Custom Watchlist Column for Scalping

[TRADERSAM]

Hey everyone,
I’ve been using the basic volume column in my watchlist on Thinkorswim and just scrolling through manually to see which stocks look like they’re moving the fastest. It works sometimes — but other times I miss the hottest stock because it doesn’t stand out fast enough in the list. I tried figuring it out on my own with no success and I also tried ChatGPT but honestly ChatGPT can never seem to quite get thinkscript code right.

I’m hoping to build a custom watchlist column that can:

• Show which stocks have volume that’s climbing rapidly over the last few bars
• Act as a real-time “heat meter” so I can catch momentum early
• Use some kind of slope/delta math to track volume acceleration over the last 3–4 bars
• Be color-coded to help visually spot the top candidates quickly (e.g., red for slowing down, green/yellow/orange for fast climbers)

Here’s the version I’ve started testing(with the help of ChatGPT):

thinkscript
CopyEdit

def v0 = volume;
def v1 = volume[1];
def v2 = volume[2];
def v3 = volume[3];

def slope1 = v0 - v1;
def slope2 = v1 - v2;
def slope3 = v2 - v3;

def climbSpeed = (slope1 + slope2 + slope3) / 3;

AddLabel(yes, Round(climbSpeed, 0), Color.BLACK);

AssignBackgroundColor(
if climbSpeed < 0 then Color.DARK_RED
else if climbSpeed < 1000 then Color.LIGHT_GREEN
else if climbSpeed < 5000 then Color.GREEN
else if climbSpeed < 10000 then Color.YELLOW
else Color.ORANGE);

The issue is that sometimes it still shows high numbers for stocks that aren’t actually active anymore.

Any ideas on how I can refine this to only show stocks that are currently building volume fast? Or a better approach entirely?

Appreciate any help!

 

[rad14733]

@TRADERSAM There are many ways to paint candles/bars based on either Momentum and/or Volume... Te simplest method would be to have a lower indicator paint the candles/bars based on Momo generated by TTM_Squeeze or another Momentum indicator, or via one of the many Volume indicators...

I haven't done so but if I were to go such a route I would most likely use my Volume_with_StdDev_Levels indicator to drive the upper Chart... It usually only requires one additional line to the lower indicator to accomplish such a task... Using the basic Momo logic in the lower to control AssignPriceColor() to paint the candles/bars...

Food for thought...