Last updated: 8 October 2026. Every screenshot below was recorded on 8 October 2026 on an IQ Option Practice account registered in Brazil, on EUR/USD 5-minute candles; the Chart analysis picture in Step 1 was recorded on 5 October 2026. We placed no real-money trade. The settings come from the platform’s dialog and the calculation from the published source code of the platform’s built-in indicators (Quadcode’s script library). The tested box shows what the rule, a cross of the two lines after an extreme reading, did on EUR/USD 5-minute candles recorded between 29 September and 5 October 2026; it says nothing about what will happen next.
The Ehler’s Fisher Transform turns the position of the price inside its recent range into a line without fixed limits, so that turning points stand out. On IQ Option it opens in its own panel under the price chart as two lines, EF (green) and EF Trigger (red); in the platform’s source the trigger is simply the EF line from one candle earlier, so the two cross whenever EF turns. The rule waits for an extreme reading and then for the cross. On 5-minute EUR/USD candles EF ranged from −7.3 to +6.7 and the lines crossed 251 times in 1,304 candles, about every 5 candles, so the cross alone is not a filter.
Quick answer
- What it plots: two lines in a panel under the price chart: EF (green) and EF Trigger (red).
- Formula: the position of the median price (high + low) ÷ 2 inside the highest-to-lowest range of the last n candles is rescaled to −1 to +1, smoothed with an EMA of 5, passed through ln((1 + x) ÷ (1 − x)) and smoothed with an EMA of 3. EF Trigger is EF one candle earlier.
- Settings on the platform: Period 10.
- Reading: the rule waits for an extreme reading, which depends on the asset, and then for EF to cross its trigger line.
- Where: the Trend list of the Chart analysis panel; search for Fisher.
- Tested: a cross after an extreme beyond ±2 gave 89 signals and 55.1% of the decided trades with a 5-minute trade, 41.6% with a 15-minute trade; every cross gave 249 signals and 52.0%. Break-even is 54.1% at an 85% payout, and a few days of one pair prove nothing.
How do you add the Fisher Transform on IQ Option?
Set the chart
Choose the asset, the chart type and the candle size first: the indicator is calculated from the candles on the chart. The examples in this guide use 5-minute candles on EUR/USD. These steps use the web traderoom on a Practice balance, and the numbers in each screenshot match the numbers in the text. If you do not have an account yet, see how to register.
Step 1: Open Chart analysis
Click the indicators button (1), the wave icon in the chart toolbar at the bottom left of the chart. The Chart analysis panel opens with the tabs Indicators, Templates, Widgets and Scripts. Stay on Indicators.
Step 2: Find Ehler’s Fisher Transform
Type “Fisher” in the Search for indicators box (1), or open the Trend list, and click Ehler Fisher Transform (2).
Step 3: Check the settings
The dialog has the tabs Basic settings (1), Colors and display and Script. The Period (2) opens at 10, the number of candles of the highest-to-lowest range.
Step 4: Check the colours and click Apply
Open the Colors and display tab (1). The tab has two rows, EF and EF Trigger, each with a checkbox, a colour box and a line-style box: green for EF and red for EF Trigger by default. Click Apply (3).
Step 5: Read the panel
The panel under the price chart is titled Ehler’s Fisher Transform (10) (1). It holds two lines (2), EF in green and EF Trigger in red, and a scale at its right edge that is marked 5 and 0. The red line follows the green one one candle later.
How is the Fisher Transform calculated?
The Quadcode source works in four steps. First, it takes the median price of each candle, (high + low) ÷ 2, and finds where it lies between the highest and the lowest median price of the last n candles (the Period, 10 by default), rescaled to run from −1 to +1. Second, it smooths that value with an exponential moving average of 5 candles. Third, it applies the Fisher transform, the logarithm of (1 + x) ÷ (1 − x), which stretches the values near −1 and +1 into large numbers, so the result has no fixed limits. Fourth, it smooths the result with an EMA of 3 candles; that is the EF line. The EF Trigger line is the same value one candle earlier.
| Part | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Period | 10 | Number of candles in the highest-to-lowest range of the median price |
The indicator is credited to John F. Ehlers; it normalises prices so that turning points are more apparent, and it is based on the Gaussian normal distribution where the Bollinger Bands use a standard deviation. The trigger is usually called a moving average of the indicator value; in the platform’s source it is the previous value, which is why the cross happens exactly when the EF line changes direction.
How do you read the Fisher Transform?
There are two things to watch. Extremes: the line can stay in an extreme area for a long time, and the extremes depend on the asset and change over time; 4 may be the upper extreme for months and then 8 may begin to appear. An extreme reading may mean a reversal, a small correction or just a sideways move. The cross: wait for a confirmation, the EF line crossing its trigger line. After a fall to a lower extreme, EF rising above the trigger is read as a buy; after a rise to an upper extreme, EF falling below the trigger is read as a sell.
The indicator gives quite many signals and some are not reliable, which is why many traders add a trend analysis.
What did it look like on 5-minute candles?
We replayed the library script on EUR/USD 5-minute candles recorded from the Practice traderoom: 1,093 candles from 29 September 2026 (01:55 UTC) to 2 October (20:55 UTC) and 241 from 4 October (21:00 UTC) to 5 October (17:00 UTC). With the default period the lines have a value from the 16th candle of each stretch, 1,304 values in all.
- Range: EF went from −7.3 to +6.7. Half of the values were between −1.7 and +1.2.
- Extremes: above +2 on 194 candles (15%) and below −2 on 265 (20%); above +3 on 59 and below −3 on 115.
- Crosses: 251, about one every 5 candles.
Two stills of the platform, window A (the Step 5 picture) and window B (not pictured), agree with the replay, to within a pixel. In window A, 29 September from 05:56 to 11:45 on the platform clock, EF falls to a low of −3.86 at 06:55, climbs to a high of +3.55 at 08:05 and falls again to −3.03 at 10:15; the red trigger line follows the green line one candle later. In window B, from 11:17 to 17:02, EF dips to −3.35 at 12:30 and −3.31 at 14:05, rises to +3.46 at 15:45 and falls back toward zero. In the replay EF crosses its trigger after a reading beyond ±3 at 07:00, 08:10, 09:15, 10:20, 12:35, 14:10 and 15:50. (The platform draws the value of a candle at the time the candle closes: the candle that opened at 08:00 sits at the 08:05 mark.)
The extreme-then-cross rule, tested
No number is given for an extreme, so we wrote the rule with two levels that lie inside the recorded range: Higher on the candle where EF crosses above its trigger when the turning point, the previous EF value, was below −L, and Lower where EF crosses below when the turning point was above +L, with L = 2 and with L = 3. We also ran every cross without a level. The option opens at the close of the signal candle; no expiry is given, so the box shows five minutes and fifteen minutes.
Tested on IQ Option: five readings of the Fisher Transform cross, EUR/USD 5-minute candles of 29 September to 5 October 2026
| Asset and candles | EUR/USD binary (regular, not OTC): 1,334 five-minute candles (2026-09-29 01:55 to 2026-10-02 20:55 UTC and 2026-10-04 21:00 to 2026-10-05 17:00 UTC). The candles were recorded from IQ Option’s Practice traderoom. The replay places no orders; it only scores the rule on those closed candles, at an 85% payout. |
|---|---|
| Rule tested | The rule on closed candles: Higher on the candle where EF crosses above its trigger line when the previous EF value was under −L, Lower where it crosses below when that value was over +L, with L = 2 and L = 3; and every cross without a level. The option opens at the close of the signal candle; no expiry is given, so the box shows a trade of one candle (5 minutes) and of three candles (15 minutes). |
| Signals | Cross at an extreme beyond +/-2, 5-minute, 1 candle: 89 signals (47 Higher, 42 Lower) Cross at an extreme beyond +/-3, 5-minute, 1 candle: 41 signals (25 Higher, 16 Lower) Every cross of EF and trigger, 5-minute, 1 candle: 249 signals (124 Higher, 125 Lower) Cross beyond +/-2, 5-minute, 3 candles: 89 signals (47 Higher, 42 Lower) Every cross, 5-minute, 3 candles: 249 signals (124 Higher, 125 Lower) |
| Outcomes | Cross at an extreme beyond +/-2, 5-minute, 1 candle: 49 won, 40 lost, 0 tied; 55.1% of the 89 decided trades won; net +$0.02 per $1 staked at 85% (+$0.05 at 91%) Cross at an extreme beyond +/-3, 5-minute, 1 candle: 21 won, 20 lost, 0 tied; 51.2% of the 41 decided trades won; net −$0.05 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.02 at 91%) Every cross of EF and trigger, 5-minute, 1 candle: 129 won, 119 lost, 1 tied; 52.0% of the 248 decided trades won; net −$0.04 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.01 at 91%) Cross beyond +/-2, 5-minute, 3 candles: 37 won, 52 lost, 0 tied; 41.6% of the 89 decided trades won; net −$0.23 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.21 at 91%) Every cross, 5-minute, 3 candles: 128 won, 120 lost, 1 tied; 51.6% of the 248 decided trades won; net −$0.04 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.01 at 91%) |
| Break-even | At an 85% payout a trade needs to win more than 54.1% of its decided trades to break even (1 ÷ 1.85); at 91%, more than 52.4% (1 ÷ 1.91). |
A replay is only a look back at candles recorded on the dates above: it placed no real orders, covers about four and a half days of one pair, and counts overlapping trades as if they were independent. A short test proves nothing about the future, and no profit and no win rate is promised here. IQ Option’s own blog on backtesting says that most strategies need dozens, and often hundreds, of trades before a result means anything.
One of the five readings was above the break-even rate of 54.1%: the cross after an extreme beyond ±2 with a 5-minute trade won 49 of 89 decided trades (55.1%, with a 95% interval of 45% to 65%). The same signals held for 15 minutes won 37 of 89 (41.6%), and the stricter extreme of ±3 won 21 of 41 (51.2%). Every cross won 52.0% with a 5-minute trade (129 of 248) and 51.6% with a 15-minute trade. With 89 signals one standard error is about 5 points, and the result changes with the expiry, so none of the five readings shows an edge.
Pros and Cons of the Fisher Transform
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Turns the position inside the recent range into a line where turns and extremes are easy to see. | The extremes are not fixed numbers; they depend on the asset and change over time. |
| Two lines with a clear cross at every turn of EF. | The cross happens at every turn: 251 times in 1,304 candles, so it is a weak filter. |
| One setting, the period. | The line can stay at an extreme while the price keeps moving, so an extreme alone is not a reversal. |
Common mistakes
- Treating the trigger as a slow moving average. In the platform’s source it is the previous EF value, so it follows EF with a delay of one candle.
- Using one fixed extreme for every asset. The extremes depend on the asset; look at your own chart.
- Trading every cross. The lines crossed about every 5 candles in our recording.
- Expecting an extreme to reverse the price. It may show only a correction or a sideways move.
Related guides
- RSI on IQ Option and Stochastic on IQ Option
- Bollinger Bands on IQ Option and Center of Gravity
- Overbought and oversold markets and leading and lagging indicators
- All indicator guides and all strategy guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the Fisher Transform indicator?
A: An indicator that rescales the position of the median price inside its recent range and applies a logarithmic transform, so that turning points and extremes show up as peaks and troughs. It is credited to John F. Ehlers.
Q: What settings does the Fisher Transform have on IQ Option?
A: The dialog has a single setting, Period, which opens at 10; the Colors and display tab has a colour and a line style for EF and for EF Trigger.
Q: What are EF and EF Trigger?
A: EF is the Fisher Transform line, green by default. EF Trigger, red by default, is the EF value of the previous candle in the platform’s source.
Q: What is an extreme reading?
A: There is no fixed number: it depends on the asset and changes over time. On our EUR/USD 5-minute candles EF went from −7.3 to +6.7, and it was beyond ±2 on 35% of the candles.
Q: Is a cross of the two lines a signal?
A: The rule waits for a cross after an extreme. On 5-minute EUR/USD candles every cross, and the cross after an extreme beyond ±2 or ±3, are in the tested box; none is clearly above the break-even rate.
Q: Can I use the Fisher Transform on binary options?
A: The platform draws it on any chart. Whether a rule works is something to test on the Practice balance with the expiry you plan to use.
