For traders

Reading the Chart

Everything the Suite draws — labels, lines, the data table, alert messages — is a rendering of the same underlying state. This doc is the decoder: what each piece of text means, what the colors say, and how to read the table row by row. Notation itself (what 2u or F2d means) is defined in bar-types.md; signal semantics live in signals.md. This doc assumes both.

Applies to v2.2.7-split and later. Code references are function names and FIX tags; grep the source for them.

Label anatomy

Every level label is assembled from the same ordered parts (collectTimeframeLabels). A fully-loaded example:

1H *2d-1-2u HAM H 542.10

Two more assembly rules:

• Same price, one label. Any labels landing on the same tick-rounded price merge, joined with + (consolidateAndCreate). 1H MAG + 15m 2u-2u is one price where the hourly magnitude and a 15m trigger coincide — confluence, made legible. Parts join in collection order, TF slot 6 down to slot 1 — with the standard presets, that's highest timeframe first.
• Two placements. Timeline labels (default on) sit at each line's end. Floating labels (default off) hold a fixed offset from the current bar so they never scroll away. Same text either way.

The level vocabulary

Six kinds of level, six words:

The shaded boxes between trigger and target are Take Action Windows — the tradeable zone for an in-force signal, filled with the same bullish/bearish Signal colors as the lines.

Combo strings and the canonical tuple

A combo reads oldest → newest, and the last token is always the forming candle: in 2d-1-2u, the 2u is happening right now. Full reading rules are in bar-types.md; the ones you need constantly:

• * prefix = potential. *2d-1-2u is a setup whose trigger hasn't broken yet. When price crosses, the * drops and the line takes the signal color.
• F marks a slot that was a Failing 2. F2d-2u — the prior bar failed its downside break, the current bar is following through up.
• Dashes are cosmetic. Use Dash Separator (default on) turns 2d12u into 2d-1-2u (formatCombo). Same string.
• During a live Failing 2, both sides tell the story. The failing side reads the F2 combo (2u-F2u); the opposite trigger reads a potential outside bar (*2u-3d) — because a full traversal through the other side would print a 3.

Casing carries structure, never tense (NOTATION-1)

Failing 2s are always uppercase F2u/F2d, live or closed. Earlier versions wrote a forming Failing 2 in lowercase (f2u); that was retired in v2.2.7 because case-significant notation can't be spoken, doesn't survive small label sizes, and marked liveness for exactly one bar type. Liveness is carried where every bar type carries it:

1. Slot position — the last token of a combo is the forming candle.
2. * prefix — potential, not yet confirmed (*F2d on a pre-F2 open level).
3. Words — Universal mode says FAILING while live; past tense is failed.

The tuple is the truth

Every string on the chart is a projection of one four-field tuple per candle — structure (1 / 2u / 2d / 3), above_open, failed, live (the full table is in bar-types.md). When two displays seem to disagree — a table cell versus a label, a label versus an alert — resolve both back to the tuple before assuming a bug. They cannot actually conflict; they can only be rendering different fields.

Universal mode

With Label Style = Universal, combos become words: ↑REV, ↓CONT, ↑INS, ↑EXP, *OUTSIDE, with FAILING appended to the side a live F2 is failing and ◆ replacing HAM/ SHO. The * prefix still means potential. MAG/EXH become TARGET/FINAL. Same engine, same triggers, same colors — only the vocabulary changes.

Colors

All configurable under Style — these are the defaults, and each has one job:

The read at a glance: yellow/orange = waiting, green/red = live, gray = done. An inside-bar setup draws both sides (yellow above, orange below) because the break direction isn't known yet; the moment one side breaks, that line goes signal-colored and the * drops.

The data table

The multi-timeframe scoreboard, updated on the live bar only. Two modes (Display → Data Table → Mode).

Full mode

One row per enabled timeframe, five columns (populateBarTypeRow):

The typography is deliberate: completed bars are colored text, the forming bar is a filled cell. Your eye goes to the live column.

Cell text and colors (getBarTypeColor, getBarTypeTextColor) follow the same scheme as the chart: 1u yellow / 1d orange (inside, closed above/below open), 2u green / 2d red, 3u/3d and F2u/F2d in your Style colors for outside bars and Range Reclaims. Two special cases:

• ? in the CC cell — the slot is previewing a period boundary and its forming candle could not be rebuilt from real daily sub-bars, so the Suite shows "unknown" rather than a guess (FIX HTF-STRADDLE-1). A ? slot never fires alerts.
• Dimmed, empty row — that timeframe is lower than your chart timeframe, so its bars can't be resolved from this chart. Switch to a lower chart TF to activate it.

The footer rows

Below the timeframe rows, in order, each spanning the table width:

Compact mode

The whole table collapses to one colored chip per timeframe in a horizontal row, plus the same footer rows. Chip colors: yellow = inside and above open, orange = inside and below open, green/red = signal in force in that direction (Range Reclaim and outside-bar signals use their own Style colors), dark with white text = nothing live, yellow text = previewed slot with no rebuilt data (the ? equivalent).

Alert messages

The consolidated alert() message is built per signal by buildAlertLabel, one label per newly in-force event, joined with |:

<TF> <combo><pattern><H/L> <marker> | <detail fields> | <FTFC>

A fully-enriched single-signal push:

1H 2d-1-2u HAM 🟢 | @ 542.10 MAG 545.30 EXH 548.20 STOP 538.10 | FTFC Up

• <TF> <combo> — same timeframe label and combo notation as the chart labels (Universal mode sends the word forms: 1H ↑REV◆ 🟢). Failing 2 alerts use the canonical combo (2u-F2u), uppercase per NOTATION-1.
• <marker> — 🟢 bullish, 🔴 bearish. Always present; it's the direction read when the combo is ambiguous at a glance.
• Detail fields — @ (trigger price), MAG, EXH, STOP, each opt-in under Alerts and each omitted entirely when its value doesn't exist for that signal. The | separator only appears when at least one field is present — no dangling pipes, no blank MAG (FIX P1-j).
• FTFC verdict — appended once at the end of the whole message when Include FTFC is on: FTFC Up / FTFC Down / Conflict.
• Multiple simultaneous events chain with |: 15m F2d-2u 🟢 | 1H 2d-1-2u 🟢 | FTFC Up.

Domino alerts are their own message: Domino: 15m+30m+1H.

Two things worth knowing about delivery:

1. The rich message only travels the alert() path — create one TradingView alert with condition "Any alert() function call". The named alertcondition() entries ("Signal In-Force (TF1)", "FTFC Shifted", …) fire with fixed text, a Pine limitation; use them for targeted routing, the consolidated alert for content.
2. What alerts is what displays. Alerts obey the same signal toggles as the chart (FIX P0-3), fire only on a signal becoming in force — not on every bar it stays in force — and never fire from a previewed or straddled slot (FIX HTF-STRADDLE-1). If the table shows ?, that slot is silent.

Every knob referenced here (label placement, table mode, alert enrichment, colors) is documented in ../TheStratSuite_v2.2.7_Settings_Reference.md. Notation rules and the canonical tuple: bar-types.md. What makes a signal fire in the first place: signals.md.