Separate detection from confluence
The chart-timeframe rule is mechanical: after a bar confirms, a bullish FVG exists when its low is above the high two bars earlier; a bearish FVG exists when its high is below the low two bars earlier. The default minimum-size filter is 0.05 times the 14-bar ATR, with ticks available as an alternative basis.
Those chart gaps are standalone references. They do not become inputs to the higher-timeframe confluence engine, so a visible chart FVG and a confluence band are not two names for the same object.
Use completed higher-timeframe sources
The confluence engine reads two user-selected higher timeframes that must both exceed the chart timeframe and must differ from one another. It requests completed higher-timeframe values rather than the still-developing bar, which fixes the source geometry before it can qualify.
By default, the sources are fair-value gaps. Order blocks can be included, but that changes the eligible population and the lifecycle vocabulary. Filled source zones are excluded from creating new confluence.
Calculate the intersection, then qualify it
For same-direction source zones, the candidate top is the lower of the two source tops and the candidate bottom is the higher of the two source bottoms. A band exists only when the top remains above the bottom. Its width must then exceed the greater of the instrument’s minimum tick and the configured multiple of confirmed ATR from the first source timeframe.
The default confluence-width threshold is 0.05 times ATR. The qualifying geometry and threshold are stored when the band is created; later ATR changes do not retroactively admit or reject it. Confluence density is the count of overlapping source combinations, not a quality score.
Read lifecycle as state, not forecast
A pure FVG overlap begins FRESH. Penetration greater than zero but below half the original width is TESTED; penetration from half to less than the full width is PARTIAL; full traversal is FILLED. The selected wick-or-close basis determines the price used for those transitions.
Mixed FVG and order-block confluence uses a different lifecycle: it is STATIC because the two zone types share no fill cycle to measure, and reaches FILLED once its FVG side fully traverses. The state reports what price has done relative to the stored geometry; it does not estimate the probability of a reaction.
Build a review record a desk can reproduce
Record the chart timeframe, both source timeframes, bullish or bearish direction, source types, size filters, confluence-width threshold, wick-or-close basis, creation bar, and current state. If any of those fields changes, the resulting sample is a different study.
Do not treat the band as an order location without separate execution analysis. Spread, queue position, depth, slippage, and the order type are outside the geometry, as are position size and risk limits.