Lunar Cycle Overview
The Lunar Cycle Indicator for cTrader is designed to bring astronomical rhythm into technical analysis. Marking lunar events directly on the chart allows cycle traders and experimental strategists to explore whether the moon’s phases have an observable impact on financial market behaviour. Rather than cluttering your screen with sub-windows, it places clear visual cues right where the action happens: on the price chart itself.
Background & History
Cycles tied to lunar phases have long fascinated traders. Ancient agricultural markets revolved around moon cycles, and some modern quantitative analysts explore lunar-based seasonality in stock indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. While traditional technical analysis relies on price and volume, cycle-based traders have experimented with overlays such as moon phases to identify rhythm in otherwise noisy data. This indicator continues that tradition by providing a modern and straightforward tool for cycle exploration.
How the Indicator Works
The indicator calculates the fraction of the lunar cycle at each bar time using a known astronomical epoch (January 6, 2000). It marks the four major phases with user-selected emojis and optional vertical lines.
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🌑 New Moon → Start of the cycle.
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🌓 First Quarter → Mid-rising phase.
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🌕 Full Moon → Peak of the cycle.
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🌗 Last Quarter → Mid-declining phase.
These markers are plotted above bars with customizable offset, size, and colour.
Key Features
This is a lightweight overlay tool with no panels or plots, keeping charts clean. Traders can fully customise emojis, colours, and sizes to suit their preferences.
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Emoji markers for each moon phase.
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Adjustable font size and placement.
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Optional vertical phase lines.
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Configurable colours for text and lines.
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Event window tolerance for phase matching.
How to Use it for Trading (at a glance)
Cycle traders often overlay lunar phases with price action to explore correlations, such as increased volatility around full moons or trend reversals near quarter phases. This indicator doesn’t provide trading signals by itself, but can serve as a timing overlay. For example, some traders may only take trades when technical setups align with a lunar phase marker, treating the moon cycle as a secondary filter.
Inputs & Parameters
The following parameters can be adjusted in the indicator settings of cTrader.
| Parameter |
Default / Type |
Description |
| Inputs |
| Event Window (%) |
1.5 (double) |
Tolerance window around lunar phase events as a percentage of the cycle. |
| Above Bar Offset (%) |
0.3 (double) |
Vertical offset above the bar is high for emoji placement. |
| Show New Moon |
true (bool) |
Enable or disable display of new moon markers. |
| Show 1st Quarter |
true (bool) |
Enable or disable display of first-quarter markers. |
| Show Full Moon |
true (bool) |
Enable or disable display of full moon markers. |
| Show Last Quarter |
true (bool) |
Enable or disable display of last quarter markers. |
| Emoji: New |
🌑 (string) |
Symbol used for the new moon. |
| Emoji: 1st |
🌓 (string) |
Symbol used for the first quarter. |
| Emoji: Full |
🌕 (string) |
Symbol used for the full moon. |
| Emoji: Last |
🌗 (string) |
Symbol used for the last quarter. |
| Moon Size |
14 (int) |
Font size of the emoji markers. |
| Moon Color |
Gold (string) |
Colour of the emoji text. |
| Draw Vertical Line |
false (bool) |
Option to draw a vertical line at lunar events. |
| Line Color |
DimGray (string) |
Colour of the vertical line. |
| Line Thickness |
1 (int) |
Thickness of the vertical line. |
Formulas
The lunar cycle phase is calculated using the difference in days from a fixed astronomical epoch, divided by the average synodic month length.
Phase Fraction:
φ = ((t - Epoch) / SynodicDays) mod 1
Where:
- t = Current bar time (UTC)
- Epoch = 6 January 2000 18:14 UTC
- SynodicDays = 29.530588853 (average length of lunar cycle)
- φ = Phase fraction (0 = New Moon, 0.25 = First Quarter, 0.5 = Full Moon, 0.75 = Last Quarter)
Advantages
The indicator provides a simple way to visualize lunar phases directly on trading charts without extra panels. It’s lightweight, customizable, and useful for traders exploring non-traditional cycle analysis or those adding timing overlays to conventional setups.
Disadvantages
While visually appealing, lunar cycle overlays are not a proven trading edge by themselves. They work best as experimental or secondary filters, not as stand-alone strategies. Traders should combine them with conventional technical or quantitative methods.
How To Install & Remove
First, ensure that you have the cTrader trading platform installed. Then, unzip the file and double-click it to install the platform automatically.
Help Using This Indicator
If you need help using this indicator, try asking cTrader Sensei, our free AI assistant dedicated to the cTrader platform, rated 4.9 out of 5 in the ChatGPT Store. It can guide you through setup, usage, and troubleshooting with clear, step-by-step support.
If you still need assistance, feel free to post your question on our product support forum, where our team and community can help.
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