Williams %R Trend Pullback

How the rule works

Williams %R locates the close within a recent range on a −100 to 0 scale. This rule buys recovery from a pullback only when both moving averages are rising. The repeated-return-to-extreme failure mode matters: a strong price swing can occur before EMA200 changes slope, so old trend context may outlive the trend.

Setup

• Bull trend: EMA50 above EMA200 and both higher than five bars ago; bear trend reverses these tests.
• Use only closed H4 values and no trade if the signal bar ranges more than 2 ATR.

Indicators

• Williams %R(14)
• EMA(50), Close
• EMA(200), Close
• ATR(14)

Long entry

• Buy next ask when %R[2] is below -80, %R[1] closes above -80, and Close[1] is above EMA50 in the bull trend.

Short entry

• Sell next bid when %R[2] is above -20, %R[1] closes below -20, and Close[1] is below EMA50 in the bear trend.

Stop loss

• Define pullback low = min(Low[1]…Low[5]) and pullback high = max(High[1]…High[5]). Long SL = pullback low − 1.4×ATR14[1]; short SL = pullback high + 1.4×ATR14[1]. No future swing confirmation is used.

Exit

• Freeze the prior 10-bar high/low from bars [2]…[11] at signal time. Long target is the nearer profitable price of that high and entry+1.5R; short target is the nearer profitable price of that low and entry−1.5R. Skip the entry if the relevant frozen boundary is not beyond entry in the profit direction.
• Also exit after a completed close across EMA50 against the position, or after nine H4 bars, at the next available quote.

Risk and position size

• Risk 0.5%; maximum correlated exposure 1%.

Costs and execution

• Model executable quotes, commission, variable spread, slippage and swap; account for broker H4 candles differing around DST.

When the method can fail

• Trend filters fail after reversals; avoid scheduled macro releases and the last tradable Friday hours.

Worked example

• Hypothetical %R rises from −88 to −72 and price is above a rising EMA50/EMA200 pair. Entry 1.1000, five-bar low 1.0980 and ATR 0.0010 give SL 1.0966. If the frozen 10-bar high is 1.1030, it is nearer than the 1.5R price 1.1051 and becomes the target.

Historical test results

No tested pair meets the complete research-screen criterion. Positive cells alone do not qualify the strategy.

18 mechanical runs across 3 pairs on H4. Decisions use completed strategy bars; fills use native ICMarketsEU-Demo M15 Bid candles with explicitly modelled costs. Full window: 1 January 2025–18 September 2026. Each row starts with an independent USD10,000 account.

Interpretation: these are mechanical bar-model tests, not verified real-tick or live performance. Price rules were held fixed; subjective market-quality exclusions remain outside the mechanical model. Strategy adaptation requires a new test.

Download all test metrics and assumptions (JSON) · Download simulated trade logs and reproducible research code · Broker commission and swap documentation

Execution conventions

• Bar [0] is forming; [1] is the most recently completed bar. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, indicators use Close with zero plot shift and signals use completed bars. EMA is exponential, SMA is arithmetic and MT5 ATR is its native true-range average. Use at least 300 completed warm-up bars; a longer rule-specific requirement takes priority.
• A close-based signal is executed at the first available quote after the close, never retrospectively at the signal close. Buy at ask, sell at bid; close longs at bid and shorts at ask. A standing stop or target can fill within a bar. A gap through a stop fills at the first executable price, which can be worse than the stop.
• R means the initial entry-to-protective-stop distance, fixed at entry. Convert that distance into account-currency loss using the symbol tick size and loss-side tick value. Lots = cash risk / loss per lot, rounded down to the broker volume step. Round prices to the trade tick and recheck risk plus minimum stop/freeze distances before submitting. Budget commission and slippage separately; skip if minimum size exceeds the risk limit.
• Use one position per symbol and no averaging down. A trailing stop only tightens after a completed bar and becomes active on the next quote. The entry bar is holding bar one; a time exit executes on the quote after the specified holding bar closes. When a hard stop and a close-based exit compete, the stop already active takes precedence. With OHLC-only data, assume stop before target if both can occur in one bar; tick data is needed to resolve the order.
• The article defines the price rule. Any discretionary news exclusion changes the tested variant and must be recorded in advance. Map broker timestamps to the named London/New York time zone using historical daylight-saving offsets; do not assume a fixed UTC offset. Include spread, commission, slippage, overnight financing and triple-swap days in a profitability test.

Adapt and test your version

• Treat these inputs as a reproducible starting specification. Choose a currency pair, session and holding period that match the time you can monitor the market, then record any changes to indicator periods, thresholds, stop distance or exits as a new version.
• Change one hypothesis at a time. Reserve a later period and additional pairs for evaluation before looking at their results. Include your account’s actual trading and financing costs, compare small parameter changes, and forward-test on demo. A selected profitable window does not validate the strategy or its modified version.

Reproduce the chart in MT5

• Open EURUSD on H4. Add the indicators listed above through Insert → Indicators; use Close and zero shift unless a different setting is specified. The Data Window displays exact values for the selected completed candle.
• Compare the signal candle with the required earlier bars before moving forward. Use the crosshair to read prices and times. For custom channels, session levels or Supertrend, reproduce the formula in this guide and check the calculation before relying on an external indicator.
• Draw entry, initial SL and target only after a candle has satisfied every condition. Label planned levels as plans; they do not demonstrate a historical fill. The featured chart is genuine historical MT5 context and is not a trade-performance report.

Sources

• Williams' Percent Range — %R calculation and default platform usage.
• Moving Average — EMA implementation.