The buyside and sellside liquidity indicator looks for pairs of highs or lows that finished at roughly the same price. Those pairs are where stop orders tend to rest. BSL Pool and SSL Pool mark them, and a sweep that pushes through one and closes back inside gets an arrow.
This build ships as a compiled .ex4 for MT4 and .ex5 for MT5; the screenshots below come from EURUSD H1.
| Platforms | MT4 (.ex4) + MT5 (.ex5) |
|---|---|
| Chart window | Main price chart |
| Plots | 4: BSL Pool, SSL Pool, Sweep SELL, Sweep BUY |
| Alerts | popup |
| Inputs | 5 |
What the Buyside and Sellside Liquidity Indicator draws on the chart
BSL Pool marks a pair of equal highs above price, where buy stops tend to sit.
SSL Pool marks a pair of equal lows below it.
Sweep SELL fires when price pushes above a buyside pool and closes back below it.
Sweep BUY is the mirror case under a sellside pool.
- BSL Pool: line, gold, width 1
- SSL Pool: line, dodger blue, width 1
- Sweep SELL: arrow, red, width 4, arrow code 234
- Sweep BUY: arrow, lime, width 4, arrow code 233
How the Buyside and Sellside Liquidity Indicator calculates its values
Pairing equal levels
The code takes a swing high and looks for another within EqualTolPts of the same price. Two highs that close enough together form a pool, and its level is their midpoint.
SwingBars qualifies what counts as a swing in the first place, checking a bar beats its neighbours on both sides.
Why a pair rather than one level
A single high is just a high. Two at the same price is where a cluster of orders builds up, because the second touch tells everyone watching where the level sits.
That is the whole premise. The tool marks the double, not the single.
What makes a sweep
Price has to trade meaningfully beyond the pool level and then close back on the original side. Reaching it is not enough.
The tolerance for that excursion is a fraction of EqualTolPts, so what counts as beyond scales with what counted as equal in the first place.
How to read the signals
A pool is a level, not a signal. It marks where orders are likely resting.
A sweep arrow means the level got taken and rejected inside a bar, which is the event traders watch for.
LookbackPools limits how many pools stay tracked, so older ones drop off.
Sweep arrows point opposite to the pool they cleared: taking buyside liquidity gives a sell marker.
Alert channels in this build: popup, one message per closed bar.
The one alert channel here is the MT4 popup. A bar time check runs first, so a sweep raises one dialog per closed bar.
Every Buyside and Sellside Liquidity Indicator input
Core settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
SwingBars |
SwingBars is how many bars either side a swing point has to beat. It defaults to 3. | 3 |
EqualTolPts |
EqualTolPts is how close two highs have to sit to count as equal, 30 points by default. | 30 |
LookbackPools |
LookbackPools is how far back the pool scan reaches, 100 bars by default. | 100 |
Display settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
ArrowOffsetPts |
ArrowOffsetPts spaces a sweep marker from its candle, 30 points by default. | 30 |
Alert settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
EnableAlerts |
(see inputs panel) | on |
Settings that fit your chart
The screenshot uses EURUSD H1. Equal levels form most cleanly where price respects a level more than once, which suits H1 and H4 on liquid majors. On M1 a thirty point tolerance covers a lot of ordinary noise and pools appear everywhere. Tightening EqualTolPts helps on a fast chart.
When the Buyside and Sellside Liquidity Indicator fails
EqualTolPts is a fixed point figure, so what counts as equal does not scale with volatility. Thirty points is generous on a quiet day and tight on a violent one.
A sweep marker describes one bar taking a level and closing back. It says nothing about whether price then goes anywhere.
Pools form from two swings and nothing more. There is no measure of how much time or volume built up at the level.
Not every pool gets swept, and plenty of sweeps happen at levels the tool never paired.
Copy the compiled Buyside and Sellside Liquidity Indicator file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, and the MT5 build into MQL5/Indicators, then restart the terminal and drag it onto a chart. The step-by-step guide with screenshots is at how to install MT4 and MT5 indicators.
Download the Buyside and Sellside Liquidity Indicator for MT4 and MT5
The zip holds the compiled Buyside and Sellside Liquidity Indicator build for MT4 and MT5, plus a short README. Compiled files only, no source. Enter your email below and the download link arrives in your inbox.
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FAQ
Why does a sweep above a BSL Pool give a Sweep SELL?
Taking buyside liquidity means price ran the stops resting above those equal highs, then rejected the level by closing back below it. The move up served to fill orders rather than to continue, so the marker points the other way.
How close is close enough under EqualTolPts 30?
Two swing highs within thirty points of each other pair into a pool, and the level becomes their midpoint. That is a fixed distance rather than a scaled one, so on a volatile session it pairs highs that are not really equal, and tightening it helps.
Does a single high ever form a pool?
No. The tool needs a pair. One high is simply a high, while two at the same price is where a cluster of orders builds, because the second touch confirms for everyone watching exactly where the level sits. That doubling is the premise.
What does SwingBars 3 qualify?
A bar has to beat its neighbours three bars either side before it counts as a swing at all. Only qualifying swings enter the pairing scan, so raising SwingBars finds fewer and more significant levels and lowering it fills the chart with pools.
Are results guaranteed?
No. Trading involves risk. Results are not guaranteed; past performance is not indicative of future results. Use the Buyside and Sellside Liquidity Indicator as one input. Always backtest before trading live.
Category: this is part of our Smart Money collection. Then, plainly, browse more Smart Money for MetaTrader, or explore every MT4 indicator and MT5 indicator on the site.
External references
- The core method is documented in Flight-to-liquidity on Wikipedia.
- Additional market context is at the BIS Triennial FX Survey at the BIS.
About the author
Written by Dominic Walsh, a Forex trader and MT4/MT5 indicator, Expert Advisor and script developer. Every tool on forexmt4systems.com is tested on live charts before release and ships with ready-to-use compiled MT4 (.ex4) and MT5 (.ex5) files. Learn more about the trader and developer behind this site.
How we build, test and correct every tool: Editorial & Testing Policy. Trading carries risk; see the disclaimer.