Cornerstone Levels

"The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." — Matthew 21:42

Pre-market homework, done for you. PBF Cornerstone is a NinjaTrader 8 indicator that automatically draws every key multi-timeframe level you need before the bell — and keeps your chart clean as the day moves by pruning levels that no longer matter.

What It Does

Cornerstone is the foundation layer underneath everything else. While the Signal Analyzer fires entries, Cornerstone is what tells you where those entries are likely to react. Every PBF setup respects Cornerstone levels — they are the structural backbone of the methodology.

• Auto-draws multi-category key levels (prior-day, overnight, ORB, IB, weekly, round numbers, RTH open, Volume Profile, FVG midpoints)
• Tracks every touch with respect-back logic — only counts touches where price respected the level
• Auto-prunes broken & idle levels so your chart never gets cluttered
• King Level system — the single most-touched level gets a gold halo so you know what's controlling price
• Multi-TF FVG midpoints (NEW 2026-05-13) — Daily and 4-hour Fair Value Gaps surface as single dashed lines at their midpoint; ★ prefix marks fresh untouched gaps
• Chart-TF auto-tune (NEW 2026-05-13) — drop Cornerstone on 1m, 5m, or 15m; break/touch tunings auto-scale so behavior is consistent in clock-time
• Locked against accidental deletion (NEW 2026-05-13) — clicks fall through to your trend lines and drawings; Delete key can't remove the indicator. Remove intentionally via F6 Indicators dialog.
• Toggleable — turn any individual level type on or off via Properties panel

The Levels (8 Categories)

PBF Signature Treatments

Auto-Prune (Anti-Clutter) & the Static Skeleton

Cornerstone removes context levels that no longer matter — but the day's structural skeleton is permanent for the session (new 2026-06-12): PDH/PDL/PDC, Overnight H/L, Premarket H/L, RTH Open, ORB H/L, IB H/L and the Weekly/Monthly Opens are never pruned. A broken PDH doesn't vanish — it flips roles (resistance becomes support) and stays on your map, because that S/R flip is exactly what an intraday trader trades. ORB/IB reset each morning and re-lock at 9:45 / 10:30 ET.

Context levels (FVGs, volume nodes, round numbers, weekly extremes) still auto-prune:

• Break: Price closes beyond the level by ≥ BreakTicks (default 8) AND fails to recover within BreakRecoveryBars (default 3) → level dies and is removed.
• Idle: ≥ IdleMinutes since last touch AND ≥ IdleTicks from price → level fades off.

Viewport discipline (new 2026-06-12): a chart only labels levels inside its visible price range. Your zoomed 1-minute execution chart stays clean; zoom out (or switch to the 5m/15m) and the full day-map labels itself. Labels return the instant a level scrolls into view.

Gravity Glow (NEW 2026-06-11) — The Levels Find You

You don't find the levels. The levels find you. Gravity is Cornerstone's signature declutter engine: every level on your chart is always present as a faint ghost line (10% opacity, no label) — full structural awareness, zero noise. As price approaches a level, it brightens smoothly, and once it's genuinely in play the full label pill appears — name, touch dots, 🔥 and all. When price moves away, the level breathes back down to a ghost.

• Volatility-aware: the reveal radius is measured in units of live ATR — on a fast day the glow reaches further out; on a quiet day it tightens. No daily tuning, ever.
• No flicker: brightness eases frame-by-frame and a fully-revealed level stays lit for 5 bars after price leaves — levels never pop in and out.
• Structure is sacred: PDH/PDL/PDC, Overnight H/L, Premarket H/L and RTH Open never drop below the key-level floor (default 45%) — your anchors always stay readable with their labels on. The King level is always full.

Focus Styles (Group "3B - Focus")

Advanced tuning (most traders never touch these)

• GlowStartAtr (default 3.0) — distance, in ATR multiples, where the glow ramp begins.
• GlowFullAtr (default 0.5) — distance where a level reaches full brightness.
• GhostFloorPct (default 10) — minimum opacity of far-away ghost lines (0 hides them fully).
• StructFloorPct (default 45) — minimum opacity of the key anchors (PDH/PDL/PDC, ON H/L, PM H/L, Open). At 45 they keep a permanent dim label; set 40 or below for quiet, line-only anchors.

Installation

Reading the Chart

Which levels matter most right now?

Look at the King Level (gold halo) — that's the one controlling price. Then count touch dots on nearby levels. Levels with 3+ dots and a hot marker are where the Signal Analyzer is most likely to fire setups.

How do I know a level is "respected" vs just touched?

A touch only counts when price closes back through the level. Wicks alone don't increment the count — only respect-backs. This is how Cornerstone distinguishes real defense from noise.

Why did a level disappear?

First check which kind of level it is. Structural levels never disappear (PDH/PDL/PDC, ON H/L, PM H/L, Open, ORB, IB, Wk/Mo Open) — if you don't see one, it's almost certainly just outside your chart's visible price range (zoom out and it labels itself), or it's premarket and today's ORB/IB haven't locked yet (9:45 / 10:30 ET). Context levels (FVGs, volume nodes, round numbers) do auto-prune: broken (price closed beyond by ≥ 8 ticks without recovery) or idle (no touch for X minutes + far from price). To make context-pruning more permissive, raise BreakTicks / BreakRecoveryBars / IdleMinutes in the Properties panel.

Why are some of my levels dim / faint?

That's Gravity Glow working as designed: levels far from price render as faint ghost lines and brighten as price approaches. If you prefer everything at full brightness, set FocusMode=false (classic view), or raise GhostFloorPct to make the ghosts more visible. If a label is missing on a dim level, that's intentional too — labels appear once a level reaches ~40% brightness so text never clutters the chart.

Recommended Defaults

The default settings are tuned for NQ on a 1-minute chart. The only knobs most traders adjust:

• Show Prior Week / HOTW / Round Numbers — default off. Turn on if you trade larger swings or use round-number magnetism.
• HotMarkerThreshold — default 3 touches. Lower to 2 for choppier days, raise to 5 to filter only the most-respected levels.
• BreakTicks — default 8 (2 points). Lower for tighter ranges, raise for high-vol days.

Cornerstone vs Signal Analyzer — How They Work Together

Think of it this way:

• Cornerstone draws the map — every level price might react at, with respect tracking so you know which are live.
• Signal Analyzer fires the entry — when price approaches a Cornerstone level with the right confluences (delta, RVOL, ATR, MTF EMA), it scores and fires a setup.

The Signal Analyzer's "Cornerstone confluence" score component is literally measuring proximity to PDH/PDL/ORB/IB/POC/VAH/VAL/HVN/LVN. You can use either indicator standalone, but they're designed to work together. Cornerstone alone gives you the map; Signal Analyzer alone fires setups without the structural context. The bundle is where the methodology lives.

What's New (2026-06-12)

• Static Skeleton — the day's structural levels (PDH/PDL/PDC, ON H/L, PM H/L, Open, ORB, IB, Wk/Mo Open) are now permanent for the session: never pruned, always labeled. Broken structural levels flip roles (S/R flip) instead of vanishing.
• Viewport discipline — charts only label levels inside the visible price range. Zoomed execution charts stay clean; the full map labels itself when you zoom out.
• ORB/IB daily reset — yesterday's ORB/IB clear at the new session and re-lock fresh at 9:45 / 10:30 ET.

What's New (2026-06-11)

• Gravity Glow — the flagship declutter engine described above. Ghost lines + smooth ATR-adaptive proximity reveal, on by default. New Focus group settings: GravityGlow, GlowStartAtr, GlowFullAtr, GhostFloorPct.
• Naked POCs — untested prior-session Points of Control (up to 10 days back) surface as magnet levels until price returns to them.
• EMA-200 + MA slots, 15m bias, PMH/PML, Weekly/Monthly Opens, ON midpoint — the full levels expansion shipped 2026-06-10/11.

What's New (2026-05-13)

• Fair Value Gap midpoints — Daily and 4-hour gaps surface as single dashed cyan lines at their midpoint. Fresh (untouched) gaps wear a ★ prefix. Touched gaps auto-hide by default (toggle FvgFreshOnly=false to see all). Fully mitigated gaps prune automatically.
• Chart-TF auto-tune — Cornerstone now detects the chart's primary period (BarsArray[0].BarsPeriod) and scales BreakRecoveryBars and HotMarkerThreshold accordingly. 1m is the user-set baseline; 5m and 15m charts scale down so behavior stays consistent in clock-time. Tick/range/volume charts fall back to raw values.
• Locked against accidental deletion — set IsInHitTest=false at load. Click-fall-through on the chart panel is now the default; trend lines and drawings beneath Cornerstone are reachable. Delete key can no longer accidentally remove the indicator.
• SA-priority watermark — when PBF Signal Analyzer is also on the chart, Cornerstone suppresses its own brand watermark so the shield doesn't double-stack at higher alpha.

FVG Properties (Group "1B - FVG")

Coming Next

• Custom session anchors (post-Asia open, London open) for traders outside US RTH.
• FVG hourly (1H) by default once Saturday backtesting confirms it doesn't add noise on intraday charts.