Turn Engine - NinjaTrader 8 Strategy

The Turn Engine Strategy for NinjaTrader 8 makes reversal trading simple and precise. It finds high-quality turning points by using three strong confirmation signals together. The main feature waits for rejection wicks, volume spikes, and compressed volatility to align before taking any trade.

As shown in Image 1 (pointed by white arrows), the strategy marks signal bars clearly on your chart when all three conditions are met. These marked candles show exactly where the market is likely to reverse. The rejection wick shows that price was pushed back strongly, creating a long tail on the candle. Volume spikes confirm that institutions or large traders are participating. Volatility compression means the market was quiet before the move, which often comes before sharp reversals. When these three signals work together, you get a high-probability setup. The visual signal bars appear in real-time, giving you clear confirmation without guessing or watching multiple indicators.

The strategy removes manual execution through smart automated entry logic. Turn Engine doesn't enter immediately when the signal bar appears. Instead, it waits for price to confirm the reversal by breaking past the signal candle high (for longs) or low (for shorts) by a specific number of confirmation ticks. This confirmation step keeps you out of premature entries and avoids false signals. Once price confirms, the strategy places a stop-limit order automatically. Protective stop-loss orders are placed beyond the rejection wick with buffer ticks added for safety. This prevents stops from being hit by normal market noise. For profit targets, you can choose between fixed risk-to-reward ratios (default 1.5:1 means you aim for £1.50 profit for every £1 risk) or dynamic ATR-based targets that adjust automatically to fast or slow markets. Purple signal bars indicate bullish reversal setups for long trades. Golden rod bars show bearish reversals for short opportunities. A live floating P&L panel displays on your chart, updating in real-time to show your current profit or loss with colour-coded feedback.

Turn Engine offers complete control through its settings panel. The Trade Settings and Signal Logic sections, highlighted by a red rectangle in Image 2, control basic operation and reversal quality. Order Quantity sets how many contracts the strategy trades per entry. Start with one contract for small accounts. Increase carefully as you grow. Wick Percent controls how large the rejection wick must be compared to the full candle. Default 0.35 means at least 35% of the bar's range must be wick. This shows strong price rejection. Increase this number to filter for only the strongest exhaustion signals. Decrease it to catch more setups with smaller wicks. Volume Lookback sets how many previous bars are used to calculate average volume. Default 20 means the strategy looks at the past 20 bars to define normal volume. This creates the baseline for comparison. Volume Multiplier defines how much bigger current volume must be versus the average. Default 1.25 means current bar volume needs to be at least 125% of average to qualify as a spike. Raising this value makes signals stricter and filters noise better. Lowering it catches more setups but may include weaker signals.

Image 3 shows the Volatility and Targets configuration, highlighted by a yellow rectangle. ATR Period defines how volatility is measured. Default 14 is common and works well for most markets. Shorter periods (like 10) react faster to volatility changes. Longer periods (like 20) give smoother measurements. Compression Lookback smooths the ATR calculation to avoid reacting to single candles. Higher values make the filter more stable and reliable. Compression Factor sets the threshold for detecting compressed volatility. Default 1.2 means current ATR must be 20% less than the average. This filter helps you avoid choppy markets and wait for quiet buildups before reversals. Risk Reward is a fixed multiplier applied to your stop distance to define your target. If your stop is 10 ticks away, a setting of 1.5 means your target sits 15 ticks from entry. This gives you a structured risk-to-reward framework. ATR Target Multiple only applies when you enable ATR-based targets below. It multiplies current ATR to set dynamic profit targets. Use ATR Target, when turned on, sizes your profit target based on market volatility automatically. Great for adapting to fast markets (wider targets) or slow markets (tighter targets) without manual adjustment.

The Order Management, Trade Direction, Visuals, and Overlay sections, shown in Image 4 (highlighted by a green rectangle), provide execution refinement and display controls. Stop Buffer Ticks adds extra space beyond the rejection wick before placing your stop-loss. This prevents being stopped out by normal price noise. Default is 1 tick. Increase this in volatile assets like indices or crypto. Keep it tight for forex pairs. Confirmation Ticks controls how far price must break past the signal candle to confirm the reversal. More ticks mean stronger confirmation but slower entries. Fewer ticks give faster entries but may catch some false signals. Default settings balance speed and reliability. Limit Offset Ticks adds a cushion between the stop price and limit price for your entry order. This helps ensure smoother order fills in fast markets. Enable Long and Enable Short toggles let you trade only one direction. Useful if you have a directional bias. For example, during strong uptrends, disable short entries to avoid counter-trend traps. During downtrends, disable longs. Bullish Bar Colour sets the highlight colour for long signal candles. Default is purple. Choose any colour that stands out on your chart. Bearish Bar Colour defines the colour for short signal candles. Default is golden rod. Make signal bars easy to spot with high-contrast colours. Show P&L Panel enables the floating profit and loss tracker on your chart. It updates in real-time, showing whether your strategy is currently in profit or drawdown. Very useful for psychological confidence and trade monitoring. P&L Background and P&L Border let you choose colours for this panel. Default background is blue with golden rod border. Match these to your chart theme for clean integration.

The strategy works completely automatically from start to finish. It detects the three-signal confluence (wick + volume + compression). It marks the signal bar visibly. It waits for price confirmation. It enters with stop-limit orders. It manages stop-loss and profit targets. It tracks P&L live. You don't need to watch constantly or make manual decisions. The automation removes emotional trading and ensures consistent execution every time conditions are met. Because Turn Engine is fully automated, you can test and optimise every parameter using NinjaTrader's Strategy Analyser and Market Replay features. Run weeks of trading in just minutes. Adjust inputs. Find the most effective settings for your specific instrument, whether futures, forex, or stocks. This backtesting capability gives you confidence before risking real capital.

With full NinjaScript source code included, advanced users can study the complete reversal detection algorithms and three-signal confluence logic. You can modify the wick percentage calculations and volume spike thresholds. You can adjust the volatility compression filtering methodology. You can customise the stop-limit order placement behaviour and confirmation logic. You can integrate Turn Engine into larger automated systems or combine it with other strategies. You can add custom alerts, email notifications, or sound warnings. You can build statistical tracking for win rates and average profits. All of this comes with no restrictions whatsoever. The source code has complete documentation with detailed walkthroughs of every feature. It explains signal generation step-by-step. It covers entry logic and order management. It describes volatility filters and visual rendering. Everything is documented clearly. This makes it easy for NinjaScript beginners to learn and for experienced developers to integrate quickly into bigger trading systems. No black box logic—you see exactly how every decision is made.

If you have questions about the strategy, refer to the comprehensive video tutorial above for detailed guidance.