Indicator Development · · 6 min read
Building the Draw Engine: A Draw on Liquidity Indicator
How the Vaderdan Draw Engine maps the order block price is drawn to from M15 to Monthly, plus the inducement, breakers and hidden OBs.
The CRT Radar answers one question: is there a valid Candle Range Theory setup right now, and where is the entry? It doesn't answer the question that comes straight after it: where is price actually going? That's the job of the Draw Engine. It marks the order-block candle price is being drawn to on every timeframe from M15 to Monthly, plus the inducement sitting in front of it.
The radar tracks the setup. The Draw Engine maps the draw. This post covers how it's put together and why each piece is there.
The problem: a setup without a destination
When I built the CRT Radar, the goal was to make the chart enforce my own rules — the range candle, the sweep, the turtle soup, the entry. But a clean entry only tells you where you're wrong. It doesn't tell you where you're right.
In CRT the higher-timeframe range gives you the obvious targets: the 50% of the range candle and its far side. Those still matter. But between your entry and that far side there is structure — order blocks price is likely to reach for, and smaller pools of liquidity it often takes first. If you can't see those, you either take profit too early or hold through a reaction you should have respected.
So the Draw Engine had one brief: put the destination on the chart, on every timeframe that matters, without turning the chart into a mess.
Rule one: the draw lives on every timeframe
The Draw Engine marks order-block candles on M15, M30, H1, H4, Daily, Weekly and Monthly. It uses ICT/SMC structure together with Candle Range Theory to decide which block is the current draw on each one.
Showing all seven at once would be noise, so you choose how much you see:
- the next higher timeframe only,
- the chart's timeframe plus the next one, or
- any timeframes you pick yourself.
Each block also tells you its state at a glance: ▲ or ▼ for direction, and whether price is "in it" right now or has already "reacted" to it. That one label saves a lot of squinting. A block price is sitting inside is a different conversation from one it already bounced off.
Rule two: show the inducement in front of the draw
Price rarely runs straight to the order block. More often it takes a smaller, untaken level first — the inducement (IDM) — and then continues. The Draw Engine draws that untaken inducement in front of each block, because that's often the first thing price takes.
One honest note here: inducement levels depend on the chart timeframe you're viewing. Change the chart timeframe and the inducement can change with it. That's by design — inducement is a structure concept, and structure looks different on M15 than on H4.
The update: OB + FVG, breakers and hidden order blocks
When I wrote up the Radar build, I said my current focus was the Draw Engine — adding breaker blocks, hidden order blocks and OB + FVG blocks. Those are now in version 2.0. Here's how each one is treated:
OB + FVG blocks (gold). An order block that formed with a fair value gap, from a break of structure, is drawn in gold. That combination — a block that displaced hard enough to leave a gap and break structure — is the one I want to stand out from the ordinary blocks, so it gets its own colour.
Breakers. When price closes through an order block, the block doesn't just disappear. It flips into a breaker and stays coloured while it's being retested. A block that failed is still information: the retest of a breaker is often where the next move starts.
Hidden order blocks (HOB / PHOB). These follow the same rules as the CRT Radar. That was deliberate. If the Radar calls something a hidden order block when it checks whether C2's purge engaged a key level, the Draw Engine has to call the same thing a hidden order block. Two tools disagreeing about the definition of a level is worse than having one tool.
Why one definition matters
The whole suite reads the chart through the same CRT lens. If the Radar and the Draw Engine used different rules for the same level, you'd be the one stuck deciding which tool to believe — in the middle of a trade.
Mini H6 and H7 candles beside price
The CRT Radar's main models are built on the H6 and H7 candles — Model 2 runs H6 CRT → M30 turtle soup → M15 entry, and Model 1 uses the H7. When I'm watching a lower timeframe chart, I don't want to flip back and forth just to see what those candles are doing.
So the Draw Engine draws the last three H6 and H7 candles as mini candles beside price. They show the sweeps, CRT ▲/▼ markers, and the bias from the last close. You get the higher-timeframe CRT picture without leaving your entry chart.
The cycle box: where are we in the week and month?
The last piece is a small cycle box that shows where you are in the week and the month, using the AMDX / XAMD framework — accumulation, manipulation, distribution and the continuation or reversal leg. A draw that's mapped during the manipulation phase reads differently from the same draw mapped late in distribution.
If you want the timing side in much more depth, that's the job of Quarterly Cycles, and the theory behind it lives in the Time Theory hub.
Alerts for the things that change
A map is only useful if you notice when it changes. The Draw Engine alerts on:
- a breaker formed or retested,
- a hidden order block formed or tapped,
- an OB + FVG formed, or price back in it.
Those are the events I'd otherwise have to be staring at the screen to catch.
Draw Engine vs DOL Map
People ask why there are two "draw" tools in the suite. They answer different questions:
- The DOL Map builds a daily and weekly plan from last week's and yesterday's candles: the draw on liquidity (PDH/PDL, PWH/PWL), the likely path to it through external and internal range liquidity, and the level that cancels the idea.
- The Draw Engine works at the level of individual blocks: which order block price is drawn to on each timeframe, what inducement sits in front of it, and whether that block is fresh, being tested, or has flipped into a breaker.
One is the plan for the day and week. The other is the street map on the way there.
What it is not
Live-candle drawings can change before the candle closes — a block can be redrawn while the candle that formed it is still open. And a mapped draw is context to assess, not a promise that price will reach it. Plenty of times price reacts at the inducement and never gets to the block at all. The Draw Engine doesn't take trades and it doesn't predict direction; you still decide whether, when and how to act.
That's the same honesty I try to keep in every trade breakdown. The 1:188 MNQ trade worked because the range, the sweep and the target lined up — most trades are smaller, and some lose. Mapping the draw just means you can see the target before you need it.
Using it with the Radar
The way I pair them: the CRT Radar gives me the range, the sweep and the entry. The Draw Engine tells me where that trade is likely heading and what's in the way. If the Radar's setup points into a mapped draw with the inducement still untaken in that direction, that's context worth having. If the setup points into a block price already reacted to, I want to know that before I click.
The Draw Engine is one of the five companion indicators in the CRT Suite, alongside the DOL Map, Quarterly Cycles, Highs and Lows and the Engulfing Bar Close. You can see the demo and the full feature list on the CRT Radar page. If you want the rules underneath it all — ranges, purges, turtle soup and targets — they're written out in the CRT Handbook, and if you're starting from zero, begin with what Candle Range Theory is.
Rule the candle, rule the trade. Know the draw, and you'll know when to get out of the way.