Indicator Development · November 10, 2026 · 9 min read

Quarterly Theory Indicator: Building Quarterly Cycles

How I built Vaderdan Quarterly Cycles: Quarterly Theory on TradingView, from the 22.5-minute cycle to the 4-year, with True Opens and quarter highs and lows.

A CRT setup has three parts: the range, the sweep and the timing. The CRT Radar handles the first two. The Draw Engine and the DOL Map tell me where price is drawn. But for a long time the timing lived only in my head, and that's the part new traders get wrong most often. They find a beautiful sweep in the wrong part of the cycle and wonder why it never delivers.

Vaderdan Quarterly Cycles 2.0 is Quarterly Theory drawn on the chart. It splits time into cycles, from the 22.5-minute micro cycle up to the 4-year cycle, cuts each cycle into four quarters, and marks the quarter lines, the quarter highs and lows, and the True Opens that set a premium or discount bias. This post covers why I built it, how each piece works, and how I use it next to the rest of the suite.

Why time needed its own tool

If you've read my time theory guide, you know the core idea: the same four-part rhythm repeats on every timeframe. The first quarter builds a range, the second fakes a move, the third delivers the real move, and the fourth either continues or reverses.

• Q1: accumulation
• Q2: manipulation
• Q3: distribution
• Q4: continuation or reversal

That's the Power of Three with a fourth step. It's also Candle Range Theory: Candle 1 builds the range, Candle 2 sweeps it, Candle 3 delivers. Quarterly Theory just says the same story is being told in time, not only in price.

The problem is counting. Which quarter of the day, which quarter of the week, which week of the month, and do they line up? Doing that by hand on every chart is where mistakes creep in: you forget the trading day starts at 18:00 New York, or you mark the wrong open.

So I built a tool whose only job is to answer one question: where am I in time right now? It doesn't tell you to buy or sell. It's a timing tool, and I'll keep saying that, because it matters.

The cycles: four inside four inside four

Quarterly Theory works because each cycle is four of the cycle below it. The indicator covers cycles from the 22.5-minute micro cycle up to the 4-year cycle, and every one of them is split into four quarters.

On the daily cycle, the four quarters are the sessions you already know, all in New York time, with the trading day starting at 18:00:

Each of those six-hour quarters is itself a cycle with four 90-minute quarters, and each 90-minute block has four 22.5-minute quarters. Go up instead of down and the week is split into Monday to Thursday, the month into Week 1 to Week 4, and the year into its four calendar quarters.

Here's something I want CRT traders to notice: a six-hour quarter is an H6 candle. When the updated Radar Model 2 reads an H6 CRT, then a 30-minute turtle soup, then an M15 entry, it's reading one quarter of the daily cycle as the range. Quarterly Cycles shows you which quarter that H6 candle is, and which one comes next. If you want to see Model 2 on a real chart, the 1:188 MNQ breakdown walks through one trade. It's one example, not a typical result.

The exact killzone windows inside those sessions are in the CRT timings and killzones guide.

Cycle lanes and quarter lines

The first design decision was where to put all this. Drawing every cycle on price would bury the candles. So the indicator uses two layers.

A lower pane with colour-coded lanes. It shows the quarters of up to three cycles at once, such as Asia, London, NY AM and NY PM on the daily, Monday to Thursday on the week, and Week 1 to Week 4 on the month. You don't pick them. The indicator picks the three cycles that fit the timeframe you're on, so an M5 chart and an H4 chart each get lanes that make sense for that chart.

Quarter lines on price. The Q1 to Q4 lines mark where each quarter starts, so you can see a sweep and immediately know whether it happened in a Q2 manipulation window or late in a Q4.

Your price chart is for price; the pane is for time. Glance down, know where you are, look back up.

One honest limit

On higher chart timeframes some lanes can't be drawn, because a cycle that's shorter than one candle has nothing to show. Holidays and shortened sessions can also produce a short or missing quarter. When the calendar is odd, trust the calendar, not the drawing.

Quarter highs and lows as liquidity

Time on its own isn't tradable. Time combined with liquidity is where it gets interesting.

Every quarter leaves a high and a low behind. The indicator marks the current and previous quarter highs and lows, and I treat them exactly as I treat any other range in CRT: as liquidity targets.

Think about what that means. If Q1 of the day (Asia) builds a range, the Asia high and low are resting liquidity. Q2 (London) is the manipulation quarter, so a sweep of one side of the Asia range during London is the textbook Candle 2. The previous quarter's high and low are your Candle 1 range, drawn for you, on the timeframe that matches the cycle.

That's the reason the indicator draws the previous quarter and not only the current one. The previous quarter is the range. The current quarter is where you watch for the sweep and the turtle soup. If turtle soup is new to you, the turtle soup guide covers the failed breakout and how to confirm it.

Sequence chains: when cycles agree

This is where the nesting pays off. Because the cycles are nested, several of them can sit in the same quarter at the same time. Q2 of the 90-minute cycle can fall inside Q2 of the session, inside Q2 of the day.

When three or more nested cycles are in the same quarter, the indicator shades that window. I call these sequence chains. The logic is simple: if the 90-minute, the six-hour and the daily cycle are all in their manipulation quarter together, a sweep in that window lines up with the rhythm on three levels instead of one.

A shaded window is a place to pay attention, not a trade. It doesn't make a bad setup good. What it does is stop me from forcing trades in a quarter where nothing is supposed to happen.

True Opens: premium or discount

Every cycle has an open, but in Quarterly Theory the open that matters most is the True Open: the open of the second quarter, where the manipulation phase begins. The indicator marks it for each cycle:

• Daily: 00:00 New York (the start of London, Q2 of the day)
• Weekly: Tuesday's open (Q2 of the week)
• Monthly: the open of week 2
• Yearly: the April open

The rule is the same one you'd apply to any dealing range. Price below the True Open is in discount, so look for longs. Price above it is in premium, so look for shorts.

Why the Q2 open? Q1 is accumulation, and its open sits in the noise. The Q2 open is where the false move starts, so a manipulation below it that turns means you're buying from a discount. It's the same premium and discount thinking I explain in the key levels guide, anchored in time instead of in a swing.

How I read it

A bullish CRT sweep below the daily True Open, during the London or NY AM quarter, toward a draw above: that's time, price and liquidity telling the same story. A bullish setup way above the True Open, in Q4, running into a draw below: the story doesn't hold together.

The 3-6-9 times

The last feature needs a plain explanation. The indicator can mark bars whose New York time reduces to 3, 6 or 9. You add the digits of the time until you get one digit. 09:30 is 9 + 3 + 0 = 12, and 1 + 2 = 3. 15:00 is 1 + 5 + 0 + 0 = 6.

Some traders watch these times closely, and having them marked saves you doing the arithmetic on every bar. I don't trade a candle because of its timestamp. A 3-6-9 bar at a quarter high or low, with a sweep that closes back inside, is worth a look. In the middle of a range, it's just a candle.

Where it fits with the CRT Radar

This is how the pieces work together on my chart:

1. The DOL Map gives me the draw for the day and the week, and the level that cancels the idea.
2. Quarterly Cycles tells me where I am in time: which quarter, whether nested cycles agree, and whether price is in premium or discount against the True Open.
3. The CRT Radar tells me whether there's an actual setup: the range, the sweep, the turtle soup and the entry.

If all three point the same way, I'm interested. If the Radar shows a setup but it's in a Q4 window running against the draw, I'm usually out. Timing doesn't create setups. It filters them.

What it is not

Quarterly Cycles is a timing tool, not a buy or sell signal. It won't tell you direction on its own, and a shaded window, a True Open or a 3-6-9 bar doesn't mean price will move. Use it to know where you are, and let price action confirm the rest. Most of the time, the most useful thing it does is tell me to wait.

Get Quarterly Cycles

Quarterly Cycles 2.0 is one of the five companion indicators in the CRT Suite, alongside the Draw Engine, DOL Map, Highs and Lows and the Engulfing Bar Close. You can watch the demo and read the full feature list on the CRT Radar page. The rules it supports (ranges, sweeps, turtle soup and targets) are written out in the CRT Handbook, and if you're brand new, start with what Candle Range Theory is.

Rule the candle, rule the trade. And know what time it is before you do.

FAQ

What is a Quarterly Theory indicator?

It's a tool that splits time into cycles and each cycle into four quarters (accumulation, manipulation, distribution, continuation or reversal) and draws them on your chart. Vaderdan Quarterly Cycles covers cycles from the 22.5-minute micro cycle up to the 4-year cycle.

What is the True Open in Quarterly Theory?

The open of the second quarter of a cycle. For the day it's 00:00 New York, for the week Tuesday's open, for the month the open of week 2, and for the year the April open. Below it is discount, above it is premium.

Why does the trading day start at 18:00 New York?

That's when the new futures trading day opens. Starting the day there makes Asia the first quarter, London the second, New York AM the third and New York PM the fourth.

Does Quarterly Cycles give buy or sell signals?

No. It's a timing tool. It shows where you are in the cycle and where the quarter highs and lows sit. The setup and the entry come from your model, such as the CRT Radar.

Education only, not financial advice. Trading involves substantial risk of loss.