TTM Squeeze Dashboard for ThinkOrSwim (Free Download)

What it shows

What the Squeeze Dashboard Shows

The Squeeze dashboard is a MarketWatch quotes table where each row is a symbol and each column is a short thinkScript. Before writing any code, I sketched the layout in PowerPoint as a table with 5 columns, so I knew what each column had to answer.

The design also sets a 10-period lens: every squeeze column looks back exactly 10 bars of its own timeframe. On the daily column that's 10 days, on the 1-hour column it's 10 hours, and on the 30-minute column it's 5 hours. A fixed lookback keeps the code short, because one Sum function does the counting.

I picked daily, 1-hour and 30-minute bars for swing trading. If you day trade, use smaller timeframes. You can also add other indicators as columns.

How the Dashboard Reads Squeeze Dots

The Squeeze dashboard reads the dots through SqueezeAlert, a plot of the Squeeze study built into ThinkOrSwim. SqueezeAlert equals 0 on a bar with a red dot, which means a squeeze is on. The squeeze fires on the bar where SqueezeAlert goes from 0 on the previous bar to 1, and that single bar is the one the dashboard paints green.

The dashboard shows only the dots, not the histogram, so open the chart for direction. On Walmart in the video, the histogram bar was still below zero, which marks a negative squeeze. For more tools and tutorials on reading the indicator, start at our Squeeze hub.

Build Your Watchlists as a Funnel

The dashboard reads whatever watchlist you load, and I build those lists like a funnel, from broad to narrow. The wide end holds index ETFs like SPY. The middle holds sector ETFs like XLF. The narrow end holds single stocks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, which tells you where the opportunity is right now.

I made three watchlists in the video. Each list is one level of the funnel:

• Index ETFs: SPY, QQQ, IWM and DIA, plus gold and bonds.
• Top ETFs: XLF, XLY, XLV, XLP, XLE and XLU.
• XLP Holdings: PG, KO, PEP, WMT, COST, MDLZ, MO, PM, CL and KMB, the top holdings of XLP when I recorded the video.

To create a list, open the Watchlist gadget in the left sidebar. If it isn't there, add it with the + icon. For a long list, paste comma-separated symbols into the watchlist import box, and ThinkOrSwim recognizes every ticker. Add as many or as few symbols as you like to each level.

Install it in ThinkOrSwim

How to Add a Custom Column in MarketWatch

Every dashboard column is a custom quote, a short thinkScript that ThinkOrSwim runs on each symbol and prints in a cell. To add one:

1. Open the MarketWatch tab and load your watchlist in the quotes table.
2. Remove the existing quote columns so only the Symbol column is left.
3. Click the gear icon on the table and choose Customize.
4. Open the dropdown, scroll down to Custom Quotes, and open the thinkScript editor for the first slot, Custom 1.
5. Name the column, set its aggregation, paste in the code, and click OK.
6. Add the column to the table and click OK again. Repeat with Custom 2, 3 and 4 for the squeeze columns.

ThinkOrSwim limits how many custom quote slots you get and how many quotes run at any moment. Watchlist columns and custom studies all count toward that total, so a long list with many columns uses it up faster.

Each column prints its result with AddLabel and colors the cell with AssignBackgroundColor. If labels are new to you, our AddLabel tutorial covers the function. The download also has share links for both columns, and our guide on how to import a shared item into ThinkOrSwim shows how to load them.

How the code works

The Moving Averages Column

The Moving Averages column checks whether the 8, 13, 21 and 34-period exponential moving averages are stacked in order. I added it to keep only the strongest candidates in view. It reads the daily chart.

Step 1: Define the Four EMAs

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ExpAverage(close, 8) is an 8-period EMA of the close. I wrote the first line, then copied it for the 13, 21 and 34.

Step 2: Define Bullish and Bearish Stacks

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bullish is true when each faster EMA sits above the next slower one. bearish flips every comparison. When the lines are mixed, both are false.

Step 3: Print the Label and Color the Cell

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Each AddLabel prints its text only when its condition is true. The third label prints a blank space when neither stack is in place, so the cell stays empty instead of showing the default loading text.

AssignBackgroundColor paints the cell green for a bullish stack, red for a bearish stack and black for neither.

In the video, the column showed bullish stacks on SPY, QQQ, gold and bonds, and nothing on DIA or IWM. I checked gold, SPY and QQQ against a chart with all four EMAs, and the lines were stacked.

To plot a stack on the chart itself, see our Stacked Moving Averages indicator. It uses a different set, the 8, 21 and 34 EMAs plus the 50 and 200 SMAs, so it won't always agree with this column.

The Squeeze Column

The Squeeze column runs the built-in squeeze study with its default settings and prints one of three things: a red-dot count, a fired label, or nothing. The same code goes into all three squeeze columns. Only the aggregation changes.

Step 1: Flag Red-Dot Bars and Count Them

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squeeze is 1 on any bar with a red dot, where SqueezeAlert equals 0, and 0 on every other bar. Sum(squeeze, 10) adds those ones over the last 10 bars, which is the 10-period lens. A count of 10 means all 10 bars had red dots.

Step 2: Catch the Bar Where It Fires

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squeezeFired is 1 when the previous bar had a red dot and the current bar doesn't. That's the bar where the squeeze fires, so the fired state lasts one bar. On the next bar the cell goes back to black unless a new squeeze starts.

Step 3: Labels and Colors

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While a squeeze is on, the cell reads "Sqz Count:" plus the count, in white text on red. On the bar it fires, the cell reads "Sqz FIRED" in black text on green.

The blank label and black background keep every other cell clean, so the red and green cells stand out.

The empty parentheses in TTM_Squeeze() mean the study runs with its default inputs. To use other settings, pass them inside the parentheses. Our free Squeeze backtester tests different Squeeze settings on each ticker, which helps you choose them.

Examples

Walking the Funnel in the Video

The funnel in the video narrowed index ETFs down to a few stocks in XLP. These readings come from the day I recorded, so your dashboard will show different names.

Index ETFs

Gold showed a squeeze count of 10, and its chart had a squeeze on each of the past 10 bars. The QQQ squeezes had already fired, so their cells were black. While those squeezes were on, the same cells would have been red.

Sector ETFs

XLP was the only sector ETF with a squeeze worth a look: a count of 10 on the 1-hour column. Its 1-hour chart confirmed the red dots, and its moving averages were stacked bullishly.

XLP's Top Holdings

Walmart was the one holding with a daily squeeze, and the dashboard showed its first red dot. Its moving averages were stacked bearishly, with the 34 on top, then the 21, 13 and 8, and price was consolidating inside them. The histogram bar was still below zero, so I read the bias as bearish.

That made Walmart a counter-trend trade inside XLP. The ETF's own averages were stacked bullishly, and XLP moved up 1.19% that day. Seeing both levels of the funnel at once is what flags that kind of conflict.

Shorter Timeframes

To look for bullish setups in XLP's holdings, I edited the three squeeze columns to 15 minutes, 5 minutes and 3 minutes, with extended hours off. Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola then showed 15-minute squeezes building, and both had bullish stacked moving averages on the daily chart.

How I Read the Dashboard

The Squeeze dashboard is a filter that tells me where to look next. I train my eyes to find the red cells first, then open the chart and read price, the moving averages and the histogram before deciding anything.

A red cell says a squeeze is on, and a green cell marks the one bar where it fired. Neither one tells you where to enter or exit. Decide where your stop goes before you enter, and size the trade so a stop-out costs a small, fixed share of your account.

To find squeezes across a whole index instead of a list you picked, run our free 5-dot squeeze scan. It searches for 5 red dots in a row with stacked moving averages, and you can watch the names it finds in this dashboard.

Customize and troubleshoot

Timeframes and Extended Hours

Aggregation is the setting that decides what one bar is in each custom column, so the same squeeze code gives a daily, hourly or 30-minute reading. These are the settings I used in the video:

Intraday columns also have an extended-hours checkbox. I first left it off, then turned it on for the index list, where trading outside regular hours matters. For the sector ETFs I turned it off again so the data was reliable. When you check a count against a chart, set the chart's extended hours the same way.

Customizing the Dashboard

The Squeeze dashboard changes with a few clicks, because each column is independent. These are the changes I made or suggested in the video:

• Add more columns. Click Customize, open another custom slot, and paste in the squeeze code again for a 15-minute or 5-minute column.
• Swap the watchlist. Load any list in MarketWatch, from XLP Holdings back to the broader sector ETF list, and every column recalculates.
• Detach it. Click the actions menu (the hamburger icon) at the top of MarketWatch and choose Detach. There are two of these menus, and the top one has Detach. Then resize the window to fit a corner of your screen.

For the end-of-day process I use to build a squeeze watchlist with the Squeeze Course tools, see our squeeze watchlist tutorial. More free layouts are on the dashboards page.