Bill Williams TrendCrossoverRegime Disponível no Builder
Alligator
The Alligator is three smoothed moving averages of median price, each shifted forward by a different amount, drawn as a jaw, teeth and lips. Its whole purpose is to make the difference between a trending market and a sleeping one visible at a glance.
- Periods
- 13 / 8 / 5
- Shifts
- 8 / 5 / 3
- Method
- Smoothed (SMMA)
Ilustrativo — dados sintéticos, não uma cotação em tempo real.
What the Alligator tells you
Three averages of different speeds, each pushed forward by a different amount, spend most of their time tangled together. That tangle is the point: Bill Williams' framing is that the market sleeps most of the time, and the only tradeable state is when the three lines separate and fan out in order.
- Lines entwined: the market is sleeping — stand aside
- Lines fanned out in order: a trend is running
- Lips crossing back through teeth: the move is losing its grip
- 1 Smooth median price over 13, 8 and 5 bars
- 2 Shift each result forward by 8, 5 and 3
- 3 Read whether the three lines are apart or entwined
Mostrar a fórmula e detalhes de cálculo
The Alligator is three smoothed moving averages of median price, each displaced forward by a different number of bars:
- Jaw (buffer 0) — a 13-period smoothed moving average of median price,
(High + Low) / 2, shifted 8 bars forward. - Teeth (buffer 1) — an 8-period smoothed average of the same series, shifted 5 bars forward.
- Lips (buffer 2) — a 5-period smoothed average, shifted 3 bars forward.
The smoothed moving average (SMMA) is the slowest of MT5’s four methods — each new bar nudges a running value rather than dropping an old one out of a window — which is what keeps the three lines calm enough to entwine convincingly during a range. The staggered forward shifts are what turn three ordinary averages into a fan: without them the lines would simply track each other with different lags, and the visual distinction between sleeping and awake would be much weaker.
In MQL5 the call is iAlligator(symbol, period, jaw_period, jaw_shift, teeth_period, teeth_shift, lips_period, lips_shift, ma_method, applied_price) and it returns a handle to three buffers. Both ma_method and applied_price are real arguments; the SMMA-on-median configuration is the conventional default, not a fixed property. Bill Williams introduced the Alligator in the 1990s alongside Fractals and the Awesome Oscillator.
Sinais
Os sinais distintos e testáveis que Alligator oferece — e o regime adequado para cada um.
Price vs Lips
Pronto no BuilderAwakening
Lógica avançadaSleeping
Lógica avançadaImplementação no MT5
O que o MetaTrader 5 realmente calcula e desenha — a referência para cada regra desta página.
Buffers
| Índice | Buffer | Desenhado no MT5 como | O que contém |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | GATORJAW_LINE | Line (blue) | Jaw — a 13-period smoothed average of median price, shifted 8 bars forward. The slowest line. |
| 1 | GATORTEETH_LINE | Line (red) | Teeth — 8-period smoothed average, shifted 5 bars forward. |
| 2 | GATORLIPS_LINE | Line (green) | Lips — 5-period smoothed average, shifted 3 bars forward. The fastest line. |
Notas da plataforma
Funciona melhor / use com cuidado
Nenhum indicador tem vantagem universal. Veja onde Alligator ajuda — e onde ele engana.
Funciona melhor
- Trending markets
- Deciding when NOT to trade
- Higher timeframes
- As a regime overlay on price
Use com cuidado
- Tight, directionless ranges
- Crossovers while the lines are entwined
- Low timeframes
- Changing the classic periods without validation
Criar uma estratégia Alligator
Conecte o sinal às regras de entrada e saída, depois exporte um EA MT5 compilável — sem código.
- Lips (5, shift 3)
- Teeth (8, shift 5)
- Lips crosses above teeth → Open Buy · SL 50 / TP 100
- Lips crosses below teeth → Open Sell
Combinar Alligator com outros indicadores
Um indicador raramente funciona sozinho. Essas combinações cobrem os pontos cegos do Alligator.
Alligator + Awesome Oscillator
- Lips crosses teeth
- AO crosses zero
- Buy
No single-flow template pairs the Alligator with the Awesome Oscillator. Start from Alligator Cross and add an AO node with a Constant zero into a Cross node.
Abrir o Builder →Alligator + ADX
- ADX > 25
- Lips crosses teeth
- Buy
No single-flow template pairs the Alligator with ADX. Start from Alligator Cross and add an ADX node with a Compare at 25 into an And gate.
Abrir o Builder →Alligator + Fractals
- Lines fanned up
- Price breaks the last fractal high
- Buy
No single-flow template pairs the Alligator with Fractals. Start from Alligator Cross and add Fractals nodes with a Price node into a Cross.
Abrir o Builder →Alligator + Gator Oscillator
- Both Gator halves growing
- Lips above Jaw
- Buy
Parâmetros
Valores iniciais para validar no seu próprio par e timeframe — não são configurações garantidas.
| Parâmetro | Padrão | Faixa de teste sugerida | O que faz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jaw period / shift | 13 / 8 | 8–21 / 5–13 | The slowest line and its forward displacement. Widening it makes the fan slower to open and slower to close. |
| Teeth period / shift | 8 / 5 | 5–13 / 3–8 | The middle line. Most crossover rules use this as one side of the comparison. |
| Lips period / shift | 5 / 3 | 3–8 / 2–5 | The fastest line. Shortening it produces more crossovers, most of them inside the tangle. |
| Applied price | Median | Median / Close / Open / High / Low / Typical / Weighted | Price series the three averages run on. Median — (high + low) / 2 — is Bill Williams' original choice and MT5's convention here, not Close. |
Predefinições iniciais
Classic 13 / 8 / 5 Bill Williams' original
Faster 8 / 5 / 3 Opens sooner, more false starts
Slower 21 / 13 / 8 Swing-level regime only
Exemplos de mercado
Onde Alligator funciona, onde falha e como um filtro muda o resultado.
The fan opens
After a flat stretch the three lines separate in period order and price runs — the awakening the indicator is built to make visible.
Crossover inside the tangle
Lips and teeth cross back and forth while all three lines sit on top of each other. Each cross is a trade in a market the indicator itself is calling asleep.
Regime filter suppresses the noise
Add a trend-strength condition and the entwined-period crossovers are all skipped, leaving the ones where the fan is genuinely opening.
Indicadores relacionados
FAQ
- What does it mean when the Alligator is sleeping?
- That the three lines are entwined and flat — the fast, medium and slow averages all agree, which happens when price has no direction. Bill Williams' framing is that this is the market's normal state and that trend rules should simply not fire in it. Expressing 'entwined' precisely enough for an EA is the hard part, which is why a measured filter such as ADX is often used as a stand-in.
- Why is the Alligator built on median price?
- Because Bill Williams designed it to track the midpoint of the bar rather than its settlement, which makes the lines slightly steadier on instruments with long wicks. iAlligator takes a full ENUM_APPLIED_PRICE argument, so Close and the rest are available — Median is simply the conventional default in MT5.
- Do the forward shifts matter for an EA?
- Yes. Each line is displaced forward by its own amount inside the indicator, so buffer values do not line up with the current bar the way a plain moving average does. Comparing price directly to a shifted line compares two different points in time. Read the buffer at the offset that corresponds to the bar you mean.
- Alligator or moving averages — is there a difference?
- Structurally the Alligator is three smoothed averages, so yes, it is a moving-average system. What it adds is the specific configuration — median price, SMMA, and three different forward shifts — plus a framing that treats the entwined state as an instruction to stand aside rather than a state to trade through.
- Can I build an Alligator EA without coding?
- Yes for crossovers and price-versus-line rules. The Alligator Cross template wires lips and teeth into a Cross node with all periods, shifts, method and applied price as EA inputs. Detecting the fanned-out or entwined state is the exception — that is a three-way ordering test the node palette does not express.
- How should I validate settings before going live?
- Backtest on quality tick data first, then run the EA on a demo account before risking money. When optimising, hold back data the search never saw and prefer settings that stay profitable across periods over the single in-sample peak — chasing that peak is overfitting the noise. No default or preset here is a performance promise; every value is a starting point to re-validate on your own pair and broker.
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