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Indicators

Quickfingers Luc (QFL)

QFL is a way of buying panic. It is named after Quickfingers Luc, the trader who made it popular in crypto, and it is built on one idea: markets build floors, and when a floor breaks in a sudden sell-off, price often comes back to it.

The floor is called a base. It is a level where price dropped, found buyers and bounced away strongly. When price later falls through that base by a set amount, the base has cracked, and that crack is the entry. The trade is aiming for a return to the base.

Base

A level where price found a floor before and bounced away from it. The stronger the bounce, the more weight the base carries.

Crack

Price falls a set percentage below the base, usually in a fast, emotional move. This is where QFL looks to buy.

Return

Price recovers back toward the base. This is where the trade usually takes its profit.

How a base is found

The indicator finds bases as pivot lows. A candle's low counts as a base when it is the lowest point among a set number of candles on each side of it, five before and five after by default. Because the candles after it have to close first, a base is only confirmed a few candles later, once price has clearly moved away from it. Each new confirmed base replaces the old one, so the indicator always tracks the most recent floor.

The crack

The crack is measured as a percentage below the base, set by Deviation %. A small percentage triggers often, on ordinary dips. A larger one waits for real panic, so it triggers less often, and when it does price is usually further stretched from where it came from. Choosing that percentage is the main decision with QFL.

Settings

QFL settings

DirectionLong

Timeframe1 hour

Deviation %1

Upper Base Above Lower BaseOff

RepaintOff

Pivot Left Bars5

Pivot Right Bars5

PNR filter

% Distance FilterOff

Low/High FilterOff

PNR Length300

PNR Percentile90

Direction

Long looks for bases under price and buys when they crack downward. Short works the same way upside down, with tops above price that crack upward.

Timeframe

The candles the bases are found on. It can be higher than your chart, so a 1 hour base can trigger an entry on a 5 minute chart.

Deviation %

How far past the base price has to go before it counts as a crack. With 1, the signal fires once price is 1% below the base.

Upper Base Above Lower Base

With it on, a base only counts when it sits higher than the one before it. Rising bases mean rising floors, so this keeps the signal to markets that are holding up.

Repaint

With it off, the indicator waits for the higher timeframe candle to close, so a signal never changes once it appears. With it on, signals show sooner, but they can move or disappear while that candle is still open.

Pivot Left and Right Bars

How many candles on each side a low has to beat to become a base. Larger numbers find fewer, stronger bases. The right side also sets how long confirmation takes, since those candles have to close first.

PNR filter

Compares each setup with the last PNR Length candles and only lets it through when it ranks at or above the PNR Percentile. With 300 and 90, a setup has to be in the top 10% of the last 300 candles.

% Distance Filter

Ranks how far price moved away from the base. Only the bases price left most strongly are kept.

Low/High Filter

Ranks how deep the crack is against the recent lows, or highs on the short side. Only cracks that reach unusually far are kept.

Why it suits DCA

QFL buys into falling prices, which is also what a DCA bot is built for. The crack places the base order, and if price keeps falling, safety orders lower down bring the average entry closer to the base. That is why QFL is one of the most common entry methods for DCA bots in crypto.

Where it falls short

Some bases never come back

A crack can be the start of a real downtrend. Price breaks the floor and keeps going, and the base becomes a ceiling.

Falling markets

In a long decline, base after base cracks. Each entry looks like a bargain until the next one.

It buys falling prices

The entry always comes while price is dropping, so the trade often goes against you before it recovers. Drawdown is part of how it works.

Quiet markets

With few sharp drops, cracks are rare and there may be no trades for long stretches.

Pairing it with other indicators

With RSI

A crack while RSI is deep below 30 suggests the drop is stretched, which supports the idea of a bounce.

With VWAP

A crack that lands well below VWAP means price is far under the period's fair value, two separate signs of an overextended move.

With volume

A crack on a spike in volume often marks real panic selling, which is the kind of move QFL is looking for.

Keeping it in context

QFL is a structure for buying fear, one input among several. It finds the moment, and the wider trend, your safety orders and your risk rules decide whether that moment is worth taking.

Backtesting and performance stats

Before trusting any crack percentage, test it on past candles. Strategy Lab, our own tester, runs a QFL setup against history so you can see how often the bases came back, and how deep the drawdown went on the ones that took longer.