Super Alligator

Super Alligator 🐊 — A Bill Williams Tribute
Built on the shoulders of a legend.

The Origin

Bill Williams introduced the Alligator indicator in his 1995 book Trading Chaos as a way to identify trending markets and filter out the noise of consolidation. Three smoothed moving averages — offset forward in time — behave like the jaw, teeth, and lips of an alligator.

When the lines are intertwined, the alligator sleeps. The market is ranging, there is no edge, and most traders are losing money fighting the noise. When the lines fan apart, the alligator is awake and feeding — a trend is in motion and momentum is real. Williams argued that up to 70% of price action is consolidation. The Alligator's job is to keep you out of it.

In memory of Bill Williams (1932–2019) — trader, psychologist, and one of the most original thinkers in technical analysis.

What Super Alligator Adds

The classic Alligator tells you when a trend exists. Super Alligator adds two layers on top:

1. Gap-based momentum confirmation

The distance between the closing candle and the green (Lips) line acts as a confirmation gate. The alligator opening its mouth is the setup. Price pulling away from the green line is the confirmation. You control exactly how much distance is required — meaning you control the sensitivity.

2. Intraday trend filters

VWAP and a configurable SMA act as directional filters. Signals only fire when price is on the correct side of these levels, reducing counter-trend noise significantly.

Signal Logic

A BUY signal fires when all of the following are true:

Lips (green) is above Jaw (blue) — bullish fan
Close is above the green line by at least your gap threshold
Close is above VWAP (if enabled)
Close is above SMA (if enabled)

A SELL signal fires when the inverse is true:

Jaw (blue) is above Lips (green) — bearish fan
Close is below the green line by at least your gap threshold
Close is below VWAP (if enabled)
Close is below SMA (if enabled)

Signals fire once — on the first bar all conditions align. They do not repaint.

The Gap Setting — Your Sensitivity Control

The Min Gap (%) is the most important input. It scales automatically to whatever instrument you're trading.

Futures:

NQ (~25,000) — 0.10% = ~25 pts / 0.20% = ~50 pts / 0.30% = ~75 pts
ES (~5,500) — 0.10% = ~5.5 pts / 0.20% = ~11 pts / 0.30% = ~16.5 pts

Crypto:

Bitcoin (~85,000) — 0.10% = ~$85 / 0.20% = ~$170 / 0.30% = ~$255

Forex:

EUR/USD (~1.08) — 0.10% = ~10 pips / 0.20% = ~21 pips

Equities/ETFs:

SPY (~550) — 0.10% = ~$0.55 / 0.20% = ~$1.10

Start at 0.10% and adjust. Too many signals → increase. No signals → decrease.

NOTE: The above are just examples. Not limited to just those examples.

Filter Guide

VWAP Filter

Recommended ON for all intraday timeframes (1m through 1H). VWAP resets daily and represents the market's intraday fair value. Turn OFF on daily/weekly charts.

SMA Filter

OFF by default. Most useful on higher timeframes (4H, Daily) as a macro trend filter. On lower intraday timeframes a long-period SMA sits too far from price to be a useful signal filter — particularly for sells in instruments in long-term uptrends. If using intraday, reduce to 50–100.

Recommended Starting Settings

1m – 5m charts: VWAP on / SMA off / Gap 0.05–0.10%
15m – 1H charts: VWAP on / SMA optional (50–100) / Gap 0.10–0.20%
4H – Daily charts: VWAP off / SMA on (200) / Gap 0.15–0.30%

Notes

1. This is a signal tool, not a trading system. Use it alongside your own levels, risk management, and market context.
2. Signals do not repaint — they fire once and do not move.
3. Built-in alerts for both BUY and SELL. Set them up via TradingView's alert system after adding to your chart.
4. Works on all instruments and timeframes.