Lux Algo Review

I have covered a couple of indicators here on tradeles (specifically the bitcoin strength index indicator (BSI) and Market God). It is always challenging to give a fair rating to an indicator, as different settings can make a world of difference, and the same is true for how you apply the indicator to any specific strategy. With that said, its now time for another review of yet another indicator – LuxAlgo

LuxAlgo | Next-gen Stock, Crypto, & Forex Indicators

Enhance your trading experience. World’s largest provider of trading indicators for every market, including stocks, crypto, and forex. Advanced TradingView signals + bots for all traders & investors.

Next-gen Stock, Crypto, & Forex Indicators

About Lux Algo

I have seen a lot of ads for LuxAlgo, and seen it mentioned a bunch of times on youtube (especially Satoshi Stacker was on about LuxAlgo for an extended period). From the LuxAlgo website, the indicator looks like any other indicator, with simple buy and sell notifications at every significant swing high and low on a chart – it looks like easy money is just around the corner. There are many additional indicators once you get access as a paid member to LuxAlgo. LuxAlgo is popular among crypto traders, but the indicator is not limited to cryptocurrencies. You can seemingly use this on any asset class/instrument available on tradingview. This is different from the BSI indicator I reviewed here, which plots indications based on on-chain data directly linked to bitcoin data. So LuxAlgo should work just as well for BTCUSD as it should for EURUSD or DAX as an example.

Here is what LuxAlgo tells us:

On the surface, it sounds good. They also show a couple of reviews from Trustpilot, so I went to take a look at the actual rating: 4.2 based on 213 reviews. This does seem promising (maybe a bit concerning that 78% of the rating rank LuxAlgo as Excellent and 17% rank it as Bad, and only 5% are in-between?). Anyhow, I decided to take LuxAlgo up on the offer and paid a total of 67.99 USD for one month of access to

Premium Indicator Suite on TradingView

VIP Discord Group w/ Scanners & Bots

Signal Settings Optimization Experience

Real-time Alerts & Non-Repaint Signals

24/7 Support & Active Product Updates

Pricing Options

There is only one “package” at LuxAlgo, which I really like. You do have the option to pay monthly, quarterly, yearly, or for a lifetime option. The more you pay upfront, the higher the discount. These are the pricing options currently available:

Monthly: 67.99 USD

Quarterly: 143.97 USD (30% discount)

Yearly: 489.99 USD (40% discount)

Lifetime: 1,197 USD

These payment options will give you access to the same thing (which is everything) for the period stated above.

One thing to note is that they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked.

LuxAlgo – What you get, how it works, and settings

Before I go into details about LuxAlgo, it is worth mentioning that they have a lot of free available indicators on tradingview. The complete list of indicators from LuxAlgo on tradingview is listed below, but I will not cover any details about them. If you want to test any of the below-listed indicators, you can do so for free by clicking on “Indicators” in TradingView and searching for “Lux” which will show you all of their indicators.

LuxAlgo also runs a Youtube channel, where there currently are around 30 videos about LuxAlso. The videos cover topics like using LuxAlgo, LuxAlgo updates, and recommended settings. You can also see a 24/7 demo of LuxAlgo on this page to get an idea of how it works. You can also join their discord free of charge. If you still got questions after reading this review, the discord server is likely the place to find your answer. You can also access the Lux Algo documentation here, where you will find a lot of information in the following sections:

Getting Started
Lux Algo Premium Indicators
How to Setup
FAQ
Technical Analysis
Trading – Best Practices

With all the free stuff out of the way, let's get on with the details about Lux Algo Premium.

Immediately after signing up and paying for access, I got a welcome email with a link to the page where I can connect my tradingview account and access the VIP section in the discord server. Everything is self-explanatory and easy to follow. I connected my tradingview account and had access to Lux Algo within a couple of minutes. No installation or download is required, as Lux Algo runs on Tradingview (only, so this is not for all you MT4 / MT5 fans).

Lux Algo Premium Indicators

As a paid member of Lux Algo, I now got access to
Lux Algo Premium
Lux Oscillator Premium
Lux Statistics Premium

Lux Algo Premium

The Lux Algo Premium is the primary indicator with the buy and sell signals which are shown on the demo page. Here is how it looks on BTCUSD in tradingview.

Per default, this indicator will “only” show you buy, sell and take profit signals in the following way:

Buy signals:
Green Buy flag: a buy single in countertrend direction
Green Strong flag: a buy signal in the direction of the trend

Sell signals:
Red Sell flag: a sell signal in countertrend direction
Red Strong flag: a sell signal in the direction of the trend

Take profits:
Blue cross: take profit on buy signal
Red cross: take profit on sell signal

You have a lot of settings to play around with, so let's cover that now. As you would expect, you can change all visual elements of the indicator to your liking. But the exciting settings are the inputs.

There is a warning shown in the Lux Algo documentation which is worth highlighting:

Signal Mode: The default here is confirmation, which means Lux Algo will generate buy and sell signals in an attempt to catch a trend move after a breakout or a solid directional move. The setting can be changed from Confirmation to Contrarian.The contrarian mode is characterized by buying and selling in contrast to the prevailing sentiment of the time, so when everyone else is looking to buy Lux Algo may flash a sell signal. From a quick glance a things, Lux Algo seems to perform much better in the confirmation mode compared to the contrarian mode. Everything else being equal, I would imagine the confirmation mode being superior in trending markets, where the contrarian mode is better suited for long period of consolidation and range bound markets. With this in mind, it may make sense to change settings based on current market conditions – the key part is naturally to know if you expect the nearest period to be trending or range-bound. There are ways to get an idea about this, but that's a topic for a different day. Signal Sensitivity: The next setting is signal sensitivity. This value is a filter for the signals generated. The specific description is “Sensitivity of the signals to src variations. Use higher values to trader longer term trends (or see recommended values in the dashboard). In short, a lower number will give you more signals and higher will give less signals. This is a tradeoff all daytraders face, and it is important to find the right setting for you. Start with the default value and then adjust from there based on your trading style and how well the signals fit your strategy. Finding the optimal value is natural of paramount importance, and something that is heavily discussed on the discord server. There is also a whole youtube video devoted to this topic alone.

If you do not want to play around the value to find a level that suits you the best, you can go with the recommended value. This will be listed in the small dashboard in the lower right corner of the screen. The recommended value will adjust according to the chosen timeframe. Simple plot the listed value into the settings of the indicator. This can also be automated by ticking the “Autopilot Confirmation Signal Settings” in the settings for the indicator.

The description of the “Autopilot Confirmation Signal Settings” option is the following: Allows the confirmation signals to adjust dynamically rather than based on settings. Use this if you don't want to adjust Sensitivity or Confirmation Ability. This is the easiest option to use if you want to LuxAlgo without too much manual intervention.

S/R Mode: This setting allows us to get automated support and resistance levels plotted onto the chart, automatically. There are a couple of different options here. Lets take them one by one:

• Breakout Zones
• Pattern Detection
• Predictive Ranges
• Auto Trendlines
• Trend Projection
• Institutional Profile

Breakout Zones: Activating this will plot key support and resistance levels onto the chart automatically. The levels are added continuously as new candles are printed. There are no specific details as to what these levels are based on, and while some of the levels seem to be placed spot on according to technical analysis best practice, others seem to be placed randomly. The zones will be green when acting as support and red when acting as resistance.

It is recommended to use the breakout zones along with the signals by LuxAlgo. Hence you may want to look for a long trade after buy signal flashes, and price it coming back to re-test a breakout zone as resistance. I will share my own opinion about the levels further down.

Pattern Decection: Pattern detection is the next setting (and latest addition) in LuxAlgo. Activating this will allow the indicator to automatically identify and highlight traditional technical patterns. For now I believe Lux Also support the following patterns:

• Rising/Falling/Broadening Wedges
• Ascending/Descending and Symmetrical Triangles
• Double Tops/Bottoms
• Head & Shoulders (H&S)
• Inverted Head & Shoulders

When a pattern is identified, it will be shown with solid lines, whereas when no pattern is detected, you will see two dashed lines that should act as support and resistance. I think its fair to say to say this still need to be optimized before this it really becomes a useful addition. At this point, it can give you some ideas, but the free automatic pattern detection function from tradingview is superior to this, in my opinion.

Predictive Ranges: The Predictive Ranges are an SR method displaying real-time support and resistance levels, with two resistances (in red), two supports (in blue), and one mid-level (in orange).

Again, there is no detailed explanation about what these levels are based on. More on my opinion about these further down this post.

Auto Trendlines: Auto trendlines will, as the name implies, automatically apply trendlines to your chart. If I was to manually draw trendlines, they would not look similar to the ones drawn by LuxAlgo.

Again we get no detailed explanation as to how these are drawn, and when they are invalidated. Again my opinion about these have been posted further down.

Trend Projection: A different way to visualize an interval for future possible price movement. Here are the details shared in the LuxAlgo documentation:

The trend projection provides a forecast of future trends alongside a prediction interval, with a forecast horizon of 100 bars. This forecast makes use of Monte Carlo simulations for its computation. This forecast assumes a persistence of previous trends in the price, and as such is not suitable for forecasting reversals.

The aim of the prediction interval extremities are to be used as support or resistance; they can also return interesting points to set take-profits or stop losses.

Institutional Profile: The final option in the S/R Mode is Institutional Profile. From the looks of the examples in the documentation this is identical to volume profile. They do however claim there are a couple of differences:

The institutional profile is an alternative to the volume profile and indicates the accumulated institutional activity over 100 price ranges. The metric used to generate this profile is inspired by Shalen's hypothesis and extended over a concept we named activity asymmetry.

TIP

Make sure the symbol you are applying the indicator to has volume data and contains at least 200 bars.

The institutional profile is computed over SR Significance × 20 bars, as such it is computed over 100 bars by default (SR Significance of 5) and up to a maximum value of 200 bars (SR Significance of 10).

TP/SL Points: The next setting enables you to get suggested take profit and stop loss levels plotter onto your chart automatically. Here is the description from Lux Algo Documentation:

The TP/SL Points feature displays 4 points (2 take profits in blue, and 2 stop losses in red), and aims to help the user set stop losses and take profits by estimating points of potential support/resistance. When the price significantly deviates from the take profits or stop losses, each point will update.

Each take-profit/stop-loss point is set depending on the position selected by the user in the TP/SL Points drop-down menu. Selecting Buy will display the take profits above the stop losses, while Sell would place the take profits under the stop losses. Selecting Off hide the points from the chart.

The second drop-down menu at the right determines the distance between each point and ranges from 1 to 10.

TIP

Make sure to adjust this setting according to the price variations you are trading. If you are trading large price variations, use a higher setting value.

Hovering on one of the TP/SL points will display its value so that you can precisely set a take profit or stop loss.

Indicator Overlay

The next couple of settings are Indicator Overlay. Here we can tick the following:

EQ Cloud

Reversal Zones

Trend Tracker

Trend Catcher

Let's take them one by one.

EQ Cloud: This will plot a “cloud” zone onto your chart is supposed to act as a zone of support and resistance. Here is what listed in the documentation:

When enabled, a simple “cloud” like indicator will be displayed on your chart. The EQ Cloud is similar in effect to an Ichimoku Cloud, and can determine the current trend as well as behave like a trailing support and resistance.

The cloud is filled with a gradient color showing the current trend relative to the cloud.

Reversal Zones:

The reversal zones looks very similar to Bollinger bands. It shows a band above and below the market price, as levels to look for possible reversal trades. Here is the description from the documentation:

When enabled, one upper and one lower zone will be displayed on your chart; each zone is designed to help the user find tops and bottoms whether the market is ranging or trending (however the indicator will still be more effective during ranging markets).

These zones can be great areas to take profit or find early entries to use alongside the confirmation or contrarian signals.

INFO

During periods of increased volatility, the price may move outside the zones, you can wait for the price to go back within each zone to take a decision.

Trend Tracker

The trend tracer will plot a single line right on top of the price. The line will go red in a downtrend and green in an uptrend.

The trend tracer is a trend-following indicator that aims to estimate the underlying trend in the price. When the indicator indicates an uptrend, its color will be green, while red in the case of a downtrend.

INFO

The trend tracer can be used as a trailing support/resistance tool, you can also use it in confluence with the confirmation signals, either by waiting for the price to reach the trend tracer in order to enter a trade corresponding to the current confirmation signal or by filtering shorter-term signals by only trading those in accordance by the trend estimated by the trend tracer.

Trend Catcher

The trend catcher indicator is very similar to the trend tracer indicator. The only difference is that the trend catcher aims to detect trends earlier. So you may get in on trends earlier, but there will also be more false signals.

The Trend Catcher is a similar indicator to the previous Trend Tracer, however, it aims to detect very early trends, and is thus more reactive.

Like with the Trend Tracer, the color of the indicator determines the detected trend.

TIP

It can be interesting to use both the Trend Tracer and Trend Catcher in a crossover system, with the Trend Catcher acting as the leading moving average and the Trend Tracer acting as the lagging moving average.

Candle Coloring

Here we can choose between “Confirmation simple” and “Confirmation Gradient” and “None”.

From the documentation, we get the following:

Confirmation Simple

The confirmation simple color mode is based on the methodology used by confirmation signals and is the one enabled by default. This model uses three colors, each one can be interpreted as follows:

• Green candles: Strong buy active.
• Red candles: Strong sell active.
• Purple candles: Normal buy or sell signal active.

Confirmation Gradient

The confirmation gradient color mode is also based on the algorithm that generates confirmation signals, but will slightly differ from the previously described confirmation simple color mode.

Lighter green colors indicate strong bullish variations, while lighter red colors indicate strong bearish variations. Color closer to purple indicates that the current variation might be a retracement or that the market is ranging.

Candle Mode

Finally, we have the candle mode. Here you can choose from candlestick modes to ease your analysis. I personally prefer to go with normal candle sticks, but here you have the option to change the view to any of the following:

Kantan-Ashi

Taki-Ashi

Yumi-Ashi

I dont want to cover the details here, but if you are interested and need more info on this, there is a lot of information here on the lux algo documentation.  In addition to Lux Algo Premium, we also get access to Lux Oscillator Premium and Lux Statistics Premium.

Just like the Lux Algo Premium indicator, there are a bunch of settings for these indicators where you can change to various styles. You can read all the details over at the lux algo documentation.

My plan is to focus on the main indicator. If the readers are very interested in the details of Lux Oscillator premium and Lux Statistics Premium, drop a comment below, and I may cover them in an upcoming post. For now, if you want to know more about them, check out the lux algo documentation.

Lux Algo Review – My thoughts

As mentioned in the into, it is always difficult to give a fair review of an indicator, as they more often than not, can be adjusted in various ways. Hence one customer of an indicator may find settings which makes the indicator the perfect match to an existing strategy, while the next customer wont, making the indicator no better than any free tradingview indicator that also allows for manual configuration. But I will try to share my thoughts, in the most fair way I can.

Lux algo gives signals to buy and sell. Some signals are good, others are not. There is seemingly no easy way to run a backtest with Lux Algo, so it is very difficult to say if the signals are profitable. They may be, on BTCUSD in the month of December 2021. but not on EURUSD for the same period. They may be profitable on the 5-minute timeframe on DAX but not on FTSE. They may be profitable if you take profit at 20 points with a stop loss at 100 points, but not with a take profit of 11 points and stop loss at 100 points. They may be profitable with one setting applied, but loss generating with another setting. The short versions is, there are too many variables to give a clear yes or no answer.

Because of this, I think the best way to use Lux Algo, is to use it for what it is – an indicator. It should be used to give you an indication of where price may be headding – and not as a signal service. Hopefully you already have a strategy in the works. If this is the case, Lux Algo may be a solid addition.

I think the best way to to describe the signals are by saying that they will get you in on all the major trends and potentially very profitable trades, but they will also get you into choppy price action which potentially will cause many loss generating trades.

Lux algo as an indicator can potentially be a solid addition to a trading strategy. If you apply Lux Algo, or part of it, to your trade filtering process, you may be better off. Again, many variables are in play here, but I can imagine this be helpful for some traders out there. Maybe the newer ones in this space.

Would I use Lux Algo signals?

I would personally not use the signals as the only confirmation to base my trades on. I can see this could work in combination with some other methods, but at this point my personal trading strategy is not the best mix with Lux algo signals (due to confirmation methods). If I were to use the signals I would prefer to base them on signals on higher timeframes (preferably the daily), as this would give fewer false signals, and potentially get me in on major trends.

From a quick look at the chart of BTCUSD with signals on the daily timeframe, this could seemingly and quite easy be turned into a profitable trading strategy with a win ratio over 50% and a potential massive risk:rewards ratio. This is definitely something that is worth investigating, if you plan to give Lux Algo a go.

An idea like that above, is of course, based on very few trades and there is not guarantee that this will produce equally profitable trades going forward, but I think it provides a foundation. If you are new to trading, this can, without a doubt, be helpful. The next step is being able to control all the psychological aspects of trading, and keeping yourself accountable. If you are able to make a plan based on something like the idea above, and stick to it, I think that is a solid foundation for profitable trading.

S/R Mode

In the S/R mode, I do think the Predictive Ranges does seem promising. Once this is activated, the levels plotted onto the chart are quite often respected. Sometimes they are respected on the exact line, while other times price may “hover” around the levels (and sometimes price burst right through). Personally I think this is the most interesting setting in the S/R Mode, and definately something I could see my self having as part of my daily trading plan.

The breakout zones seems less reliable and not something I would based my trades on at this point. While some of the breakout zones seems to be spot on, others seems to be placed completely at random. At this point, I think we will be better off going with best practice support and resistance levels, rather than the breakout zones from Lux Algo.

The same is true for pattern detection. While it does highlight patterns, I would prefer my own pattern recognition compared to the pattern detection from Lux Algo (or simply go with tradingviews built in pattern recognition.) I dont think the pattern recognition from lux algo is very accurate. At this stage, I would not use this in my daily trading. It could however be used for inspiration / discovery – to see patterns you may have missed, and then draw your own lines in a more accurate manner. I think all of this is true for auto trendlines as well. I do not find them very accurate, but if you have little to no experience with trendlines, this can give you a clue what to look for – but I would not use the auto trendlines to base my trades on.

While I may sound somewhat sceptical about the above mentioned S/R modes, I do think these four (predictive ranges, breakout zones, pattern detection and auto trendlines) are the most useful of the six different options. The trend projection seems like a very random projection and not very accurate. The institurional profile (which is very similar to volume profile) is no where near as good as tradingviews built-in volume profile tool.

Indicator Overlay

The indicator overlay adds another layer to Lux Algo. My favorite here is the reversal zones, and while I would not use this as a stand-alone indicator to confirm trade entries, it does provide solid levels to look for counter trend trades, or possible take profit levels. The EQ cloud could be a useful indicator to keep you in your trade should be able to get in on a trend. The trend tracker and trend catcher is not something I find particular useful.

With a bit of testing, you will probably be able to plot free alternatives onto your tradingview chart that would give you very similar visuals. I played around with some moving averages for a couple of minutes and go something almost identical to the EQ cloud. I am pretty sure you can put some numbers in to bollinger bands settings and get something fairly similar to the reversal zones.

Candle Coloring / Mode

These settings are more about appearance of your chart and not something that will have any radical impact on your ability to execute profitable trades, in my opinion. These are neat features but nothing I will go into details about. I personally prefer to keep my normal candles and the same colour as I always use.

Usability

Signing up, getting access to discord and getting the indicator onto your charts – its all very easy and very well explained. There is a lot of documentation and support to get you going. There are a lot of settings to play around with, but also options to semi-automate certain aspects. I would say that the documentation does a good job to get you going. But turning the whole thing into a profitable trading strategy, that is up to you. Again, you can find help and inspiration on discord, but just be aware that Lux Algo does not come with a blueprint to make you a profitable trader. That part is still very much up to you. Lux algo will work like road signs – it will guide you.

Documentation and support

As you may have noticed now, the lux algo documentation is extensive and detailed. In addition to all the specifics about the indicator, you will also find a section about standard technical analysis, and best practices in trading. If this isn't enough, you can find more information on their youtube channel. If you still have unanswered questions the discord server is the go-to place for additional information. Compared to other indicators I have tested, the documentation and support from the team behind Lux Algo, really do stand out. Any questions posted on the discord server is often answered within minutes.

Price and what you get

Personally I think the price is fair, compared to what you get. I have definitely seen higher priced indicators with less value. Its not exactly cheap but its not outrages either. You get an indicator which may very well provide value, specially for newer traders, countinuous updates, and lots of support if needed. As a matter of fact, I think we may get “too much” – there are many indicators in this package, and a lot of settings. Combine this and the road to “best settings” is long. I would prefer to pay for less indicators and more work from the team to find optimal settings. But this is naturally difficult as its an indicator and not a signal service. What may work for me may be bad for the next trader.

Conclusion

Lux algo is a popular indicator – both for crypto traders, but also in the FX space. Access to Lux Algo gives you access to a bunch of different indicators, and many different settings. I think some traders (specially new traders) will find value in different parts of the Lux Algo package. Its not a blueprint to profitable trading, but its a solid indicator with some promising signals that potentially can function as a foundation to a profitable trading strategy. The price is fair , compared to what you get. It is relative easy to use, and if you need help, there is all the help you need, from documentation and a very active discord server.

If you have any questions not covered in this review, post them below, and I will make to update the Q&A listed just below.

My Q&A on Lux ALgo

Is it a scam?

No. Lux Algo is not a scam. It is not an indicator that will give you 100% profitable signals and turn you into a profitable trader overnight, but it is most definitely not a scam. There is an actual service offered here and potentially a lot of value for the right individual. The team behind Lux Algo quite clearly put a lot of effort into giving clients a good experience, specially with all the support.

Are the signals profitable?

I think you will find the answer to this if you read the entire review above. There is no clear yes or no answer to this. I depends on a lot of variables.

Will Lux Algo make you a profitable trader?

No. But it may help you get there. There is much more to being a profitable trader, than following buy and sell signals from an indicator. You will still need to put a lot of work in. If you are ready to do this, Lux algo may ease the road to victory.

Will Lux Algo make you a better trader?

It definately has the possibility to make you a better trader, specially by keeping you out of bad trades. On the flip side, it also allows for the possibility to get you into bad trades. If you play around with the settings, and do some proper testing before jumping in, Lux Algo can potentially give you a more clear view of the market.

Is it worth the money?

It depends. I think the price is fair relative to what you get. If you are a new trader looking for a helping hand and you are willing to put some work into it, I think this may be worth the price.

Is there a free Lux Algo Alternative?

There are free alternatives to part of the Lux Algo premium indicator package. Specially the indicator overlay should be possible to replicate with free alternatives. I am however not aware of any free alternative that will give the same signals as the main indicator – Lux Algo Premium.