CRT Indicator for MT4 and MT5: Candle Range Theory Sweeps and Boxes

Written by Dominic Walsh · Published 6 Aug 2026 · Last updated 20 Aug 2026

The CRT indicator finds Candle Range Theory setups on the MT4 and MT5 price chart. This is the ICT three-candle model. It boxes the range candle, marks the swept side and draws the 50% equilibrium line. A CRT buy or CRT sell arrow then prints on the sweep candle. A small panel reports the last setup, its range and how deep the purge went.

This build ships as crt-indicator.ex4 for MT4 and crt-indicator.ex5 for MT5; the screenshots below come from EURUSD H1.

Platforms	MT4 (.ex4) + MT5 (.ex5)
Chart window	Main price chart
Plots	4: CRT buy, CRT sell, Range high, Range low
Alerts	popup, push notification, email, sound
Inputs	42

What the Crt Indicator draws on the chart

Each setup gets a rectangle across the range candle. It spans high to low and extends InpBoxExtendBars (default 6) bars to the right. The outline shows sea green for a bullish CRT and fire brick for a bearish one. InpFillRectangles (default false) keeps it hollow. A gold dashed ray marks the swept level. A slate gray dotted line marks the 50% equilibrium.

CRT buy prints a lime green arrow, code 233. It sits InpArrowAtr (default 0.40) ATR under the sweep candle’s low. CRT sell prints an orange red arrow, code 234, the same distance above its high. Range high and Range low are small gold and deep sky blue dots, code 159. They mark the range candle’s own extremes.

A BUY or SELL caption sits a fixed pixel gap from each arrow. The top-left panel lists the symbol, the last setup side and its range high and low. It also shows the equilibrium, the purge depth in points and a setup count over InpHistoryBars.

• CRT buy: arrow, lime green, width 2, arrow code 233
• CRT sell: arrow, orange red, width 2, arrow code 234
• Range high: arrow, gold, width 1, arrow code 159
• Range low: arrow, deep sky blue, width 1, arrow code 159

How the Crt Indicator calculates its values

The range candle

Bar i is the sweep candle. Bar r = i + 1 is the range candle. InpRangeMode defaults to 1. In that mode the range candle must span at least InpRangeAtrMult (default 0.70) times ATR. So a doji cannot start a setup. Mode 0 accepts any candle. Mode 2 wants the widest range of the last InpRangeLookback (default 6) bars. ATR is a plain average of true range over InpAtrPeriod (default 14) bars.

The sweep test

Take the bullish case first. Here the sweep candle’s low must sit at least InpMinSweepAtr (default 0.05) ATR below the range low. The close must then land back above that low and at or under the range high. A bearish CRT mirrors it. The sweep candle’s high must exceed the range high by the same margin. Its close must then land back under the high and at or above the range low. With InpRequireEquil (default false) turned on, the close must also clear the 50% line.

Density guards

InpLocalExtreme (default true) demands that the sweep low or high still holds one bar later. The live bar is exempt, so a fresh setup shows at once. InpMinBarsApart (default 6) blocks a second arrow on the same side within that many bars. Only when a setup clears both does the code write the arrow. It then drops the Range high and Range low dots.

How to read the signals

Start from the box. The range candle holds resting stops at both edges. The gold ray shows which edge the next candle ran through. A CRT buy arrow under a candle means it dipped below the box low and closed back inside. The wick took the resting stops. The expansion should run up toward the untouched high.

A CRT sell arrow above a candle means the mirror. Price poked over the box high and closed back inside. Expansion should then run down toward the box low. Any close past the slate gray equilibrium line is the stronger version of the same setup.

Use the Range high and Range low dots to see which candle defined the box when bars sit close together. The BUY and SELL captions are labels only. The arrow is the buffer value that alerts read.

Alert channels in this build: popup, push notification, email and sound, one message per closed bar.

Alerts go out by popup, push notification, email and sound, each behind its own toggle. They fire once per closed bar. The dispatcher reads bar 1 and stores the bar time, so a setup cannot alert twice.

Every Crt Indicator input

Core settings: Range candle qualification

Setting	What it does	Default
InpRangeMode	Range candle: 0=any 1=ATR filtered 2=widest of lookback. InpRangeMode (default 1) decides what counts as a range candle: 0 takes any candle, 1 needs an ATR-sized range, 2 needs the widest candle of the lookback.	1
InpRangeAtrMult	Mode 1 – range candle must reach this x ATR. InpRangeAtrMult (default 0.70) is the ATR multiple a range candle must reach in mode 1; raise it to keep only the fat ranges.	0.70
InpRangeLookback	Mode 2 – must be the widest of this many bars.	6
InpAtrPeriod	ATR period used for sizing and offsets. InpAtrPeriod (default 14) feeds the ATR behind the range filter, the sweep margin and the arrow offset; shorten it to react faster to a volatility shift.	14

Core settings: Sweep qualification

Setting	What it does	Default
InpMinSweepAtr	Minimum purge depth beyond the level (x ATR). InpMinSweepAtr (default 0.05) is how far beyond the range edge the purge must go, in ATR units; raise it to ignore one-tick pokes.	0.05
InpRequireEquil	Also require the close back beyond the 50% equilibrium.	off

Core settings: Signal density guards

Setting	What it does	Default
InpMinBarsApart	Minimum bars between signals on the same side. InpMinBarsApart (default 6) is the minimum bar gap between two arrows on the same side; raise it on M5 and lower charts to stop the boxes piling up.	6
InpLocalExtreme	Require the sweep extreme to hold one bar later.	on

Core settings: Drawing

Setting	What it does	Default
InpMaxSetups	Newest setups that keep their boxes and captions.	24
InpBoxExtendBars	Bars the range box and rays extend to the right.	6
InpFillRectangles	Fill the range rectangle (off = outline only).	off
InpTagGapPx	Caption gap from the arrow, in PIXELS.	38

Core settings: Text fencing

Setting	What it does	Default
InpPriceScalePx	Right margin owned by the price scale (px).	62
InpOneClickWpx	Width of the one-click trade zone, top-left (px).	260
InpOneClickHpx	Height of the one-click trade zone, top-left (px).	100

Core settings: Readout

Setting	What it does	Default
InpX	Panel X offset (px).	14
InpY	Panel Y offset (px) – clears one-click panel.	120

Display settings

Setting	What it does	Default
InpHistoryBars	Bars scanned for setups.	600
InpShowEquil	Draw the equilibrium (50%) line.	on
InpShowCaptions	Draw the BUY / SELL captions.	on
InpArrowAtr	Arrow offset from the sweep extreme (x ATR).	0.40
InpLabelEdgePadPx	Padding kept clear at the chart edges (px).	10
InpAvoidPanel	Keep captions clear of the info panel.	on
InpBullColor	Bullish CRT colour.	lime green
InpBearColor	Bearish CRT colour.	orange red
InpBoxBullColor	Bullish range box colour.	sea green
InpBoxBearColor	Bearish range box colour.	fire brick
InpSweptColor	Swept level ray colour.	gold
InpEquilColor	Equilibrium line colour.	slate gray
InpShowPanel	Show the CRT panel.	on
InpCorner	Panel corner (0=UL 1=UR 2=LL 3=LR).	0
InpFontSize	Panel font size.	9
InpFont	Panel font.	Consolas
InpPanelBg	Panel background.	RGB 10,24,16
InpBorderColor	Panel border.	sea green
InpTextColor	Panel text.	gainsboro

Alert settings

Setting	What it does	Default
EnableAlerts	Master alert switch.	on
EnablePopup	Terminal popup alert.	on
EnablePushNotify	Push notification to phone.	off
EnableEmail	Email alert.	off
EnableSound	Play a sound file.	off
SoundFile	Sound file name.	alert.wav

Settings that fit your chart

The screenshot pair is EURUSD on H1. There a 14-bar ATR is large enough for the 0.70 range filter to leave several boxes a week. Candle Range Theory comes from the ICT playbook. That school leans on liquid forex majors, gold and index futures; thin symbols give boxes that say little. H1 and H4 keep the setup count manageable. On M5 the density guards do most of the work.

When the Crt Indicator fails

Every range candle has two sides. So the pattern would fire constantly without the density guards. Even with InpMinBarsApart at 6 a choppy session can string together alternating buy and sell boxes that resolve nowhere. The close-back-inside rule says nothing about what happens next.

The sweep test is a single bar. A purge that takes two candles to close back inside never qualifies. That shape is common on H4 and daily. The reason is simple: low[i] and close[i] belong to the same bar.

Mode 1 ties everything to a 14-bar ATR. After a volatility spike the ATR inflates. Ordinary range candles then fail the 0.70 multiple for days, so setups vanish just when the market calms. The code also assumes distribution and never checks it.

Copy crt-indicator.ex4 into MQL4/Indicators and crt-indicator.ex5 into MQL5/Indicators, then restart the terminal and drag the Crt Indicator onto a chart. The step-by-step guide with screenshots is at how to install MT4 and MT5 indicators.

Download the Crt Indicator for MT4 and MT5

The zip crt-indicator-indicator-forexmt4systems.zip holds crt-indicator.ex4, crt-indicator.ex5 and a short README, compiled files only. Enter your email below and the download link arrives in your inbox.

FAQ

What does InpRangeMode 1 filter out compared with mode 0?

Mode 0 lets any candle with a non-zero range act as the range candle. The default, mode 1, demands a range of at least InpRangeAtrMult (default 0.70) times ATR. So inside bars and dojis no longer seed a box. Mode 2 only accepts the widest candle of the last InpRangeLookback bars.

Why do the CRT buy and CRT sell arrows skip some obvious sweeps?

Three gates sit in front of every arrow. The range candle must pass InpRangeMode. The purge must exceed InpMinSweepAtr times ATR. Then InpLocalExtreme and InpMinBarsApart thin the survivors. A sweep that closes back inside two bars later also fails, because the test reads one candle.

What does the equilibrium line mean inside a CRT range box?

It is the midpoint of the range candle, high plus low over two, drawn as a slate gray dotted line. In the ICT reading a close back past the midpoint after a sweep shows stronger acceptance of the reversal. InpRequireEquil (default false) turns that into a hard filter.

What does the CRT readout panel show on EURUSD H1?

Six rows. The first holds the symbol and timeframe. The second gives the side and age of the last setup. Then come the range high and low, and the equilibrium with the purge depth in points. A count of bullish and bearish setups across InpHistoryBars follows. The last row says where the current close sits relative to that range. InpY (default 120) shifts the panel clear of the one-click trade box.

Are results guaranteed?

No. Trading involves risk. Results are not guaranteed; past performance is not indicative of future results. Use the Crt Indicator as one input. Always backtest before trading live.