The Zig Zag Indicator is a series of trendlines that connect significant tops and bottoms on a price chart. The Minimum Price Change parameter specifies the percentage that the price must move to form a new zig or zag leg. It can be used to identify potential chart patterns and Elliot Wave formations.
The Minimum Price Change setting of the Zig Zag and Zig Zag Oscillator indicators can be expressed in percentage, absolute dollars ($) or ticks, but also as a number of bars and fractals.
The Zig zag indicator, associated with the "Zig Zag Oscillator" indicator and associated RTL token, allows the user to easily access a wide variety of data elements about the current and past legs (direction, pivot, rotations, etc). This way, one can simplify, organise, and aggregate market moves based on wave analysis, identifying the right market conditions, which is very often the necessary step for building successful and long lasting trading strategies.
Presentation
Above is a 2-minute Chart of @ES# . The Zig Zag indicator overlays the bars, drawn as successive red and blue trendlines.
Keyboard Adjustment
The Zig Zag Minimum Percent Change value can be adjusted directly from the keyboard without having to open up the preferences window. Just select the indicator and then hit the up or down keys on your keyboard to adjust the value by 1. To adjust the value by a smaller increment of 0.1, hold down the shift key while pressing the up or down arrows on the keyboard.
Please note that the simplest and most common way to adjust zigzag lines is through chart buttons that will control the values of the C# or V# variables used as retracement criteria.