar or the W key. While LiveChart is open, your stack reads every pinned ticker on the 5-minute chart in the background, one every 12 seconds, so each card shows its price, its bias and its plan. When a pinned ticker's bias turns, you get an alert (Settings, Alerts, Watchlist bias flips). Signed in, your watchlist follows your account.
What is the trade journal?
A private record of your trades with the stack's read attached. Log one from LiveChart with the book icon (or J), or from any row of Trigger's signals table: the ticker, price and time fill in, and the bias, the plan and Compass at that moment are kept with it. The journal shows your win rate, average R, net P&L and profit factor, how trades with the bias did against the ones without it, and your results by setup. Export it as CSV any time.
How do I share a chart?
Use the share button in LiveChart's toolbar. It makes a picture of the chart with the stack's read beside it, and a link whose preview is that picture, so a post on X (or a message in Discord, Slack or iMessage) shows your chart. The post's text is the read as it stood, with its time. You can also copy or download the picture. Signed in, the link carries your share code, and traders who sign up from it are credited to you. Your name and picture show on the picture only if you've set them on your account page. A shared chart is visible to anyone with its link.
Can I set a display name and picture?
Yes, under Profile on your account page. Your picture is resized in your browser before it's uploaded and is shown only to you, in your header and on charts you choose to share.
07Reading the chart
What do VWAP, ATR and R mean?
VWAP is the volume-weighted average price for the session; many traders read price above it as buyers in control. ATR (average true range) measures how far a bar typically moves, so stops and targets sized in ATR fit each ticker. R is the risk taken on a trade: +2R is a gain of twice the risk, -1R a loss of the full risk.
What are the marks on the chart?
The Core draws VWAP (white), the fast and slow EMAs (gold and grey), the dotted trend SMA, the 100 and 200 SMAs, yesterday's levels and the bias ribbon. Each layer adds its own: Trigger its entry and CL labels and its stop and trail lines; Undertow colors volume by who traded it, marks absorption with a hollow diamond and adds a FLOW ribbon; Coil boxes every squeeze (SQZ), marks the bar it releases with a triangle and adds a MOM ribbon; Tripwire draws its resistance and support as stepped lines, marks failed breaks with an × and draws the breakout it's tracking. The Chart key on LiveChart (or the K key) shows every one with its colors, and hovering any bar reads its marks for you in the line under the price.
What does “Behind the read” show?
Under each read in the stack panel, the inputs and thresholds it was weighed against on this bar: Compass's trend votes and cycle, Undertow's net flow and absorption counts, Coil's squeeze and momentum votes, Tripwire's scores and the checks that cost points, Trigger's long and short scores and exit pressure. “How the bias holds” does the same for the stack bias.
What is a squeeze?
A period where volatility compresses into an unusually tight range: in Coil, the Bollinger Bands contract inside the Keltner Channels. When the range resolves, the move often extends. Coil reports the squeeze building, firing, and which way it released.
Can I change how it reads?
Yes. The toolbar's Settings button opens every setting, each with a line on what it does: the ticker profile, signal style and averages, the chart lines, Compass's lengths, alerts, and every layer's own section (Trigger's entries and exits, Undertow's flow window and absorption, Coil's squeeze, Tripwire's levels and checks) with what it draws. A layer's section opens once you have it.
Does it trade for me?
No. It places no orders, and nothing it displays is financial advice. It gives an existing process cleaner information.