Automatic direction detection
An overview of how direction is formed in Lazy Trader when menu-level direction logic and arming conditions work together.
Section video
Automatic direction in Lazy Trader is usually not a single switch. It emerges from the interaction between Direction and Start After. Direction determines the bias or allowed side. Start After decides whether the plan is even armed to let the models work.
This means that a plan can be “bullish but not ready”, “ready but still waiting for a visit”, or “fully armed and model-ready” depending on how the two menus are combined. That layered logic is one of the reasons Lazy Trader feels closer to a workflow engine than to a single-purpose robot.
In practice, the pattern usually looks like this: Direction provides the broad bias through boxes, swing logic, or MAs, while Start After adds context through direction alignment, premium / discount, imbalance / Fair Value Gap (FVG), or a visit into a point of interest (POI). Even a static long-only or short-only plan can be improved by that waiting layer.
A robust automatic-direction chain usually separates three jobs:
- Bias selection: which side of the market is currently allowed.
- Activation gating: what must happen before entries are even allowed to start.
- Entry execution: which model is finally allowed to open a trade.
Why separate bias from activation
A plan can know the preferred side and still wait for a precise trigger. That reduces impulsive entries while keeping the scenario contextual.
This separation also makes debugging easier in the tester: you can see whether poor results came from the bias logic, the arming logic, or the final entry model.
Other Lazy Trader sections
Config Mode and Lazy Trader 3 optimization
Config Mode turns dozens of Lazy Trader settings into controlled presets that can be iterated in Strategy Tester and then saved back into working plan cfg files.
Balanced Price Range (BPR)
BPR is the imbalance-compression model: it works with the overlap between opposite inefficiencies and lets you choose how deep into that balance zone entry should happen.
Moving Averages model
The MA model does more than “touch the fast average”: it also validates the nearest eligible fractal to the left before opening.
Classic Structure Reversal
Classic Reversal becomes relevant only when structure itself turns; it is not just a pullback model with a different stop.
Classic Structure via primary liquidity sweep
This variation opens on the first important structural violation and reads it as a sweep rather than as a full structural reversal.
Classic Structure Trend
Classic Trend participates on a pullback inside the active structure without requiring the structure direction itself to flip.
Classic Structure family
Classic Structure is the shared logic layer for three related pages: trend continuation, primary liquidity sweep, and reversal structure.
Larry-Williams model
Larry-Williams works with range extremes and supports both direct breakout continuation and return-entry logic after a raid back into the range.
Box-Fractal model
Box-Fractal uses a confirmed fractal range as the structural base for entry and stop placement rather than entering at the first raw extremum.
Base config
Base config is the shared risk and management layer that sits under each model and keeps model-specific logic from drifting into risk chaos.
Position Manager
Position Manager gives each open trade its own chart-level button and lets you adjust takes, breakeven, stop-loss, and level sizing without leaving the Lazy Trader workflow.
STATUS canvas
Status canvas merges Direction, Start After, End At, Time, and Models into one live state map, so you can see what is aligned, what is still pending, and why the plan is running or waiting.
MODELS menu
Models are the executable entry modules inside the plan, and the menu is built to let many different model types coexist under one scenario.
TIME menu
TIME is where session logic lives: windows, overnights, weekday permissions, daily close, Friday close, and broker-specific timing constraints.
END AT menu
END AT defines when the plan stops looking for new positions, which is different from instantly flattening every already-open trade.
PLAN menu
PLAN is the root canvas: it is where risk, entry/stop/take, and the links to every other menu become one executable scenario.
What Lazy Trader does
Use this page when the main question is not “which button do I press”, but “what role does Lazy Trader play in the workflow at all”.