FAQ: Can I Use Semafor Indicator To Check Zone Validity?

Hi Liam, just a brief comment on what I am seeing on this indicator which I have attached for reference to my further comments.

What I find is that I need to refresh or change the TF every hour but what it does in doing so will take out some of the Supply or Demand Zones but only the ones that are recent or small.

The ones that have been in tact for a while seem to remain so I am testing moreso these zones.

If you look at the attached USDJPY chart you will see a number 4 at the top of a Supply so red zone. This is a Semafor Indicator which does repaint but I do use this for a bit of a reference however if the USD candle where to go above this red zone then it would take it out which invalidates this zone altogether.

It would however appear that both the longer red and green zones that have been in tact seem to remain so at the moment I am not sure whether to use these a reference or not.

Your thoughts or questions would be greatly appreciated.

Btw, did you receive the copy of the SupDem indicator I sent you yesterday from the 5’ers.

My Response:

Thanks for sending this over — and yes, I did get the SupDem indicator from the 5%’ers the other day. Had a proper look at it now.

On the 5%’ers SupDem indicator

It looks pretty solid, honestly. Clean zone plotting, sensible logic. The one thing I couldn’t verify in the time I had was whether it fires alerts on zone touches or breaks — do you know if it does? If it doesn’t, that’s worth noting, because it changes how you’d use it on anything below the H1.

On the zones disappearing when you refresh / switch TF

That’s a curious one, and honestly it’s more common than you’d think with this class of indicator. A few things worth knowing:

• Most zone-drawing tools recalculate the entire zone set from scratch each time they run. So a refresh isn’t “updating” the zones — it’s deleting them and rebuilding them, using whatever candle history is currently visible on the chart.
• Small or recent zones are the first casualties because they depend on very specific candle formations near the current price. A tiny shift in where the feed ends, or a slightly different lookback window, and they no longer qualify.
• Zones that have been intact for a while survive because they were built from structure that’s now well and truly confirmed. The candles that formed them aren’t going anywhere, so the logic re-detects them on every rebuild.

So the ones that persist aren’t “better” by luck — they’re the ones anchored to real, settled structure. That’s actually a useful filter in itself.

On the Semafor “4” and the red supply zone

Good catch on the USDJPY chart. You’re right that the Semafor repaints — it’s a confirmation tool, not a leading one, so I’d only ever treat it as a second opinion, never as the primary reason to take or skip a trade.

If the USD candle closes above that red zone, then yes — the zone is invalidated, and the “4” that was printed there stops being meaningful. Note the emphasis on close. A wick through the zone that closes back below is not an invalidation, it’s a liquidity grab, and those zones often produce the strongest reactions precisely because the wick swept the stops sitting just beyond the level. So before you write a zone off, check whether it was a body close or a wick.

On which zones to actually use as references

Here’s what I’d do:

1. Keep the long-standing red and green zones. The ones that have survived multiple refreshes and TF switches are the ones you can reasonably trust. Use them.
2. Flag the zones that have been “nicked” — the ones price has already poked through, even briefly. A few of those are visible on your chart. You can still keep them on your screen, but downgrade your expectation: when price swings back to them, expect a minor reaction rather than a full reversal. Don’t build a trade thesis on a nicked zone alone.
3. Treat any zone that disappeared on refresh as untradeable until it comes back on its own. If the indicator has to be coaxed into showing it, it wasn’t a strong enough zone to begin with.
4. Cross-check with Semafor for confirmation — it’s a decent second opinion, but because it repaints, never let it be the deciding factor. If the zone says supply and Semafor says “4”, that’s a nice confluence. If they disagree, wait.

The core takeaway

The zones that persist are the ones worth your attention. The ones that come and go are noise, and the indicator is doing you a favour by filtering them out — even if it’s doing it in a slightly annoying way. Use the survivors as your reference set, treat the nicked ones with caution, and let everything else go.

I can’t spot anything wrong with the zones you’ve currently got marked that have survived — they look clean to me. Use them as references without hesitation.

Next steps from my side

• I’ll keep hunting for a cleaner S&D indicator that doesn’t rebuild its zones on every refresh. Haven’t struck gold yet, but I’ll let you know the moment I do.
• In the meantime, if you want a quick sanity check on any specific zone before you trade it, send me a screenshot and I’ll take a look.
• If you find out whether the 5%’ers tool has alerts, let me know — that would be the one feature that would make me switch over to it full-time.

Talk soon,
[Your name]

PAN.