What is a zigzag indicator?

A zigzag indicator is a chart overlay that draws a line only when price moves by more than a set percentage. Smaller swings are ignored. Traders use it to mark swing highs and lows. It does not predict the next move. It restates the last one after the turn has already happened.

How does a zigzag indicator work?

You pick a threshold, often 5 percent. The line holds its direction until price retraces by that amount. Then it turns and starts a new leg. Moves smaller than the threshold never appear. The chart looks cleaner. It is also late, because the turn is only drawn after the retrace clears the bar.

Zigzag vs a moving average

A moving average is on the chart every bar and changes with each close. A zigzag waits for a large enough swing, then rewrites the last leg. It is a filter, not a smoother. Changing the threshold changes which highs and lows count. It can look like a different history.

What it is not

It is not a trading signal on its own. It will not tell you to buy. It will not post a trade. People use it to label swings for other rules, such as Fibonacci retracements. The trades those rules produce are ordinary transactions if they hit your book.

How it works with Blnk

Blnk does not chart prices and does not compute a zigzag. If a strategy that uses the indicator sends an order, record the fill the same way you record any other trade.

Post from a named source to a named destination for the fill amount. Put the indicator settings in metadata if you need to audit why the order fired. See transactions.