NC Order Blocks Description
NC Order Blocks is an order block indicator for NinjaTrader 8, and it comes with the full C# source code. Spotting order blocks is partly subjective: one trader sees a block where another doesn't, which makes them tricky to automate. So I set out to build an unbiased algorithm that finds them with fixed rules instead of guesswork. It won't catch every block, but it's amazing how many it does catch, and how often price comes back to test them.
How a block is found. The indicator waits for a move to finish. For a bearish block, that is a run of lower lows with no up-closing candles inside it, ended by a candle that makes a higher low. It then walks back to the candle where the run began. That candle only counts if the next candle closes at or below the bottom of its body, a sign that sellers took over. The block is the body of that candle, from open to close. Bullish blocks work the same way in reverse. A move only counts if it covers at least the Min Drop Size % (0.5% by default), so small swings are ignored.
What you see. Each block is a shaded zone that extends to the right with every new bar while it holds. When a candle closes through it, above a bearish block or below a bullish one, the block turns gray and stops extending, so active and broken zones are easy to tell apart. Optional arrows mark where each move started and ended. Bullish and bearish blocks and arrows can be switched on and off separately, with their own colors and opacity. It calculates on bar close and keeps the last 500 broken blocks on each side, so your charts stay light.
How to use it. Watch how price reacts when it comes back to an active block: a bullish block from above, a bearish block from below. Raise Min Drop Size % on higher timeframes or in volatile markets to keep only the strongest moves, and lower it on short timeframes. Because the filter is a percentage of price, it works on any instrument and timeframe.
Make it yours. Like all my frameworks, it comes with a code review video that explains the detection algorithm step by step. Use it as is, learn from the code, or change it yourself or with AI like Claude. You could add an alert when price returns to an active block, let your own strategy read the blocks, or change what counts as an order block. The code is short and split into three clear parts (detection, validation and drawing), so it's an easy base to build on. Have some good trades!
