# The Tactiq Flag

Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/tactiq-flag · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31

The Tactiq Flag reads every closed bar six ways and combines the lanes into one plain state per timeframe. It describes the market; it is not a forecast.

The Tactiq Flag tells you what the market is doing on one timeframe. It reads every closed bar in six ways (the lanes), then it combines them into one state. It is a description of the market. It is not a trade signal and it is not a forecast: see [What history says](#flag-history).

It reads 5m, 15m, 30m, 1h and 4h bars. Each timeframe has its own reading. On the Chart, the Flag follows the timeframe you select. Turn it on with **Indicators → Tactiq → Tactiq Flag** or the `q` key.

![A 15-minute BTC chart of 31 October and 1 November with the Flag: the reading card at the top left says 15m closed bar, Balance, with the event Sellers absorbed, 6 bars ago, and Forming (99 %, provisional), Balance; red pennants above the bars and teal ones below sit on the climb of 1 November; under it the regime ribbon is mostly amber on 31 October, turns teal and hatched teal early on 1 November and grey from about 11:00, above six lane rows named Structure, Auction, Control, Fuel, Energy and Liquidity.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/flag.webp)

*BTC perp, 15m, 31 Oct–1 Nov 2026: the regime ribbon went from coiling (amber) to uptrend (teal), uptrend tiring (hatched) and balance (grey).*

- **What you see:** The reading card at the top left: *15m closed bar · Balance* with the last event, *Sellers absorbed, 6 bars ago*, and under it the bar still forming, *Forming (99 %, provisional) · Balance*. Small pennants sit on the price chart, red above the bars and teal below, most of them on the climb of 1 November. The top row of the Flag pane is the regime: on 31 October it is mostly amber (coiling) with short grey breaks (balance); early on 1 November it turns teal (uptrend), then teal with diagonal lines (uptrend tiring) from about 07:00, and grey (balance) from about 11:00. The six rows under it are the lanes; the blue *Energy* cells on 31 October mean volatility was low, the amber ones on 1 November that it expanded.
- **How to read it:**
  - Read the ribbon colour first: trend up (teal), trend down (red), tiring (hatched), coiling (amber), balance (grey).
  - Then the conviction dots on the card: four of four lanes agreeing is a clear read; one of four is weak.
  - A pennant is an event on that bar (squeeze, flush, failed breakout, absorption, breakout). Tables below.
- **What it tells you:** What the market is doing now on this timeframe, in one word. It does **not** predict: Tactiq measured every state and no directional state predicted the next bars. Coiling is followed by *smaller* moves, not a breakout.
- **How to use it:** Before a trade, read the Flag on your timeframe and one above. Trading against a clear trend on the higher timeframe needs a stronger reason. In the picture, balance after a tiring uptrend says "no trend to lean on": expect rotation inside the range, keep targets modest, and do not chase a breakout.
- **Common mistakes:**
  - Entering on a pennant. Most pennants mark a move that already happened.
  - Expecting a breakout from coiling. History says quiet tends to stay quiet for a while.
  - Reading the faded forming bar as final. Only the closed bar counts.

### Where you see it

| Element | Where | What it is |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Regime ribbon | Top row of the Flag pane, under the price chart | One cell per bar: the slow state of the market (the regime). |
| Six lanes | The six rows under the ribbon | One cell per bar per lane: the inputs to the regime. |
| Pennants | On the price chart, at a bar | An event on that bar (squeeze, flush, failed breakout, absorption, breakout). |
| Reading card | Top left of the chart | The reading in words. Hover a bar to read that bar. The dots next to the regime count the lanes that agree with the regime’s direction. |
| Flag stack | Overview page | The regime on every timeframe, side by side. |

### The regime ribbon: colours

Each cell is one bar. The colour is the regime on that bar. The regime changes only after two closed bars agree, so it does not flicker. Colours are given for the dark theme; the light theme uses the same hues.

| Looks like | Regime | Exact colour | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | Uptrend | teal #1fc98e, 85 % opacity, solid | Structure trends up (drift and swings) and nothing shows the trend fading. |
|  | Downtrend | coral #f4505f, 85 %, solid | The same, down. |
|  | Uptrend tiring | teal 42 % with diagonal lines | Still an uptrend, but losing force: delta divergence, short covering, sellers or OI against it, extreme volatility, or price back below VWAP or value. The diagonal lines mean “fading”. |
|  | Downtrend tiring | coral 42 % with diagonal lines | The same, for a downtrend. |
|  | Coiling | amber #f2c14e, 60 %, solid | Volatility in the lowest 20 % of its recent range and almost no drift. |
|  | Balance | grey #959dac, 30 % | No trend. Price rotates inside or around value. |
|  | Unclear | grey #848d9f, 12 % (almost empty) | Not enough bars or data yet (the first bars of a series). |

### The six lanes: colours

Each lane is one row. A lane value goes from −1 to +1 (directional lanes) or from 0 to 1 (energy, liquidity). The stronger the value, the deeper the colour. Directional lanes: opacity is 12 % at zero and 90 % at ±1. Energy and liquidity: 12 % at the middle (0.5) and about 87 % at either end (0 or 1).

| Lane | Question | Colours |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Structure | Is there a trend, and is it getting faster? | teal: up drift and higher swings. coral: down. |
| Auction | Is price accepted above or below value? | Teal: above the prior day’s value area or VWAP (deepest when accepted, 2+ closes). Coral: below. |
| Control | Who is aggressive, and does price move with them? | Teal: buyers in control. Coral: sellers. Absorbed or exhausted aggression shows the colour of the side that is winning. |
| Fuel | Are traders opening or closing positions? | Deep: OI up (teal price up, coral price down). Pale: OI down (teal price up, coral price down). |
| Energy | Is the market coiled or stretched? | blue: compressed (low volatility). amber: expanded or extreme. |
| Liquidity | Is the path clear? | Amber: thin book near price. Blue: thick book. Only the newest bar has a book reading. |

A cell with grey diagonal lines means that lane had no data at all on that bar (for example, liquidity on any bar without an order-book reading). A lane without data does not vote. Missing trade-level inputs (footprint and big trades, about a day deep) or missing liquidations do not hatch a cell: the lane is read from the inputs it has, and the missing ones simply do not contribute.

### The pennants: events

A pennant is a short vertical pole with a small triangle at its end. It sits **below** the bar in teal when the event points up, and **above** the bar in coral when it points down. The code next to it appears when you zoom in far enough; when you zoom far out, pennants are hidden so they do not become noise.

| Code | Event | Rule (on the closed bar) | Points |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SQ | Short squeeze | Up bar of at least 1 ATR with liquidations in the top 10 %, or a sharp drop in open interest (bottom 10 % and 3× the usual change). | Up |
| FL | Long flush | The same, down. | Down |
| FB | Failed breakout / breakdown | The first close back inside value after a run outside it that reached at least 0.25 ATR beyond. | Against the failed move |
| AB | Buyers / sellers absorbed | Heavy one-sided aggression (top 15 %, volume 1.2× normal) with almost no progress, at value’s edge, the recent high or low, or a supply or demand zone. | Against the absorbed side |
| BO | Breakout attempt | The first close outside value with control at least 0.3 in that direction. | With the break |

### The reading card

- **Collapsed:** the timeframe, the regime name in its colour, the conviction dots and the latest event.
- **Conviction dots:** one dot for each direction lane with data (up to four). A filled dot agrees with the regime’s direction. Four of four is a clear read; one of four is weak. In the expanded card, the dots next to the state’s title (an event while it holds) count the lanes that agree with that state’s direction instead.
- **Expanded (click):** each lane as a bar with its label, what followed this state in history (or a *Note* from market mechanics where it was not measured), the condition that would change the reading, and the regime one timeframe up.
- **Hover a bar** to read that bar. Move the pointer off the chart to return to the current reading.

### When a flag is formed

- Every reading is made on a **closed** bar, from data up to that close only.
- The bar that is still forming has a **provisional** reading: what the Flag would say if the bar closed now, refreshed every 5 seconds. It is drawn faded, the card shows it as “Forming (x %, provisional)” with the regime it would show, “may become …” when the rules see a different regime not yet confirmed, and any *possible* event, and it never plants a pennant. At the close it is replaced by the real reading, which is the only one recorded.
- The chart asks for the Flag as soon as a bar closes, so the new reading appears seconds after the close.
- Past readings are not repainted with hindsight: a swing counts only from the bar that confirms it, the value area is the prior day, and recomputing 17,472 past 15-minute bars (January to June 2024) from different start points changed none of them.
- One difference from what you saw live: older bars lose inputs that only exist for recent bars (footprint and big trades about a day, liquidations since the system started, the book only now).

### What history says

Tactiq measured every state on every timeframe (5m, 15m, 30m, 1h and 4h, 2023 to 2026) against ordinary bars of the same timeframe, with the trade inputs the live Flag has and the number of tests counted (study 004: studies 001 to 003 repeated on the rules as they now run). The results:

- **No directional state predicted the next 1, 4 or 16 bars, on any timeframe.** After a trend, squeeze, flush, failed breakout, absorption or breakout, price moved no differently from any other bar.
- **Most flags mark a move that already happened.** Before a squeeze, flush or breakout pennant, price had already moved that way 83 % to 93 % of the time. On a chart, “red pennant, then price fell” is mostly the fall that made the pennant.
- **Coiling is followed by smaller moves, not larger ones.** On 5m to 1h, the next 4 bars moved about 19 % to 25 % less than from an ordinary bar. On 4h there was no clear difference. Quiet markets tend to stay quiet for a while.

The reading card shows the result for the state and the timeframe you are on, marked *measured*.

### How to use the Flag

1. **Use it to describe, not to predict.** It sums up the six lanes at a glance.
2. **Check the higher timeframe.** Know which regime you trade inside.
3. **Use a pennant as a fact about the bar,** not as an entry. A failed breakout or absorption against your trade is information about the auction; decide with your own plan.
4. **When coiling, expect quiet to continue.** Do not expect an immediate breakout.
5. **Use “Changes if”** as the condition that would change your view.