Kalman VWAP Filter [BackQuant]Kalman VWAP Filter
A precision-engineered price estimator that fuses Kalman filtering with the Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP) to create a smooth, adaptive representation of fair value. This hybrid model intelligently balances responsiveness and stability, tracking trend shifts with minimal noise while maintaining a statistically grounded link to volume distribution.
If you would like to see my original Kalman Filter, please find it here:
Concept overview
The Kalman VWAP Filter is built on two core ideas from quantitative finance and control theory:
Kalman filtering — a recursive Bayesian estimator used to infer the true underlying state of a noisy system (in this case, fair price).
VWAP anchoring — a dynamic reference that weights price by traded volume, representing where the majority of transactions have occurred.
By merging these concepts, the filter produces a line that behaves like a "smart moving average": smooth when noise is high, fast when markets trend, and self-adjusting based on both market structure and user-defined noise parameters.
How it works
Measurement blend : Combines the chosen Price Source (e.g., close or hlc3) with either a Session VWAP or a Rolling VWAP baseline. The VWAP Weight input controls how much the filter trusts traded volume versus price movement.
Kalman recursion : Each bar updates an internal "state estimate" using the Kalman gain, which determines how much to trust new observations vs. the prior state.
Noise parameters :
Process Noise controls agility — higher values make the filter more responsive but also more volatile.
Measurement Noise controls smoothness — higher values make it steadier but slower to adapt.
Filter order (N) : Defines how many parallel state estimates are used. Larger orders yield smoother output by layering multiple one-dimensional Kalman passes.
Final output : A refined price trajectory that captures VWAP-adjusted fair value while dynamically adjusting to real-time volatility and order flow.
Why this matters
Most smoothing techniques (EMA, SMA, Hull) trade off lag for smoothness. Kalman filtering, however, adaptively rebalances that tradeoff each bar using probabilistic weighting, allowing it to follow market state changes more efficiently. Anchoring it to VWAP integrates microstructure context — capturing where liquidity truly lies rather than only where price moves.
Use cases
Trend tracking : Color-coded candle painting highlights shifts in slope direction, revealing early trend transitions.
Fair value mapping : The line represents a continuously updated equilibrium price between raw price action and VWAP flow.
Adaptive moving average replacement : Outperforms static MAs in variable volatility regimes by self-adjusting smoothness.
Execution & reversion logic : When price diverges from the Kalman VWAP, it may indicate short-term imbalance or overextension relative to volume-adjusted fair value.
Cross-signal framework : Use with standard VWAP or other filters to identify convergence or divergence between liquidity-weighted and state-estimated prices.
Parameter guidance
Process Noise : 0.01–0.05 for swing traders, 0.1–0.2 for intraday scalping.
Measurement Noise : 2–5 for normal use, 8+ for very smooth tracking.
VWAP Weight : 0.2–0.4 balances both price and VWAP influence; 1.0 locks output directly to VWAP dynamics.
Filter Order (N) : 3–5 for reactive short-term filters; 8–10 for smoother institutional-style baselines.
Interpretation
When price > Kalman VWAP and slope is positive → bullish pressure; buyers dominate above fair value.
When price < Kalman VWAP and slope is negative → bearish pressure; sellers dominate below fair value.
Convergence of price and Kalman VWAP often signals equilibrium; strong divergence suggests imbalance.
Crosses between Kalman VWAP and the base VWAP can hint at shifts in short-term vs. long-term liquidity control.
Summary
The Kalman VWAP Filter blends statistical estimation with market microstructure awareness, offering a refined alternative to static smoothing indicators. It adapts in real time to volatility and order flow, helping traders visualize balance, transition, and momentum through a lens of probabilistic fair value rather than simple price averaging.
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Liquidity Sweeps & Swings (SMC/ICT)Liquidity Sweeps & Swings (SMC/ICT) — TradingATH
Precision. Clarity. Structure.
This refined indicator automatically detects and displays Liquidity Sweeps and Liquidity Swings , highlighting the precise points where liquidity is taken and where structure shifts occur within price action.
Designed for traders applying Smart Money Concepts (SMC/ICT) , it offers a clear, data-driven visualization of market dynamics — providing structural context with professional accuracy and visual balance.
What You’ll See
Liquidity Sweeps represented as compact shaded zones, green for bullish sweeps and red for bearish ones, fading automatically once mitigated.
Liquidity Swings precisely labeled “ Swing High ” and “ Swing Low ” at major pivot points, cleanly positioned within structure.
Controlled-length zones that extend for a defined number of bars or dynamically until mitigation.
Optional real-time alerts when a new sweep forms or price re-enters an active zone.
Features
Sweep Detection Logic : Identifies liquidity grabs using Wick, Close, or Wick + Close validation for flexible precision across different market conditions.
Smart Mitigation : Zones dynamically fade or are removed once price mitigates the area, keeping your chart clean and relevant.
Swing Mapping : Highlights key pivot points to outline market structure shifts with precise and minimal labeling.
ATR Filtering : Optional volatility-based filter removes minor or insignificant sweeps to maintain clarity.
Elegant Design : Subtle colors, refined typography, and balanced spacing ensure a professional, unobtrusive presentation.
Alerts and Updates : Automated alerts for new sweep formations and live interaction with active zones.
Professional Architecture : Efficient execution, size-safe arrays, and optimized plotting for smooth performance on any timeframe.
ICT/SMC Ready : Fully compatible with advanced institutional concepts such as Fair Value Gaps, Order Blocks, and Market Structure Shifts.
Perfect For
Traders applying ICT or Smart Money Concepts methodologies to identify liquidity grabs and structural intent.
Intraday Traders seeking precise, uncluttered sweep and swing identification on volatile charts.
Swing Traders filtering high-probability setups based on liquidity structure and mitigation behavior.
Analysts requiring clarity, reliability, and technical precision in their liquidity mapping tools.
Recommended Settings
Pivot Lookback : 14 (balanced structural sensitivity).
Sweep Validation : Wick + Close (adaptive precision).
Zone Length : 150 bars (controlled visual reach).
ATR Filter : Minimum 0.25×, Maximum 3× (clean sweep selection).
Swing Labels : Enabled (for structural clarity).
In Short
Clean logic. Institutional precision. Professional clarity.
Liquidity Sweeps & Swings (SMC/ICT) delivers a disciplined and refined visualization of liquidity flow and structural shifts — crafted for traders who demand both analytical accuracy and visual sophistication.
Created by: TradingATH
Buyside & Sellside Liquidity The Buyside & Sellside Liquidity Indicator is an advanced Smart Money Concepts (SMC) tool that automatically detects and visualizes liquidity zones and liquidity voids (imbalances) directly on the chart.
🟢 Function and meaning:
1. Buyside Liquidity (green):
Highlights price zones above current price where short traders’ stop-loss orders are likely resting.
When price sweeps these areas, it often indicates a liquidity grab or stop hunt.
👉 These zones are labeled with 💵💰 emojis for a clear visual cue where smart money collects liquidity.
2. Sellside Liquidity (red):
Highlights zones below the current price where long traders’ stop-losses are likely placed.
Once breached, these often signal a potential reversal upward.
👉 The 💵💰🪙 emojis make these liquidity targets visually intuitive on the chart.
3. Liquidity Voids (bright areas):
Indicate inefficient price areas, where the market moved too quickly without filling orders.
These zones are often revisited later as the market seeks balance (fair value).
👉 Shown as light shaded boxes with 💰 emojis to emphasize imbalance regions.
💡 Usage:
• Helps spot smart money manipulation and stop hunts.
• Marks potential reversal or breakout zones.
• Great for traders applying SMC, ICT, or Fair Value Gap strategies.
✨ Highlight:
Dollar and money bag emojis (💵💰🪙💸) are integrated directly into chart labels to create a clear and visually engaging representation of liquidity areas.
Trend Catch STFR - whipsaw Reduced### Summary of the Setup
This trading system combines **SuperTrend** (a trend-following indicator based on ATR for dynamic support/resistance), **Range Filter** (a smoothed median of the last 100 candles to identify price position relative to a baseline), and filters using **VIX Proxy** (a volatility measure: (14-period ATR / 14-period SMA of Close) × 100) and **ADX** (Average Directional Index for trend strength). It's designed for trend trading with volatility safeguards.
- **Entries**: Triggered only in "tradeable" markets (VIX Proxy ≥ 15 OR ADX ≥ 20) when SuperTrend aligns with direction (green for long, red for short), price crosses the Range Filter median accordingly, and you're not already in that position.
- **Exits**: Purely price-based—exit when SuperTrend flips or price crosses back over the Range Filter median. No forced exits from low volatility/trend.
- **No Trade Zone**: Blocks new entries if both VIX Proxy < 15 AND ADX < 20, but doesn't affect open positions.
- **Overall Goal**: Enter trends with confirmed strength/volatility, ride them via price action, and avoid ranging/choppy markets for new trades.
This creates a filtered trend-following strategy that prioritizes quality entries while letting winners run.
### Advantages
- **Reduces Noise in Entries**: The VIX Proxy and ADX filters ensure trades only in volatile or strongly trending conditions, avoiding low-momentum periods that often lead to false signals.
- **Lets Winners Run**: Exits based solely on price reversal (SuperTrend or Range Filter) allow positions to stay open during temporary lulls in volatility/trend, potentially capturing longer moves.
- **Simple and Balanced**: Combines trend (SuperTrend/ADX), range (Filter), and volatility (VIX Proxy) without overcomplicating—easy to backtest and adapt to assets like stocks, forex, or crypto.
- **Adaptable to Markets**: The "OR" logic for VIX/ADX provides flexibility (e.g., enters volatile sideways markets if ADX is low, or steady trends if VIX is low).
- **Risk Control**: Implicitly limits exposure by blocking entries in calm markets, which can preserve capital during uncertainty.
### Disadvantages
- **Whipsaws in Choppy Markets**: As you noted, SuperTrend can flip frequently in ranging conditions, leading to quick entries/exits and small losses, especially if the Range Filter isn't smoothing enough noise.
- **Missed Opportunities**: Strict filters (e.g., requiring VIX ≥ 15 or ADX ≥ 20) might skip early-stage trends or low-volatility grinds, reducing trade frequency and potential profits in quiet bull/bear markets.
- **Lagging Exits**: Relying only on price flips means you might hold losing trades longer if volatility drops without a clear reversal, increasing drawdowns.
- **Parameter Sensitivity**: Values like VIX 15, ADX 20, or Range Filter's 100-candle lookback need tuning per asset/timeframe; poor choices could amplify whipsaws or over-filter.
- **No Built-in Risk Management**: Lacks explicit stops/targets, so it relies on user-added rules (e.g., ATR-based stops), which could lead to oversized losses if not implemented.
### How to Use It
This system can be implemented in platforms like TradingView (via Pine Script), Python (e.g., with TA-Lib or Pandas), or MT4/5. Here's a step-by-step guide, assuming TradingView for simplicity—adapt as needed. (If coding in Python, use libraries like pandas_ta for indicators.)
1. **Set Up Indicators**:
- Add SuperTrend (default: ATR period 10, multiplier 3—adjust as suggested in prior tweaks).
- Create Range Filter: Use a 100-period SMA of (high + low)/2, smoothed (e.g., via EMA if desired).
- Calculate VIX Proxy: Custom script for (ATR(14) / SMA(close, 14)) * 100.
- Add ADX (period 14, standard).
2. **Define Rules in Code/Script**:
- **Long Entry**: If SuperTrend direction < 0 (green), close > RangeFilterMedian, (VIX Proxy ≥ 15 OR ADX ≥ 20), and not already long—buy on bar close.
- **Short Entry**: If SuperTrend direction > 0 (red), close < RangeFilterMedian, (VIX Proxy ≥ 15 OR ADX ≥ 20), and not already short—sell short.
- **Exit Long**: If in long and (SuperTrend > 0 OR close < RangeFilterMedian)—sell.
- **Exit Short**: If in short and (SuperTrend < 0 OR close > RangeFilterMedian)—cover.
- Monitor No Trade Zone visually (e.g., plot yellow background when VIX < 15 AND ADX < 20).
3. **Backtest and Optimize**:
- Use historical data on your asset (e.g., SPY on 1H chart).
- Test metrics: Win rate, profit factor, max drawdown. Adjust thresholds (e.g., ADX to 25) to reduce whipsaws.
- Forward-test on demo account to validate.
4. **Live Trading**:
- Apply to a chart, set alerts for entries/exits.
- Add risk rules: Position size 1-2% of capital, stop-loss at SuperTrend line.
- Monitor manually or automate via bots—avoid overtrading; use on trending assets.
For the adjustments I suggested earlier (e.g., ADX 25, 2-bar confirmation), integrate them into entries only—test one at a time to isolate improvements. If whipsaws persist, combine 2-3 tweaks.
Directional EMA - For Loop | Lyro RSDirectional EMA - For Loop | Lyro RS
Introduction
This indicator combines multi-type moving averages, loop-based momentum scoring, and divergence detection for adaptive trend and reversal analysis.
Key Features:
Multiple Moving Average Selection System: Choose from 16 different MA types - HMA, ALMA and JMA etc. To match your style best.
For Loop Based Scoring: Uses a From / To system to calculate cumulative buying/selling pressure across recent price action.
Signal Threshold: Long / Short threshold levels to control the sensitivity for different market conditions.
Divergence Detection: Regular bullish / bearish with clear labels for potential reversal points.
Clean Visuals: Multiple color themes with table and color based indicator line for easy reading.
How It Works:
Core Calculation: The indicator first creates a directional signal by comparing price to your selected moving average, normalized for current volatility.
Loop Analysis: This signal feeds into a for-loop that scores recent price history, generating a cumulative momentum value.
Signal Generation:
Bullish signals trigger when the score crosses above the Upper Threshold
Bearish signals trigger when the score crosses below the Lower Threshold
Divergence Alerts: Automatically detects when price makes new highs/lows that aren't confirmed by the oscillator.
Practical Use:
Trend Identification: The color-coded oscillator and signal table help confirm trend direction.
Reversal Warning: Divergence labels highlight potential trend exhaustion points for careful watch.
Customization:
Adjust MA type and length for sensitivity tuning
Modify loop parameters (From/To) to change analysis depth
Fine-tune threshold levels for signal frequency
Enable/disable divergence detection as needed
⚠️ Disclaimer
This tool is for technical analysis education only. It does not guarantee results or constitute financial advice. Always use proper risk management and combine with other analysis methods. Past performance doesn't predict future results.
SMC by ASHY-JAYASHY-JAY "Smart Money" refers to funds under the control of institutional investors, central banks, funds, market makers, and other financial entities. Ordinary people recognize investments made by those who have a deep understanding of market performance and possess information typically inaccessible to regular investors as "Smart Money".
Consequently, when market movements often diverge from expectations, traders identify the footprints of smart money. For example, when a classic pattern forms in the market, traders take short positions. However, the market might move upward instead. They attribute this contradiction to smart money and seek to capitalize on such inconsistencies in their trades.
The "Smart Money Concept" (SMC) is one of the primary styles of technical analysis that falls under the subset of "Price Action". Price action encompasses various subcategories, with one of the most significant being "Supply and Demand", in which SMC is categorized.
The SMC method aims to identify trading opportunities by emphasizing the impact of large traders (Smart Money) on the market, offering specific patterns, techniques, and trading strategies.
🟣Key Terms of Smart Money Concept (SMC)
• Market Structure (Trend)
• Change of Character (ChoCh)
• Break of Structure (BoS)
• Order Blocks (Supply and Demand)
• Imbalance (IMB)
• Inefficiency (IFC)
• Fair Value Gap (FVG)
• Liquidity
• Premium and Discount
COT IndexTHE HIDDEN INTELLIGENCE IN FUTURES MARKETS
What if you could see what the smartest players in the futures markets are doing before the crowd catches on? While retail traders chase momentum indicators and moving averages, obsess over Japanese candlestick patterns, and debate whether the RSI should be set to fourteen or twenty-one periods, institutional players leave footprints in the sand through their mandatory reporting to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. These footprints, published weekly in the Commitment of Traders reports, have been hiding in plain sight for decades, available to anyone with an internet connection, yet remarkably few traders understand how to interpret them correctly. The COT Index indicator transforms this raw institutional positioning data into actionable trading signals, bringing Wall Street intelligence to your trading screen without requiring expensive Bloomberg terminals or insider connections.
The uncomfortable truth is this: Most retail traders operate in a binary world. Long or short. Buy or sell. They apply technical analysis to individual positions, constrained by limited capital that forces them to concentrate risk in single directional bets. Meanwhile, institutional traders operate in an entirely different dimension. They manage portfolios dynamically weighted across multiple markets, adjusting exposure based on evolving market conditions, correlation shifts, and risk assessments that retail traders never see. A hedge fund might be simultaneously long gold, short oil, neutral on copper, and overweight agricultural commodities, with position sizes calibrated to volatility and portfolio Greeks. When they increase gold exposure from five percent to eight percent of portfolio allocation, this rebalancing decision reflects sophisticated analysis of opportunity cost, risk parity, and cross-market dynamics that no individual chart pattern can capture.
This portfolio reweighting activity, multiplied across hundreds of institutional participants, manifests in the aggregate positioning data published weekly by the CFTC. The Commitment of Traders report does not show individual trades or strategies. It shows the collective footprint of how actual commercial hedgers and large speculators have allocated their capital across different markets. When mining companies collectively increase forward gold sales to hedge thirty percent more production than last quarter, they are not reacting to a moving average crossover. They are making strategic allocation decisions based on production forecasts, cost structures, and price expectations derived from operational realities invisible to outside observers. This is portfolio management in action, revealed through positioning data rather than price charts.
If you want to understand how institutional capital actually flows, how sophisticated traders genuinely position themselves across market cycles, the COT report provides a rare window into that hidden world. But understand what you are getting into. This is not a tool for scalpers seeking confirmation of the next five-minute move. This is not an oscillator that flashes oversold at market bottoms with convenient precision. COT analysis operates on a timescale measured in weeks and months, revealing positioning shifts that precede major market turns but offer no precision timing. The data arrives three days stale, published only once per week, capturing strategic positioning rather than tactical entries.
If you need instant gratification, if you trade intraday moves, if you demand mechanical signals with ninety percent accuracy, close this document now. COT analysis rewards patience, position sizing discipline, and tolerance for being early. It punishes impatience, overleveraging, and the expectation that any single indicator can substitute for market understanding.
The premise is deceptively simple. Every Tuesday, large traders in futures markets must report their positions to the CFTC. By Friday afternoon, this data becomes public. Academic research spanning three decades has consistently shown that not all market participants are created equal. Some traders consistently profit while others consistently lose. Some anticipate major turning points while others chase trends into exhaustion. Bessembinder and Chan (1992) demonstrated in their seminal study that commercial hedgers, those with actual exposure to the underlying commodity or financial instrument, possess superior forecasting ability compared to speculators. Their research, published in the Journal of Finance, found statistically significant predictive power in commercial positioning, particularly at extreme levels. This finding challenged the efficient market hypothesis and opened the door to a new approach to market analysis based on positioning rather than price alone.
Think about what this means. Every week, the government publishes a report showing you exactly how the most informed market participants are positioned. Not their opinions. Not their predictions. Their actual money at risk. When agricultural producers collectively hold their largest short hedge in five years, they are not making idle speculation. They are locking in prices for crops they will harvest, informed by private knowledge of weather conditions, soil quality, inventory levels, and demand expectations invisible to outside observers. When energy companies aggressively hedge forward production at current prices, they reveal information about expected supply that no analyst report can capture. This is not technical analysis based on past prices. This is not fundamental analysis based on publicly available data. This is behavioral analysis based on how the smartest money is actually positioned, how institutions allocate capital across portfolios, and how those allocation decisions shift as market conditions evolve.
WHY SOME TRADERS KNOW MORE THAN OTHERS
Building on this foundation, Sanders, Boris and Manfredo (2004) conducted extensive research examining the behaviour patterns of different trader categories. Their work, which analyzed over a decade of COT data across multiple commodity markets, revealed a fascinating dynamic that challenges much of what retail traders are taught. Commercial hedgers consistently positioned themselves against market extremes, buying when speculators were most bearish and selling when speculators reached peak bullishness. The contrarian positioning of commercials was not random noise but rather reflected their superior information about supply and demand fundamentals. Meanwhile, large speculators, primarily hedge funds and commodity trading advisors, exhibited strong trend-following behaviour that often amplified market moves beyond fundamental values. Small traders, the retail participants, consistently entered positions late in trends, frequently near turning points, making them reliable contrary indicators.
Wang (2003) extended this research by demonstrating that the predictive power of commercial positioning varies significantly across different commodity sectors. His analysis of agricultural commodities showed particularly strong forecasting ability, with commercial net positions explaining up to fifteen percent of return variance in subsequent weeks. This finding suggests that the informational advantages of hedgers are most pronounced in markets where physical supply and demand fundamentals dominate, as opposed to purely financial markets where information asymmetries are smaller. When a corn farmer hedges six months of expected harvest, that decision incorporates private observations about rainfall patterns, crop health, pest pressure, and local storage capacity that no distant analyst can match. When an oil refinery hedges crude oil purchases and gasoline sales simultaneously, the spread relationships reveal expectations about refining margins that reflect operational realities invisible in public data.
The theoretical mechanism underlying these empirical patterns relates to information asymmetry and different participant motivations. Commercial hedgers engage in futures markets not for speculative profit but to manage business risks. An agricultural producer selling forward six months of expected harvest is not making a bet on price direction but rather locking in revenue to facilitate financial planning and ensure business viability. However, this hedging activity necessarily incorporates private information about expected supply, inventory levels, weather conditions, and demand trends that the hedger observes through their commercial operations (Irwin and Sanders, 2012). When aggregated across many participants, this private information manifests in collective positioning.
Consider a gold mining company deciding how much forward production to hedge. Management must estimate ore grades, recovery rates, production costs, equipment reliability, labor availability, and dozens of other operational variables that determine whether locking in prices at current levels makes business sense. If the industry collectively hedges more aggressively than usual, it suggests either exceptional production expectations or concern about sustaining current price levels or combination of both. Either way, this positioning reveals information unavailable to speculators analyzing price charts and economic data. The hedger sees the physical reality behind the financial abstraction.
Large speculators operate under entirely different incentives and constraints. Commodity Trading Advisors managing billions in assets typically employ systematic, trend-following strategies that respond to price momentum rather than fundamental supply and demand. When crude oil rallies from sixty dollars to seventy dollars per barrel, these systems generate buy signals. As the rally continues to eighty dollars, position sizes increase. The strategy works brilliantly during sustained trends but becomes a liability at reversals. By the time oil reaches ninety dollars, trend-following funds are maximally long, having accumulated positions progressively throughout the rally. At this point, they represent not smart money anticipating further gains but rather crowded money vulnerable to reversal. Sanders, Boris and Manfredo (2004) documented this pattern across multiple energy markets, showing that extreme speculator positioning typically marked late-stage trend exhaustion rather than early-stage trend development.
Small traders, the retail participants who fall below reporting thresholds, display the weakest forecasting ability. Wang (2003) found that small trader positioning exhibited negative correlation with subsequent returns, meaning their aggregate positioning served as a reliable contrary indicator. The explanation combines several factors. Retail traders often lack the capital reserves to weather normal market volatility, leading to premature exits from positions that would eventually prove profitable. They tend to receive information through slower channels, entering trends after mainstream media coverage when institutional participants are preparing to exit. Perhaps most importantly, they trade with emotion, buying into euphoria and selling into panic at precisely the wrong times.
At major turning points, the three groups often position opposite each other with commercials extremely bearish, large speculators extremely bullish, and small traders piling into longs at the last moment. These high-divergence environments frequently precede increased volatility and trend reversals. The insiders with business exposure quietly exit as the momentum traders hit maximum capacity and retail enthusiasm peaks. Within weeks, the reversal begins, and positions unwind in the opposite sequence.
FROM RAW DATA TO ACTIONABLE SIGNALS
The COT Index indicator operationalizes these academic findings into a practical trading tool accessible through TradingView. At its core, the indicator normalizes net positioning data onto a zero to one hundred scale, creating what we call the COT Index. This normalization is critical because absolute position sizes vary dramatically across different futures contracts and over time. A commercial trader holding fifty thousand contracts net long in crude oil might be extremely bullish by historical standards, or it might be quite neutral depending on the context of total market size and historical ranges. Raw position numbers mean nothing without context. The COT Index solves this problem by calculating where current positioning stands relative to its range over a specified lookback period, typically two hundred fifty-two weeks or approximately five years of weekly data.
The mathematical transformation follows the methodology originally popularized by legendary trader Larry Williams, though the underlying concept appears in statistical normalization techniques across many fields. For any given trader category, we calculate the highest and lowest net position values over the lookback period, establishing the historical range for that specific market and trader group. Current positioning is then expressed as a percentage of this range, where zero represents the most bearish positioning ever seen in the lookback window and one hundred represents the most bullish extreme. A reading of fifty indicates positioning exactly in the middle of the historical range, suggesting neither extreme optimism nor pessimism relative to recent history (Williams and Noseworthy, 2009).
This index-based approach allows for meaningful comparison across different markets and time periods, overcoming the scaling problems inherent in analyzing raw position data. A commercial index reading of eighty-five in gold carries the same interpretive meaning as an eighty-five reading in wheat or crude oil, even though the absolute position sizes differ by orders of magnitude. This standardization enables systematic analysis across entire futures portfolios rather than requiring market-specific expertise for each contract.
The lookback period selection involves a fundamental tradeoff between responsiveness and stability. Shorter lookback periods, perhaps one hundred twenty-six weeks or approximately two and a half years, make the index more sensitive to recent positioning changes. However, it also increases noise and produces more false signals. Longer lookback periods, perhaps five hundred weeks or approximately ten years, create smoother readings that filter short-term noise but become slower to recognize regime changes. The indicator settings allow users to adjust this parameter based on their trading timeframe, risk tolerance, and market characteristics.
UNDERSTANDING CFTC DATA STRUCTURES
The indicator supports both Legacy and Disaggregated COT report formats, reflecting the evolution of CFTC reporting standards over decades of market development. Legacy reports categorize market participants into three broad groups: commercial traders (hedgers with underlying business exposure), non-commercial traders (large speculators seeking profit without commercial interest), and non-reportable traders (small speculators below reporting thresholds). Each category brings distinct motivations and information advantages to the market (CFTC, 2020).
The Disaggregated reports, introduced in September 2009 for physical commodity markets, provide finer granularity by splitting participants into five categories (CFTC, 2009). Producer and merchant positions capture those actually producing, processing, or merchandising the physical commodity. Swap dealers represent financial intermediaries facilitating derivative transactions for clients. Managed money includes commodity trading advisors and hedge funds executing systematic or discretionary strategies. Other reportables encompasses diverse participants not fitting the main categories. Small traders remain as the fifth group, representing retail participation.
This enhanced categorization reveals nuances invisible in Legacy reports, particularly distinguishing between different types of institutional capital and their distinct behavioural patterns. The indicator automatically detects which report type is appropriate for each futures contract and adjusts the display accordingly.
Importantly, Disaggregated reports exist only for physical commodity futures. Agricultural commodities like corn, wheat, and soybeans have Disaggregated reports because clear producer, merchant, and swap dealer categories exist. Energy commodities like crude oil and natural gas similarly have well-defined commercial hedger categories. Metals including gold, silver, and copper also receive Disaggregated treatment (CFTC, 2009). However, financial futures such as equity index futures, Treasury bond futures, and currency futures remain available only in Legacy format. The CFTC has indicated no plans to extend Disaggregated reporting to financial futures due to different market structures and participant categories in these instruments (CFTC, 2020).
THE BEHAVIORAL FOUNDATION
Understanding which trader perspective to follow requires appreciation of their distinct trading styles, success rates, and psychological profiles. Commercial hedgers exhibit anticyclical behaviour rooted in their fundamental knowledge and business imperatives. When agricultural producers hedge forward sales during harvest season, they are not speculating on price direction but rather locking in revenue for crops they will harvest. Their business requires converting volatile commodity exposure into predictable cash flows to facilitate planning and ensure survival through difficult periods. Yet their aggregate positioning reveals valuable information because these hedging decisions incorporate private information about supply conditions, inventory levels, weather observations, and demand expectations that hedgers observe through their commercial operations (Bessembinder and Chan, 1992).
Consider a practical example from energy markets. Major oil companies continuously hedge portions of forward production based on price levels, operational costs, and financial planning needs. When crude oil trades at ninety dollars per barrel, they might aggressively hedge the next twelve months of production, locking in prices that provide comfortable profit margins above their extraction costs. This hedging appears as short positioning in COT reports. If oil rallies further to one hundred dollars, they hedge even more aggressively, viewing these prices as exceptional opportunities to secure revenue. Their short positioning grows increasingly extreme. To an outside observer watching only price charts, the rally suggests bullishness. But the commercial positioning reveals that the actual producers of oil find these prices attractive enough to lock in years of sales, suggesting skepticism about sustaining even higher levels. When the eventual reversal occurs and oil declines back to eighty dollars, the commercials who hedged at ninety and one hundred dollars profit while speculators who chased the rally suffer losses.
Large speculators or managed money traders operate under entirely different incentives and constraints. Their systematic, momentum-driven strategies mean they amplify existing trends rather than anticipate reversals. Trend-following systems, the most common approach among large speculators, by definition require confirmation of trend through price momentum before entering positions (Sanders, Boris and Manfredo, 2004). When crude oil rallies from sixty dollars to eighty dollars per barrel over several months, trend-following algorithms generate buy signals based on moving average crossovers, breakouts, and other momentum indicators. As the rally continues, position sizes increase according to the systematic rules.
However, this approach becomes a liability at turning points. By the time oil reaches ninety dollars after a sustained rally, trend-following funds are maximally long, having accumulated positions progressively throughout the move. At this point, their positioning does not predict continued strength. Rather, it often marks late-stage trend exhaustion. The psychological and mechanical explanation is straightforward. Trend followers by definition chase price momentum, entering positions after trends establish rather than anticipating them. Eventually, they become fully invested just as the trend nears completion, leaving no incremental buying power to sustain the rally. When the first signs of reversal appear, systematic stops trigger, creating a cascade of selling that accelerates the downturn.
Small traders consistently display the weakest track record across academic studies. Wang (2003) found that small trader positioning exhibited negative correlation with subsequent returns in his analysis across multiple commodity markets. This result means that whatever small traders collectively do, the opposite typically proves profitable. The explanation for small trader underperformance combines several factors documented in behavioral finance literature. Retail traders often lack the capital reserves to weather normal market volatility, leading to premature exits from positions that would eventually prove profitable. They tend to receive information through slower channels, learning about commodity trends through mainstream media coverage that arrives after institutional participants have already positioned. Perhaps most importantly, retail traders are more susceptible to emotional decision-making, buying into euphoria and selling into panic at precisely the wrong times (Tharp, 2008).
SETTINGS, THRESHOLDS, AND SIGNAL GENERATION
The practical implementation of the COT Index requires understanding several key features and settings that users can adjust to match their trading style, timeframe, and risk tolerance. The lookback period determines the time window for calculating historical ranges. The default setting of two hundred fifty-two bars represents approximately one year on daily charts or five years on weekly charts, balancing responsiveness with stability. Conservative traders seeking only the most extreme, highest-probability signals might extend the lookback to five hundred bars or more. Aggressive traders seeking earlier entry and willing to accept more false positives might reduce it to one hundred twenty-six bars or even less for shorter-term applications.
The bullish and bearish thresholds define signal generation levels. Default settings of eighty and twenty respectively reflect academic research suggesting meaningful information content at these extremes. Readings above eighty indicate positioning in the top quintile of the historical range, representing genuine extremes rather than temporary fluctuations. Conversely, readings below twenty occupy the bottom quintile, indicating unusually bearish positioning (Briese, 2008).
However, traders must recognize that appropriate thresholds vary by market, trader category, and personal risk tolerance. Some futures markets exhibit wider positioning swings than others due to seasonal patterns, volatility characteristics, or participant behavior. Conservative traders seeking high-probability setups with fewer signals might raise thresholds to eighty-five and fifteen. Aggressive traders willing to accept more false positives for earlier entry could lower them to seventy-five and twenty-five.
The key is maintaining meaningful differentiation between bullish, neutral, and bearish zones. The default settings of eighty and twenty create a clear three-zone structure. Readings from zero to twenty represent bearish territory where the selected trader group holds unusually bearish positions. Readings from twenty to eighty represent neutral territory where positioning falls within normal historical ranges. Readings from eighty to one hundred represent bullish territory where the selected trader group holds unusually bullish positions.
The trading perspective selection determines which participant group the indicator follows, fundamentally shaping interpretation and signal meaning. For counter-trend traders seeking reversal opportunities, monitoring commercial positioning makes intuitive sense based on the academic research discussed earlier. When commercials reach extreme bearish readings below twenty, indicating unprecedented short positioning relative to recent history, they are effectively betting against the crowd. Given their informational advantages demonstrated by Bessembinder and Chan (1992), this contrarian stance often precedes major bottoms.
Trend followers might instead monitor large speculator positioning, but with inverted logic compared to commercials. When managed money reaches extreme bullish readings above eighty, the trend may be exhausting rather than accelerating. This seeming paradox reflects their late-cycle participation documented by Sanders, Boris and Manfredo (2004). Sophisticated traders thus use speculator extremes as fade signals, entering positions opposite to speculator consensus.
Small trader monitoring serves primarily as a contrary indicator for all trading styles. Extreme small trader bullishness above seventy-five or eighty typically warns of retail FOMO at market tops. Extreme small trader bearishness below twenty or twenty-five often marks capitulation bottoms where the last weak hands have sold.
VISUALIZATION AND USER INTERFACE
The visual design incorporates multiple elements working together to facilitate decision-making and maintain situational awareness during active trading. The primary COT Index line plots in bold with adjustable line width, defaulting to two pixels for clear visibility against busy price charts. An optional glow effect, controlled by a simple toggle, adds additional visual prominence through multiple plot layers with progressively increasing transparency and width.
A twenty-one period exponential moving average overlays the index line, providing trend context for positioning changes. When the index crosses above its moving average, it signals accelerating bullish sentiment among the selected trader group regardless of whether absolute positioning is extreme. Conversely, when the index crosses below its moving average, it signals deteriorating sentiment and potentially the beginning of a reversal in positioning trends.
The EMA provides a dynamic reference line for assessing positioning momentum. When the index trades far above its EMA, positioning is not only extreme in absolute terms but also building with momentum. When the index trades far below its EMA, positioning is contracting or reversing, which may indicate weakening conviction even if absolute levels remain elevated.
The data table positioned at the top right of the chart displays eleven metrics for each trader category, transforming the indicator from a simple index calculation into an analytical dashboard providing multidimensional market intelligence. Beyond the COT Index itself, users can monitor positioning extremity, which measures how unusual current levels are compared to historical norms using statistical techniques. The extremity metric clarifies whether a reading represents the ninety-fifth or ninety-ninth percentile, with values above two standard deviations indicating genuinely exceptional positioning.
Market power quantifies each group's influence on total open interest. This metric expresses each trader category's net position as a percentage of total market open interest. A commercial entity holding forty percent of total open interest commands significantly more influence than one holding five percent, making their positioning signals more meaningful.
Momentum and rate of change metrics reveal whether positions are building or contracting, providing early warning of potential regime shifts. Position velocity measures the rate of change in positioning changes, effectively a second derivative providing even earlier insight into inflection points.
Sentiment divergence highlights disagreements between commercial and speculative positioning. This metric calculates the absolute difference between normalized commercial and large speculator index values. Wang (2003) found that these high-divergence environments frequently preceded increased volatility and reversals.
The table also displays concentration metrics when available, showing how positioning is distributed among the largest handful of traders in each category. High concentration indicates a few dominant players controlling most of the positioning, while low concentration suggests broad-based participation across many traders.
THE ALERT SYSTEM AND MONITORING
The alert system, comprising five distinct alert conditions, enables systematic monitoring of dozens of futures markets without constant screen watching. The bullish and bearish COT signal alerts trigger when the index crosses user-defined thresholds, indicating the selected trader group has reached extreme positioning worthy of attention. These alerts fire in real-time as new weekly COT data publishes, typically Friday afternoon following the Tuesday measurement date.
Extreme positioning alerts fire at ninety and ten index levels, representing the top and bottom ten percent of the historical range, warning of particularly stretched readings that historically precede reversals with high probability. When commercials reach a COT Index reading below ten, they are expressing their most bearish stance in the entire lookback period.
The data staleness alert notifies users when COT reports have not updated for more than ten days, preventing reliance on outdated information for trading decisions. Government shutdowns or federal holidays can interrupt the normal Friday publication schedule. Using stale signals while believing them current creates dangerous false confidence.
The indicator's watermark information display positioned in the bottom right corner provides essential context at a glance. This persistent display shows the symbol and timeframe, the COT report date timestamp, days since last update, and the current signal state. A trader analyzing a potential short entry in crude oil can glance at the watermark to instantly confirm positioning context without interrupting analysis flow.
LIMITATIONS AND REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
Practical application requires understanding both the indicator's considerable strengths and inherent limitations. COT data inherently lags price action by three days, as Tuesday positions are not published until Friday afternoon. This delay means the indicator cannot catch rapid intraday reversals or respond to surprise news events. Traders using the COT Index for timing entries must accept this latency and focus on swing trading and position trading timeframes where three-day lags matter less than in day trading or scalping.
The weekly publication schedule similarly makes the indicator unsuitable for short-term trading strategies requiring immediate feedback. The COT Index works best for traders operating on weekly or longer timeframes, where positioning shifts measured in weeks and months align with trading horizon.
Extreme COT readings can persist far longer than typical technical indicators suggest, testing the patience and capital reserves of traders attempting to fade them. When crude oil enters a sustained bull market driven by genuine supply disruptions, commercial hedgers may maintain bearish positioning for many months as prices grind higher. A commercial COT Index reading of fifteen indicating extreme bearishness might persist for three months while prices continue rallying before finally reversing. Traders without sufficient capital and risk tolerance to weather such drawdowns will exit prematurely, precisely when the signal is about to work (Irwin and Sanders, 2012).
Position sizing discipline becomes paramount when implementing COT-based strategies. Rather than risking large percentages of capital on individual signals, successful COT traders typically allocate modest position sizes across multiple signals, allowing some to take time to mature while others work more quickly.
The indicator also cannot overcome fundamental regime changes that alter the structural drivers of markets. If gold enters a true secular bull market driven by monetary debasement, commercial hedgers may remain persistently bearish as mining companies sell forward years of production at what they perceive as favorable prices. Their positioning indicates valuation concerns from a production cost perspective, but cannot stop prices from rising if investment demand overwhelms physical supply-demand balance.
Similarly, structural changes in market participation can alter the meaning of positioning extremes. The growth of commodity index investing in the two thousands brought massive passive long-only capital into futures markets, fundamentally changing typical positioning ranges. Traders relying on COT signals without recognizing this regime change would have generated numerous false bearish signals during the commodity supercycle from 2003 to 2008.
The research foundation supporting COT analysis derives primarily from commodity markets where the commercial hedger information advantage is most pronounced. Studies specifically examining financial futures like equity indices and bonds show weaker but still present effects. Traders should calibrate expectations accordingly, recognizing that COT analysis likely works better for crude oil, natural gas, corn, and wheat than for the S&P 500, Treasury bonds, or currency futures.
Another important limitation involves the reporting threshold structure. Not all market participants appear in COT data, only those holding positions above specified minimums. In markets dominated by a few large players, concentration metrics become critical for proper interpretation. A single large trader accounting for thirty percent of commercial positioning might skew the entire category if their individual circumstances are idiosyncratic rather than representative.
GOLD FUTURES DURING A HYPOTHETICAL MARKET CYCLE
Consider a practical example using gold futures during a hypothetical but realistic market scenario that illustrates how the COT Index indicator guides trading decisions through a complete market cycle. Suppose gold has rallied from fifteen hundred to nineteen hundred dollars per ounce over six months, driven by inflation concerns following aggressive monetary expansion, geopolitical uncertainty, and sustained buying by Asian central banks for reserve diversification.
Large speculators, operating primarily trend-following strategies, have accumulated increasingly bullish positions throughout this rally. Their COT Index has climbed progressively from forty-five to eighty-five. The table display shows that large speculators now hold net long positions representing thirty-two percent of total open interest, their highest in four years. Momentum indicators show positive readings, indicating positions are still building though at a decelerating rate. Position velocity has turned negative, suggesting the pace of position building is slowing.
Meanwhile, commercial hedgers have responded to the rally by aggressively selling forward production and inventory. Their COT Index has moved inversely to price, declining from fifty-five to twenty. This bearish commercial positioning represents mining companies locking in forward sales at prices they view as attractive relative to production costs. The table shows commercials now hold net short positions representing twenty-nine percent of total open interest, their most bearish stance in five years. Concentration metrics indicate this positioning is broadly distributed across many commercial entities, suggesting the bearish stance reflects collective industry view rather than idiosyncratic positioning by a single firm.
Small traders, attracted by mainstream financial media coverage of gold's impressive rally, have recently piled into long positions. Their COT Index has jumped from forty-five to seventy-eight as retail investors chase the trend. Television financial networks feature frequent segments on gold with bullish guests. Internet forums and social media show surging retail interest. This retail enthusiasm historically marks late-stage trend development rather than early opportunity.
The COT Index indicator, configured to monitor commercial positioning from a contrarian perspective, displays a clear bearish signal given the extreme commercial short positioning. The table displays multiple confirming metrics: positioning extremity shows commercials at the ninety-sixth percentile of bearishness, market power indicates they control twenty-nine percent of open interest, and sentiment divergence registers sixty-five, indicating massive disagreement between commercial hedgers and large speculators. This divergence, the highest in three years, places the market in the historically high-risk category for reversals.
The interpretation requires nuance and consideration of context beyond just COT data. Commercials are not necessarily predicting an imminent crash. Rather, they are hedging business operations at what they collectively view as favorable price levels. However, the data reveals they have sold unusually large quantities of forward production, suggesting either exceptional production expectations for the year ahead or concern about sustaining current price levels or combination of both. Combined with extreme speculator positioning indicating a crowded long trade, and small trader enthusiasm confirming retail FOMO, the confluence suggests elevated reversal risk even if the precise timing remains uncertain.
A prudent trader analyzing this situation might take several actions based on COT Index signals. Existing long positions could be tightened with closer stop losses. Profit-taking on a portion of long exposure could lock in gains while maintaining some participation. Some traders might initiate modest short positions as portfolio hedges, sizing them appropriately for the inherent uncertainty in timing reversals. Others might simply move to the sidelines, avoiding new long entries until positioning normalizes.
The key lesson from case study analysis is that COT signals provide probabilistic edges rather than deterministic predictions. They work over many observations by identifying higher-probability configurations, not by generating perfect calls on individual trades. A fifty-five percent win rate with proper risk management produces substantial profits over time, yet still means forty-five percent of signals will be premature or wrong. Traders must embrace this probabilistic reality rather than seeking the impossible goal of perfect accuracy.
INTEGRATION WITH TRADING SYSTEMS
Integration with existing trading systems represents a natural and powerful use case for COT analysis, adding a positioning dimension to price-based technical approaches or fundamental analytical frameworks. Few traders rely exclusively on a single indicator or methodology. Rather, they build systems that synthesize multiple information sources, with each component addressing different aspects of market behavior.
Trend followers might use COT extremes as regime filters, modifying position sizing or avoiding new trend entries when positioning reaches levels historically associated with reversals. Consider a classic trend-following system based on moving average crossovers and momentum breakouts. Integration of COT analysis adds nuance. When large speculator positioning exceeds ninety or commercial positioning falls below ten, the regime filter recognizes elevated reversal risk. The system might reduce position sizing by fifty percent for new signals during these high-risk periods (Kaufman, 2013).
Mean reversion traders might require COT signal confluence before fading extended moves. When crude oil becomes technically overbought and large speculators show extreme long positioning above eighty-five, both signals confirm. If only technical indicators show extremes while positioning remains neutral, the potential short signal is rejected, avoiding fades of trends with underlying institutional support (Kaufman, 2013).
Discretionary traders can monitor the indicator as a continuous awareness tool, informing bias and position sizing without dictating mechanical entries and exits. A discretionary trader might notice commercial positioning shifting from neutral to progressively more bullish over several months. This trend informs growing positive bias even without triggering mechanical signals.
Multi-timeframe analysis represents another powerful integration approach. A trader might use daily charts for trade execution and timing while monitoring weekly COT positioning for strategic context. When both timeframes align, highest-probability opportunities emerge.
Portfolio construction for futures traders can incorporate COT signals as an additional selection criterion. Markets showing strong technical setups AND favorable COT positioning receive highest allocations. Markets with strong technicals but neutral or unfavorable positioning receive reduced allocations.
ADVANCED METRICS AND INTERPRETATION
The metrics table transforms simple positioning data into multidimensional market intelligence. Position extremity, calculated as the absolute deviation from the historical mean normalized by standard deviation, helps identify truly unusual readings versus routine fluctuations. A reading above two standard deviations indicates ninety-fifth percentile or higher extremity. Above three standard deviations indicates ninety-ninth percentile or higher, genuinely rare positioning that historically precedes major events with high probability.
Market power, expressed as a percentage of total open interest, reveals whose positioning matters most from a mechanical market impact perspective. Consider two scenarios in gold futures. In scenario one, commercials show a COT Index reading of fifteen while their market power metric shows they hold net shorts representing thirty-five percent of open interest. This is a high-confidence bearish signal. In scenario two, commercials also show a reading of fifteen, but market power shows only eight percent. While positioning is extreme relative to this category's normal range, their limited market share means less mechanical influence on price.
The rate of change and momentum metrics highlight whether positions are accelerating or decelerating, often providing earlier warnings than absolute levels alone. A COT Index reading of seventy-five with rapidly building momentum suggests continued movement toward extremes. Conversely, a reading of eighty-five with decelerating or negative momentum indicates the positioning trend is exhausting.
Position velocity measures the rate of change in positioning changes, effectively a second derivative. When velocity shifts from positive to negative, it indicates that while positioning may still be growing, the pace of growth is slowing. This deceleration often precedes actual reversal in positioning direction by several weeks.
Sentiment divergence calculates the absolute difference between normalized commercial and large speculator index values. When commercials show extreme bearish positioning at twenty while large speculators show extreme bullish positioning at eighty, the divergence reaches sixty, representing near-maximum disagreement. Wang (2003) found that these high-divergence environments frequently preceded increased volatility and reversals. The mechanism is intuitive. Extreme divergence indicates the informed hedgers and momentum-following speculators have positioned opposite each other with conviction. One group will prove correct and profit while the other proves incorrect and suffers losses. The resolution of this disagreement through price movement often involves volatility.
The table also displays concentration metrics when available. High concentration indicates a few dominant players controlling most of the positioning within a category, while low concentration suggests broad-based participation. Broad-based positioning more reliably reflects collective market intelligence and industry consensus. If mining companies globally all independently decide to hedge aggressively at similar price levels, it suggests genuine industry-wide view about price valuations rather than circumstances specific to one firm.
DATA QUALITY AND RELIABILITY
The CFTC has maintained COT reporting in various forms since the nineteen twenties, providing nearly a century of positioning data across multiple market cycles. However, data quality and reporting standards have evolved substantially over this long period. Modern electronic reporting implemented in the late nineteen nineties and early two thousands significantly improved accuracy and timeliness compared to earlier paper-based systems.
Traders should understand that COT reports capture positions as of Tuesday's close each week. Markets remain open three additional days before publication on Friday afternoon, meaning the reported data is three days stale when received. During periods of rapid market movement or major news events, this lag can be significant. The indicator addresses this limitation by including timestamp information and staleness warnings.
The three-day lag creates particular challenges during extreme volatility episodes. Flash crashes, surprise central bank interventions, geopolitical shocks, and other high-impact events can completely transform market positioning within hours. Traders must exercise judgment about whether reported positioning remains relevant given intervening events.
Reporting thresholds also mean that not all market participants appear in disaggregated COT data. Traders holding positions below specified minimums aggregate into the non-reportable or small trader category. This aggregation affects different markets differently. In highly liquid contracts like crude oil with thousands of participants, reportable traders might represent seventy to eighty percent of open interest. In thinly traded contracts with only dozens of active participants, a few large reportable positions might represent ninety-five percent of open interest.
Another data quality consideration involves trader classification into categories. The CFTC assigns traders to commercial or non-commercial categories based on reported business purpose and activities. However, this process is not perfect. Some entities engage in both commercial and speculative activities, creating ambiguity about proper classification. The transition to Disaggregated reports attempted to address some of these ambiguities by creating more granular categories.
COMPARISON WITH ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
Several alternative approaches to COT analysis exist in the trading community beyond the normalization methodology employed by this indicator. Some analysts focus on absolute position changes week-over-week rather than index-based normalization. This approach calculates the change in net positioning from one week to the next. The emphasis falls on momentum in positioning changes rather than absolute levels relative to history. This method potentially identifies regime shifts earlier but sacrifices cross-market comparability (Briese, 2008).
Other practitioners employ more complex statistical transformations including percentile rankings, z-score standardization, and machine learning classification algorithms. Ruan and Zhang (2018) demonstrated that machine learning models applied to COT data could achieve modest improvements in forecasting accuracy compared to simple threshold-based approaches. However, these gains came at the cost of interpretability and implementation complexity.
The COT Index indicator intentionally employs a relatively straightforward normalization methodology for several important reasons. First, transparency enhances user understanding and trust. Traders can verify calculations manually and develop intuitive feel for what different readings mean. Second, academic research suggests that most of the predictive power in COT data comes from extreme positioning levels rather than subtle patterns requiring complex statistical methods to detect. Third, robust methods that work consistently across many markets and time periods tend to be simpler rather than more complex, reducing the risk of overfitting to historical data. Fourth, the complexity costs of implementation matter for retail traders without programming teams or computational infrastructure.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF COT TRADING
Trading based on COT data requires psychological fortitude that differs from momentum-based approaches. Contrarian positioning signals inherently mean betting against prevailing market sentiment and recent price action. When commercials reach extreme bearish positioning, prices have typically been rising, sometimes for extended periods. The price chart looks bullish, momentum indicators confirm strength, moving averages align positively. The COT signal says bet against all of this. This psychological difficulty explains why COT analysis remains underutilized relative to trend-following methods.
Human psychology strongly predisposes us toward extrapolation and recency bias. When prices rally for months, our pattern-matching brains naturally expect continued rally. The recent price action dominates our perception, overwhelming rational analysis about positioning extremes and historical probabilities. The COT signal asking us to sell requires overriding these powerful psychological impulses.
The indicator design attempts to support the required psychological discipline through several features. Clear threshold markers and signal states reduce ambiguity about when signals trigger. When the commercial index crosses below twenty, the signal is explicit and unambiguous. The background shifts to red, the signal label displays bearish, and alerts fire. This explicitness helps traders act on signals rather than waiting for additional confirmation that may never arrive.
The metrics table provides analytical justification for contrarian positions, helping traders maintain conviction during inevitable periods of adverse price movement. When a trader enters short positions based on extreme commercial bearish positioning but prices continue rallying for several weeks, doubt naturally emerges. The table display provides reassurance. Commercial positioning remains extremely bearish. Divergence remains high. The positioning thesis remains intact even though price action has not yet confirmed.
Alert functionality ensures traders do not miss signals due to inattention while also not requiring constant monitoring that can lead to emotional decision-making. Setting alerts for COT extremes enables a healthier relationship with markets. When meaningful signals occur, alerts notify them. They can then calmly assess the situation and execute planned responses.
However, no indicator design can completely overcome the psychological difficulty of contrarian trading. Some traders simply cannot maintain short positions while prices rally. For these traders, COT analysis might be better employed as an exit signal for long positions rather than an entry signal for shorts.
Ultimately, successful COT trading requires developing comfort with probabilistic thinking rather than certainty-seeking. The signals work over many observations by identifying higher-probability configurations, not by generating perfect calls on individual trades. A fifty-five or sixty percent win rate with proper risk management produces substantial profits over years, yet still means forty to forty-five percent of signals will be premature or wrong. COT analysis provides genuine edge, but edge means probability advantage, not elimination of losing trades.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AND CONTINUOUS LEARNING
The indicator provides extensive built-in educational resources through its documentation, detailed tooltips, and transparent calculations. However, mastering COT analysis requires study beyond any single tool or resource. Several excellent resources provide valuable extensions of the concepts covered in this guide.
Books and practitioner-focused monographs offer accessible entry points. Stephen Briese published The Commitments of Traders Bible in two thousand eight, offering detailed breakdowns of how different markets and trader categories behave (Briese, 2008). Briese's work stands out for its empirical focus and market-specific insights. Jack Schwager includes discussion of COT analysis within the broader context of market behavior in his book Market Sense and Nonsense (Schwager, 2012). Perry Kaufman's Trading Systems and Methods represents perhaps the most rigorous practitioner-focused text on systematic trading approaches including COT analysis (Kaufman, 2013).
Academic journal articles provide the rigorous statistical foundation underlying COT analysis. The Journal of Futures Markets regularly publishes research on positioning data and its predictive properties. Bessembinder and Chan's earlier work on systematic risk, hedging pressure, and risk premiums in futures markets provides theoretical foundation (Bessembinder, 1992). Chang's examination of speculator returns provides historical context (Chang, 1985). Irwin and Sanders provide essential skeptical perspective in their two thousand twelve article (Irwin and Sanders, 2012). Wang's two thousand three article provides one of the most empirical analyses of COT data across multiple commodity markets (Wang, 2003).
Online resources extend beyond academic and book-length treatments. The CFTC website provides free access to current and historical COT reports in multiple formats. The explanatory materials section offers detailed documentation of report construction, category definitions, and historical methodology changes. Traders serious about COT analysis should read these official CFTC documents to understand exactly what they are analyzing.
Commercial COT data services such as Barchart provide enhanced visualization and analysis tools beyond raw CFTC data. TradingView's educational materials, published scripts library, and user community provide additional resources for exploring different approaches to COT analysis.
The key to mastering COT analysis lies not in finding a single definitive source but rather in building understanding through multiple perspectives and information sources. Academic research provides rigorous empirical foundation. Practitioner-focused books offer practical implementation insights. Direct engagement with data through systematic backtesting develops intuition about how positioning dynamics manifest across different market conditions.
SYNTHESIZING KNOWLEDGE INTO PRACTICE
The COT Index indicator represents the synthesis of academic research, trading experience, and software engineering into a practical tool accessible to retail traders equipped with nothing more than a TradingView account and willingness to learn. What once required expensive data subscriptions, custom programming capabilities, statistical software, and institutional resources now appears as a straightforward indicator requiring only basic parameter selection and modest study to understand. This democratization of institutional-grade analysis tools represents a broader trend in financial markets over recent decades.
Yet technology and data access alone provide no edge without understanding and discipline. Markets remain relentlessly efficient at eliminating edges that become too widely known and mechanically exploited. The COT Index indicator succeeds only when users invest time learning the underlying concepts, understand the limitations and probability distributions involved, and integrate signals thoughtfully into trading plans rather than applying them mechanically.
The academic research demonstrates conclusively that institutional positioning contains genuine information about future price movements, particularly at extremes where commercial hedgers are maximally bearish or bullish relative to historical norms. This informational content is neither perfect nor deterministic but rather probabilistic, providing edge over many observations through identification of higher-probability configurations. Bessembinder and Chan's finding that commercial positioning explained modest but significant variance in future returns illustrates this probabilistic nature perfectly (Bessembinder and Chan, 1992). The effect is real and statistically significant, yet it explains perhaps ten to fifteen percent of return variance rather than most variance. Much of price movement remains unpredictable even with positioning intelligence.
The practical implication is that COT analysis works best as one component of a trading system rather than a standalone oracle. It provides the positioning dimension, revealing where the smart money has positioned and where the crowd has followed, but price action analysis provides the timing dimension. Fundamental analysis provides the catalyst dimension. Risk management provides the survival dimension. These components work together synergistically.
The indicator's design philosophy prioritizes transparency and education over black-box complexity, empowering traders to understand exactly what they are analyzing and why. Every calculation is documented and user-adjustable. The threshold markers, background coloring, tables, and clear signal states provide multiple reinforcing channels for conveying the same information.
This educational approach reflects a conviction that sustainable trading success comes from genuine understanding rather than mechanical system-following. Traders who understand why commercial positioning matters, how different trader categories behave, what positioning extremes signify, and where signals fit within probability distributions can adapt when market conditions change. Traders mechanically following black-box signals without comprehension abandon systems after normal losing streaks.
The research foundation supporting COT analysis comes primarily from commodity markets where commercial hedger informational advantages are most pronounced. Agricultural producers hedging crops know more about supply conditions than distant speculators. Energy companies hedging production know more about operating costs than financial traders. Metals miners hedging output know more about ore grades than index funds. Financial futures markets show weaker but still present effects.
The journey from reading this documentation to profitable trading based on COT analysis involves several stages that cannot be rushed. Initial reading and basic understanding represents the first stage. Historical study represents the second stage, reviewing past market cycles to observe how positioning extremes preceded major turning points. Paper trading or small-size real trading represents the third stage to experience the psychological challenges. Refinement based on results and personal psychology represents the fourth stage.
Markets will continue evolving. New participant categories will emerge. Regulatory structures will change. Technology will advance. Yet the fundamental dynamics driving COT analysis, that different market participants have different information, different motivations, and different forecasting abilities that manifest in their positioning, will persist as long as futures markets exist. While specific thresholds or optimal parameters may shift over time, the core logic remains sound and adaptable.
The trader equipped with this indicator, understanding of the theory and evidence behind COT analysis, realistic expectations about probability rather than certainty, discipline to maintain positions through adverse volatility, and patience to allow signals time to develop possesses genuine edge in markets. The edge is not enormous, markets cannot allow large persistent inefficiencies without arbitraging them away, but it is real, measurable, and exploitable by those willing to invest in learning and disciplined application.
REFERENCES
Bessembinder, H. (1992) Systematic risk, hedging pressure, and risk premiums in futures markets, Review of Financial Studies, 5(4), pp. 637-667.
Bessembinder, H. and Chan, K. (1992) The profitability of technical trading rules in the Asian stock markets, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 3(2-3), pp. 257-284.
Briese, S. (2008) The Commitments of Traders Bible: How to Profit from Insider Market Intelligence. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Chang, E.C. (1985) Returns to speculators and the theory of normal backwardation, Journal of Finance, 40(1), pp. 193-208.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (2009) Explanatory Notes: Disaggregated Commitments of Traders Report. Available at: www.cftc.gov (Accessed: 15 January 2025).
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (2020) Commitments of Traders: About the Report. Available at: www.cftc.gov (Accessed: 15 January 2025).
Irwin, S.H. and Sanders, D.R. (2012) Testing the Masters Hypothesis in commodity futures markets, Energy Economics, 34(1), pp. 256-269.
Kaufman, P.J. (2013) Trading Systems and Methods. 5th edn. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Ruan, Y. and Zhang, Y. (2018) Forecasting commodity futures prices using machine learning: Evidence from the Chinese commodity futures market, Applied Economics Letters, 25(12), pp. 845-849.
Sanders, D.R., Boris, K. and Manfredo, M. (2004) Hedgers, funds, and small speculators in the energy futures markets: an analysis of the CFTC's Commitments of Traders reports, Energy Economics, 26(3), pp. 425-445.
Schwager, J.D. (2012) Market Sense and Nonsense: How the Markets Really Work and How They Don't. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Tharp, V.K. (2008) Super Trader: Make Consistent Profits in Good and Bad Markets. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Wang, C. (2003) The behavior and performance of major types of futures traders, Journal of Futures Markets, 23(1), pp. 1-31.
Williams, L.R. and Noseworthy, M. (2009) The Right Stock at the Right Time: Prospering in the Coming Good Years. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
FURTHER READING
For traders seeking to deepen their understanding of COT analysis and futures market positioning beyond this documentation, the following resources provide valuable extensions:
Academic Journal Articles:
Fishe, R.P.H. and Smith, A. (2012) Do speculators drive commodity prices away from supply and demand fundamentals?, Journal of Commodity Markets, 1(1), pp. 1-16.
Haigh, M.S., Hranaiova, J. and Overdahl, J.A. (2007) Hedge funds, volatility, and liquidity provision in energy futures markets, Journal of Alternative Investments, 9(4), pp. 10-38.
Kocagil, A.E. (1997) Does futures speculation stabilize spot prices? Evidence from metals markets, Applied Financial Economics, 7(1), pp. 115-125.
Sanders, D.R. and Irwin, S.H. (2011) The impact of index funds in commodity futures markets: A systems approach, Journal of Alternative Investments, 14(1), pp. 40-49.
Books and Practitioner Resources:
Murphy, J.J. (1999) Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Guide to Trading Methods and Applications. New York: New York Institute of Finance.
Pring, M.J. (2002) Technical Analysis Explained: The Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment Trends and Turning Points. 4th edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Federal Reserve and Research Institution Publications:
Federal Reserve Banks regularly publish working papers examining commodity markets, futures positioning, and price discovery mechanisms. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City maintain active research programs in this area.
Online Resources:
The CFTC website provides free access to current and historical COT reports, explanatory materials, and regulatory documentation.
Barchart offers enhanced COT data visualization and screening tools.
TradingView's community library contains numerous published scripts and educational materials exploring different approaches to positioning analysis.
Rainbow Moving Averages (v5 safe)Rainbow Moving Averages — plots multiple moving averages of different lengths in a rainbow colour scheme to visualise market trend strength and direction. The spread and alignment of the lines help identify trend changes and momentum shifts.
Holt Damped Forecast [CHE]A Friendly Note on These Pine Script Scripts
Hey there! Just wanted to share a quick, heartfelt heads-up: All these Pine Script examples come straight from my own self-study adventures as a total autodidact—think late nights tinkering and learning on my own. They're purely for educational vibes, helping me (and hopefully you!) get the hang of Pine Script basics, cool indicators, and building simple strategies.
That said, please know this isn't any kind of financial advice, investment nudge, or pro-level trading blueprint. I'd love for you to dive in with your own research, run those backtests like a champ, and maybe bounce ideas off a qualified expert before trying anything in a real trading setup. No guarantees here on performance or spot-on accuracy—trading's got its risks, and those are totally on each of us.
Let's keep it fun and educational—happy coding! 😊
Holt Damped Forecast — Damped trend forecasts with fan bands for uncertainty visualization and momentum integration
Summary
This indicator applies damped exponential smoothing to generate forward price forecasts, displaying them as probabilistic fan bands to highlight potential ranges rather than point estimates. It incorporates residual-based uncertainty to make projections more reliable in varying market conditions, reducing overconfidence in strong trends. Momentum from the trend component is shown in an optional label alongside signals, aiding quick assessment of direction and strength without relying on lagging oscillators.
Motivation: Why this design?
Standard exponential smoothing often extrapolates trends indefinitely, leading to unrealistic forecasts during mean reversion or weakening momentum. This design uses damping to gradually flatten long-term projections, better suiting real markets where trends fade. It addresses the need for visual uncertainty in forecasts, helping traders avoid entries based on overly optimistic point predictions.
What’s different vs. standard approaches?
- Reference baseline: Diverges from basic Holt's linear exponential smoothing, which assumes persistent trends without decay.
- Architecture differences:
- Adds damping to the trend extrapolation for finite-horizon realism.
- Builds fan bands from historical residuals for probabilistic ranges at multiple confidence levels.
- Integrates a dynamic label combining forecast details, scaled momentum, and directional signals.
- Applies tail background coloring to recent bars based on forecast direction for immediate visual cues.
- Practical effect: Charts show converging forecast bands over time, emphasizing shorter horizons where accuracy is higher. This visibly tempers aggressive projections in trends, making it easier to spot when uncertainty widens, which signals potential reversals or consolidation.
How it works (technical)
The indicator maintains two persistent components: a level tracking the current price baseline and a trend capturing directional slope. On each bar, the level updates by blending the current source price with a one-step-ahead expectation from the prior level and damped trend. The trend then adjusts by weighting the change in level against the prior damped trend. Forecasts extend this forward over a user-defined number of steps, with damping ensuring the trend influence diminishes over distance.
Uncertainty derives from the standard deviation of historical residuals—the differences between actual prices and one-step expectations—scaled by the damping structure for the forecast horizon. Bands form around the median forecast at specified confidence intervals using these scaled errors. Initialization seeds the level to the first bar's price and trend to zero, with persistence handling subsequent updates. A security call fetches the last bar index for tail logic, using lookahead to align with realtime but introducing minor repaint on unconfirmed bars.
Parameter Guide
The Source parameter selects the price input for level and residual calculations, defaulting to close; consider using high or low for assets sensitive to volatility, as close works well for most trend-following setups. Forecast Steps (h) defines the number of bars ahead for projections, defaulting to 4—shorter values like 1 to 5 suit intraday trading, while longer ones may widen bands excessively in choppy conditions. The Color Scheme (2025 Trends) option sets the base, up, and down colors for bands, labels, and backgrounds, starting with Ruby Dawn; opt for serene schemes on clean charts or vibrant ones to stand out in dark themes.
Level Smoothing α controls the responsiveness of the price baseline, defaulting to 0.3—values above 0.5 enhance tracking in fast markets but may amplify noise, whereas lower settings filter disturbances better. Trend Smoothing β adjusts sensitivity to slope changes, at 0.1 by default; increasing to 0.2 helps detect emerging shifts quicker, but keeping it low prevents whipsaws in sideways action. Damping φ (0..1) governs trend persistence, defaulting to 0.8—near 0.9 preserves carryover in sustained moves, while closer to 0.5 curbs overextensions more aggressively.
Show Fan Bands (50/75/95) toggles the probabilistic range display, enabled by default; disable it in oscillator panes to reduce clutter, but it's key for overlay forecasts. Residual Window (Bars) sets the length for deviation estimates, at 400 bars initially—100 to 200 works for short timeframes, and 500 or more adds stability over extended histories. Line Width determines the thickness of band and median lines, defaulting to 2; go thicker at 3 to 5 for emphasis on higher timeframes or thinner for layered indicators.
Show Median/Forecast Line reveals the central projection, on by default—hide if bands provide enough detail, or keep for pinpoint entry references. Show Integrated Label activates the combined view of forecast, momentum, and signal, defaulting to true; it's right-aligned for convenience, so turn it off on smaller screens to save space. Show Tail Background colors the last few bars by forecast direction, enabled initially; pair low transparency for subtle hints or higher for bolder emphasis.
Tail Length (Bars) specifies bars to color backward from the current one, at 3 by default—1 to 2 fits scalping, while 5 or more underscores building momentum. Tail Transparency (%) fades the background intensity, starting at 80; 50 to 70 delivers strong signals, and 90 or above allows seamless blending. Include Momentum in Label adds the scaled trend value, defaulting to true—ATR% scaling here offers relative strength context across assets.
Include Long/Short/Neutral Signal in Label displays direction from the trend sign, on by default; neutral helps in ranging markets, though it can be overlooked during strong trends. Scaling normalizes momentum output (raw, ATR-relative, or level-relative), set to ATR% initially—ATR% ensures cross-asset comparability, while %Level provides percentage perspectives. ATR Length defines the period for true range averaging in scaling, at 14; align it with your chart timeframe or shorten for quicker volatility responses.
Decimals sets precision in the momentum label, defaulting to 2—0 to 1 yields clean integers, and 3 or more suits detailed forex views. Show Zero-Cross Markers places arrows at direction changes, enabled by default; keep size small to minimize clutter, with text labels for fast scanning.
Reading & Interpretation
Fan bands expand outward from the current bar, with the median line as the central forecast—narrower bands indicate lower uncertainty, wider suggest caution. Colors tint up (positive forecast vs. prior level) in the scheme's up hue and down otherwise. The optional label lists the horizon, median, and range brackets at 50%, 75%, and 95% levels, followed by momentum (scaled per mode) and signal (Long if positive trend, Short if negative, Neutral if zero). Zero-cross arrows mark trend flips: upward triangle below bar for bullish cross, downward above for bearish. Tail background reinforces the forecast direction on recent bars.
Practical Workflows & Combinations
- Trend following: Enter long on upward zero-cross if median forecast rises above price and bands contain it; confirm with higher highs/lows. Short on downward cross with falling median.
- Exits/Stops: Trail stops below 50% lower band in longs; exit if momentum drifts negative or signal turns neutral. Use wider bands (75/95%) for conservative holds in volatile regimes.
- Multi-asset/Multi-TF: Defaults work across stocks, forex, crypto on 5m-1D; scale steps by TF (e.g., 10+ on daily). Layer with volume or structure tools—avoid over-reliance on isolated crosses.
Behavior, Constraints & Performance
Closed-bar logic ensures stable historical plots, but realtime updates via security lookahead may shift forecasts until bar confirmation, introducing minor repaint on the last bar. No explicit HTF calls beyond bar index fetch, minimizing gaps but watch for low-liquidity assets. Resources include a 2000-bar lookback for residuals and up to 500 labels, with no loops—efficient for most charts. Known limits: Early bars show wide bands due to sparse residuals; assumes stationary errors, so gaps or regime shifts widen inaccuracies.
Sensible Defaults & Quick Tuning
Start with defaults for balanced smoothing on 15m-4H charts. For choppy conditions (too many crosses), lower β to 0.05 and raise residual window to 600 for stability. In trending markets (sluggish signals), increase α/β to 0.4/0.2 and shorten steps to 2. If bands overexpand, boost φ toward 0.95 to preserve trend carry. Tune colors for theme fit without altering logic.
What this indicator is—and isn’t
This is a visualization and signal layer for damped forecasts and momentum, complementing price action analysis. It isn’t a standalone system—pair with risk rules and broader context. Not predictive beyond the horizon; use for confirmation, not blind entries.
Disclaimer
The content provided, including all code and materials, is strictly for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as, and should not be interpreted as, financial advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument, or an offer of any financial product or service. All strategies, tools, and examples discussed are provided for illustrative purposes to demonstrate coding techniques and the functionality of Pine Script within a trading context.
Any results from strategies or tools provided are hypothetical, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Trading and investing involve high risk, including the potential loss of principal, and may not be suitable for all individuals. Before making any trading decisions, please consult with a qualified financial professional to understand the risks involved.
By using this script, you acknowledge and agree that any trading decisions are made solely at your discretion and risk.
Do not use this indicator on Heikin-Ashi, Renko, Kagi, Point-and-Figure, or Range charts, as these chart types can produce unrealistic results for signal markers and alerts.
Best regards and happy trading
Chervolino
RBLR - GSK Vizag AP IndiaThis indicator identifies the Opening Range High (ORH) and Low (ORL) based on the first 15 minutes of the Indian equity market session (9:15 AM to 9:30 AM IST). It draws horizontal lines extending these levels until market close (3:30 PM IST) and generates visual signals for price breakouts above ORH or below ORL, as well as reversals back into the range.
Key features:
- **Range Calculation**: Captures the high and low during the opening period using real-time bar data.
- **Line Extension**: Lines are dynamically extended bar-by-bar within the session for clear visualization.
- **Signals**:
- Green triangle up: Crossover above ORH (potential bullish breakout).
- Red triangle down: Crossunder below ORL (potential bearish breakout).
- Yellow labels: Reversals from breakout levels back into the range.
- **Labels**: "RAM BAAN" marks the ORH (inspired by a precise arrow from the Ramayana), and "LAKSHMAN REKHA" marks the ORL (inspired by a protective boundary line from the same epic).
- **Customization**: Toggle signals on/off and select line styles (Dotted, Dashed, Solid, or Smoothed, with transparency for Smoothed).
The state-tracking logic prevents redundant signals by monitoring if price remains outside the range after a breakout. This helps users observe range-bound behavior or directional moves without built-in alerts. This indicator is particularly useful for day trading on longer intraday timeframes (e.g., 15-minute charts) to identify session-wide trends and avoid noise in shorter frames. For best results, apply on intraday timeframes on NSE/BSE symbols. Note that lines and labels are limited to the script's max counts to avoid performance issues on long histories.
**Disclaimer**: This indicator is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Trading in financial markets involves significant risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Users should conduct their own research, consider their financial situation, and consult with qualified professionals before making any investment decisions. The author and TradingView assume no liability for any losses incurred from its use.
Lump Sum Favorability (SPX & NDX)This indicator provides a visual dashboard to gauge the statistical favorability of deploying a "Lump Sum" investment into the SPX (S&P 500) or NDX (Nasdaq 100).
The primary goal is not to time the exact market bottom, but to identify zones of significant pessimism or euphoria. Historically, periods of indiscriminate selling have represented high-probability entry points for long-term investors.
The dashboard consists of two parts:
1. The Favorability Gauge: A 12-segment gauge that moves from Red (Unfavorable) to Teal (Favorable).
2. The Summary Text: An optional text box (enabled in settings) that provides a plain-English summary of the current market breadth.
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The Method: Market Breadth
This indicator is not based on the price of the index itself. Price-based indicators (like an RSI on the SPX) can be misleading. In a market-cap-weighted index, a few mega-cap stocks can hold the index price up while the vast majority of "average" stocks are already in a deep bear market.
This tool uses Market Breadth to measure the true, underlying health and participation of the entire market.
How It Works
1. Data Source: The indicator pulls the daily percentage of companies within the selected index (SPX or NDX) that are trading above their 200-day moving average. (Data tickers: S5TH for SPX, NDTH for NDX).
2. Smoothing: This raw data is volatile. To filter out daily noise and confirm a persistent trend, the indicator calculates a 5-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) of this percentage. This is the value used by the indicator.
3. Interpretation:
High Value (>= 50%): More than half of the stocks are above their long-term average. This signifies the market is "Overheated" or in a risk-on phase. The favorability for a new lump sum investment is considered Low.
Low Value (< 50%): Less than half of the stocks are above their long-term average. This signifies "Oversold" conditions or capitulation. These moments historically offer the best favorability for starting a new long-term investment.
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How to Use the Indicator
1. The Favorability Gauge
The gauge is designed to be intuitive: Red means "Stop/Caution," and Teal means "Go/Opportunity."
Note: The gauge's logic is inverted from the data value to achieve this simplicity.
Red Zone (Left): UNFAVORABLE
This corresponds to a high percentage of stocks being above their 200d MA (>= 50%). The market is considered Overheated, and the favorability for a new lump sum investment is low.
Teal Zone (Right): FAVORABLE
This corresponds to a low percentage of stocks being above their 200d MA (< 50%). The market is considered Oversold, and the favorability for a new lump sum investment is high.
2. The Summary Text
When "Show Summary Text" is enabled in the settings, a box will appear at the top-center of your chart. This box provides a clear, data-driven summary, such as:
"Currently, only 22% of S&P 500 companies are above their 200-day MA. Market is Oversold."
The color of this text will automatically change to match the market state (Red for Overheated, Teal for Oversold), providing instant confirmation of the gauge's reading.
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Settings
Market: Choose the index to analyze: SPX (S&P 500) or NDX (Nasdaq 100).
Gauge Position: Select where the gauge dashboard should appear on your chart (default is Bottom Right).
Show Summary Text: Toggle the descriptive text box on or off (default is On).
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This indicator is a statistical and historical guide, not a financial advice or timing signal. It is designed to measure favorability based on past market behavior, not to provide certainty.
Extreme oversold conditions can persist, and markets can always go lower. This tool should be used as one component of a broader investment and risk-management framework. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
Buy And Hold Performance Screener - [JTCAPITAL]Buy And Hold Performance Screener – is a script designed to track and display multi-asset “buy and hold” performance curves and performance statistics over defined timeframes for selected symbols. It doesn’t attempt to time entries or exits; rather, it shows what would happen if one simply bought the asset at the defined start date and held it.
The indicator works by calculating in the following steps:
Start Date Definition
The script begins by reading an input for the start date. This defines the bar from which the equity curves begin.
Symbol Definitions & Close Price Retrieval
The script allows the user to specify up to ten tickers. For each ticker it uses request.security() on the “1D” timeframe to retrieve the daily close price of that symbol.
Plot Enable Inputs
For each ticker there is an input boolean controlling whether the equity curve for that ticker should be plotted.
Asset Name Cleaning
The helper function clean_name(string asset) => … takes the asset string (e.g., “CRYPTO:SOLUSD”) and manipulates it (via string splitting and replacements) to derive a cleaned short name (e.g., “SOL”). This name is used for visuals (labels, table headers).
Equity Curve Calculation (“HODL”)
The helper function f_HODL(closez) defines a variable equity that assumes a starting equity of 1 unit at the start date and then multiplies by the ratio of each bar’s close to the prior bar’s close: i.e. daily compounding of returns.
Performance Metrics Calculation
The helper function f_performance(closez) calculates, for each symbol’s close series, the percentage change of the current close relative to its close 30 days ago, 90 days ago, 180 days ago, 1 year ago (365 days), 2 years ago (730 days) and 3 years ago (1095 days).
Equity Curve Plots
For each ticker, if the corresponding plot input is true, the script assigns a plotted variable equal to the equity curve value. Its then drawing each selected equity curve on the chart, each in a distinct color.
Table Construction
If the plottable input is true, the script constructs a table and populates it with rows and column corresponding to the assigned tickers and the set 6 timeframes used for display.
Buy and Sell Conditions:
Since this is strictly a “buy-and-hold” performance screener, there are no explicit buy or sell signals generated or plotted. The script assumes: buy at the defined start_date, hold continuously to present. There are no filters, no exit logic, no take-profit or stop-loss. The benefit of this approach is to provide a clean benchmark of how selected assets would have performed if one simply adopted a passive “buy & hold” approach from a given start date.
Features and Parameters:
start_date (input.time) : Defines the date from which performance and equity curves begin.
ticker1 … ticker10 (input.symbol) : User-selectable asset symbols to include in the screener.
plot1 … plot10 (input.bool) : Boolean flags to enable/disable plotting of each asset’s equity curve.
plottable (input.bool) : Flag to enable/disable drawing the performance table.
Colored plotting + Labels for identifying each asset curve on the chart.
Specifications:
Here is a detailed breakdown of every calculation/variable/function used in the script and what each part means:
start_date
This is defined via input.time(timestamp("1 Jan 2025"), title = "Start Date"). It allows the user to pick a specific calendar date from which the equity curves and performance calculations will start.
ticker1 … ticker10
These inputs allow the user to select up to ten different assets (symbols) to monitor. The script uses each of these to fetch daily close prices.
plot1 … plot10
Boolean inputs controlling which of the ten asset equity curves are plotted. If plotX is true, the equity curve for ticker X will be visible; otherwise it will be not plotted. This gives the user flexibility to include or exclude specific assets on the chart.
Returns the cleaned asset short name.
This provides friendly text labels like “BTC”, “ETH”, “SOL”, etc., instead of full symbol codes.
The choice of distinct colours for each asset helps differentiate curves visually when multiple assets are overlaid.
Colour definitions
Variables color1…color10 are explicitly defined via color.rgb(r,g,b) to give each asset a unique colour (e.g., red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, pink, etc.).
What are the benefits of combining these calculations?
By computing equity curves for multiple assets from the same start date and overlaying them, you can visualise comparative performance of different assets under a uniform “buy & hold” assumption.
The performance table adds multi-horizon returns (30 D, 90 D, 180 D, 1 Y, 2 Y, 3 Y) which helps the user see both short-term and longer-term performance without having to manually compute returns.
The use of daily close data via request.security(..., "1D") removes dependency on the chart’s timeframe, thereby standardising the comparison across assets.
The equity curve and table together provide both visual (curve) and numerical (table) summaries of performance, making it easier to spot trends, divergences, and cross-asset comparisons at a glance.
Because it uses compounding (equity := equity * (closez / closez )), the curves reflect the real growth of a 1-unit investment held over time, rather than only simple returns.
The labelling of curves and the color-coding make the multi-asset overlay easier to interpret.
Using a clean start date ensures that all curves begin at the same point (1 unit at start_date), making relative performance intuitive.
Because of this, the script is useful as a benchmarking tool: rather than trying to pick entries or exit points, you can simply compare “what if I had held these assets since Jan 1 2025” (or your chosen date), and see which assets out-/under-performed in that period. It helps an investor or trader evaluate the long-term benefits of passive vs. active management, or of allocation decisions.
Please note:
The script assumes continuous daily data and does not account for dividends, fees, slippage, or tax implications.
It does not attempt to optimise timing or provide trading signals.
Returns prior to the start date are ignored (equity only begins once time >= start_date).
For newly listed assets with fewer than 365 or 730 or 1095 days of history, the longer-horizon returns may return na or misleading values.
Because it uses request.security() without specifying lookahead, and on “1D” timeframe, it complies with standard usage but you should verify there is no look-ahead bias in your particular setup.
ENJOY!
J.P. Morgan Efficiente 5 IndexJ.P. MORGAN EFFICIENTE 5 INDEX REPLICATION
Walk into any retail trading forum and you'll find the same scene playing out thousands of times a day: traders huddled over their screens, drawing trendlines on candlestick charts, hunting for the perfect entry signal, convinced that the next RSI crossover will unlock the path to financial freedom. Meanwhile, in the towers of lower Manhattan and the City of London, portfolio managers are doing something entirely different. They're not drawing lines. They're not hunting patterns. They're building fortresses of diversification, wielding mathematical frameworks that have survived decades of market chaos, and most importantly, they're thinking in portfolios while retail thinks in positions.
This divide is not just philosophical. It's structural, mathematical, and ultimately, profitable. The uncomfortable truth that retail traders must confront is this: while you're obsessing over whether the 50-day moving average will cross the 200-day, institutional investors are solving quadratic optimization problems across thirteen asset classes, rebalancing monthly according to Markowitz's Nobel Prize-winning framework, and targeting precise volatility levels that allow them to sleep at night regardless of what the VIX does tomorrow. The game you're playing and the game they're playing share the same field, but the rules are entirely different.
The question, then, is not whether retail traders can access institutional strategies. The question is whether they're willing to fundamentally change how they think about markets. Are you ready to stop painting lines and start building portfolios?
THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK: HOW THE PROFESSIONALS ACTUALLY THINK
When Harry Markowitz published "Portfolio Selection" in The Journal of Finance in 1952, he fundamentally altered how sophisticated investors approach markets. His insight was deceptively simple: returns alone mean nothing. Risk-adjusted returns mean everything. For this revelation, he would eventually receive the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1990, and his framework would become the foundation upon which trillions of dollars are managed today (Markowitz, 1952).
Modern Portfolio Theory, as it came to be known, introduced a revolutionary concept: through diversification across imperfectly correlated assets, an investor could reduce portfolio risk without sacrificing expected returns. This wasn't about finding the single best asset. It was about constructing the optimal combination of assets. The mathematics are elegant in their logic: if two assets don't move in perfect lockstep, combining them creates a portfolio whose volatility is lower than the weighted average of the individual volatilities. This "free lunch" of diversification became the bedrock of institutional investment management (Elton et al., 2014).
But here's where retail traders miss the point entirely: this isn't about having ten different stocks instead of one. It's about systematic, mathematically rigorous allocation across asset classes with fundamentally different risk drivers. When equity markets crash, high-quality government bonds often rally. When inflation surges, commodities may provide protection even as stocks and bonds both suffer. When emerging markets are in vogue, developed markets may lag. The professional investor doesn't predict which scenario will unfold. Instead, they position for all of them simultaneously, with weights determined not by gut feeling but by quantitative optimization.
This is what J.P. Morgan Asset Management embedded into their Efficiente Index series. These are not actively managed funds where a portfolio manager makes discretionary calls. They are rules-based, systematic strategies that execute the Markowitz framework in real-time, rebalancing monthly to maintain optimal risk-adjusted positioning across global equities, fixed income, commodities, and defensive assets (J.P. Morgan Asset Management, 2016).
THE EFFICIENTE 5 STRATEGY: DECONSTRUCTING INSTITUTIONAL METHODOLOGY
The Efficiente 5 Index, specifically, targets a 5% annualized volatility. Let that sink in for a moment. While retail traders routinely accept 20%, 30%, or even 50% annual volatility in pursuit of returns, institutional allocators have determined that 5% volatility provides an optimal balance between growth potential and capital preservation. This isn't timidity. It's mathematics. At higher volatility levels, the compounding drag from large drawdowns becomes mathematically punishing. A 50% loss requires a 100% gain just to break even. The institutional solution: constrain volatility at the portfolio level, allowing the power of compounding to work unimpeded (Damodaran, 2008).
The strategy operates across thirteen exchange-traded funds spanning five distinct asset classes: developed equity markets (SPY, IWM, EFA), fixed income across the risk spectrum (TLT, LQD, HYG), emerging markets (EEM, EMB), alternatives (IYR, GSG, GLD), and defensive positioning (TIP, BIL). These aren't arbitrary choices. Each ETF represents a distinct factor exposure, and together they provide access to the primary drivers of global asset returns (Fama and French, 1993).
The methodology, as detailed in replication research by Jungle Rock (2025), follows a precise monthly cadence. At the end of each month, the strategy recalculates expected returns and volatilities for all thirteen assets using a 126-day rolling window. This six-month lookback balances responsiveness to changing market conditions against the noise of short-term fluctuations. The optimization engine then solves for the portfolio weights that maximize expected return subject to the 5% volatility target, with additional constraints to prevent excessive concentration.
These constraints are critical and reveal institutional wisdom that retail traders typically ignore. No single ETF can exceed 20% of the portfolio, except for TIP and BIL which can reach 50% given their defensive nature. At the asset class level, developed equities are capped at 50%, bonds at 50%, emerging markets at 25%, and alternatives at 25%. These aren't arbitrary limits. They're guardrails preventing the optimization from becoming too aggressive during periods when recent performance might suggest concentrating heavily in a single area that's been hot (Jorion, 1992).
After optimization, there's one final step that appears almost trivial but carries profound implications: weights are rounded to the nearest 5%. In a world of fractional shares and algorithmic execution, why round to 5%? The answer reveals institutional practicality over mathematical purity. A portfolio weight of 13.7% and 15.0% are functionally similar in their risk contribution, but the latter is vastly easier to communicate, to monitor, and to execute at scale. When you're managing billions, parsimony matters.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR RETAIL: THE GAP BETWEEN APPROACH AND EXECUTION
Here's the uncomfortable reality: most retail traders are playing a different game entirely, and they don't even realize it. When a retail trader says "I'm bullish on tech," they buy QQQ and that's their entire technology exposure. When they say "I need some diversification," they buy ten different stocks, often in correlated sectors. This isn't diversification in the Markowitzian sense. It's concentration with extra steps.
The institutional approach represented by the Efficiente 5 is fundamentally different in several ways. First, it's systematic. Emotions don't drive the allocation. The mathematics do. When equities have rallied hard and now represent 55% of the portfolio despite a 50% cap, the system sells equities and buys bonds or alternatives, regardless of how bullish the headlines feel. This forced contrarianism is what retail traders know they should do but rarely execute (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979).
Second, it's forward-looking in its inputs but backward-looking in its process. The strategy doesn't try to predict the next crisis or the next boom. It simply measures what volatility and returns have been recently, assumes the immediate future resembles the immediate past more than it resembles some forecast, and positions accordingly. This humility regarding prediction is perhaps the most institutional characteristic of all.
Third, and most critically, it treats the portfolio as a single organism. Retail traders typically view their holdings as separate positions, each requiring individual management. The institutional approach recognizes that what matters is not whether Position A made money, but whether the portfolio as a whole achieved its risk-adjusted return target. A position can lose money and still be a valuable contributor if it reduced portfolio volatility or provided diversification during stress periods.
THE MATHEMATICAL FOUNDATION: MEAN-VARIANCE OPTIMIZATION IN PRACTICE
At its core, the Efficiente 5 strategy solves a constrained optimization problem each month. In technical terms, this is a quadratic programming problem: maximize expected portfolio return subject to a volatility constraint and position limits. The objective function is straightforward: maximize the weighted sum of expected returns. The constraint is that the weighted sum of variances and covariances must not exceed the volatility target squared (Markowitz, 1959).
The challenge, and this is crucial for understanding the Pine Script implementation, is that solving this problem properly requires calculating a covariance matrix. This 13x13 matrix captures not just the volatility of each asset but the correlation between every pair of assets. Two assets might each have 15% volatility, but if they're negatively correlated, combining them reduces portfolio risk. If they're positively correlated, it doesn't. The covariance matrix encodes these relationships.
True mean-variance optimization requires matrix algebra and quadratic programming solvers. Pine Script, by design, lacks these capabilities. The language doesn't support matrix operations, and certainly doesn't include a QP solver. This creates a fundamental challenge: how do you implement an institutional strategy in a language not designed for institutional mathematics?
The solution implemented here uses a pragmatic approximation. Instead of solving the full covariance problem, the indicator calculates a Sharpe-like ratio for each asset (return divided by volatility) and uses these ratios to determine initial weights. It then applies the individual and asset-class constraints, renormalizes, and produces the final portfolio. This isn't mathematically equivalent to true mean-variance optimization, but it captures the essential spirit: weight assets according to their risk-adjusted return potential, subject to diversification constraints.
For retail implementation, this approximation is likely sufficient. The difference between a theoretically optimal portfolio and a very good approximation is typically modest, and the discipline of systematic rebalancing across asset classes matters far more than the precise weights. Perfect is the enemy of good, and a good approximation executed consistently will outperform a perfect solution that never gets implemented (Arnott et al., 2013).
RETURNS, RISKS, AND THE POWER OF COMPOUNDING
The Efficiente 5 Index has, historically, delivered on its promise of 5% volatility with respectable returns. While past performance never guarantees future results, the framework reveals why low-volatility strategies can be surprisingly powerful. Consider two portfolios: Portfolio A averages 12% returns with 20% volatility, while Portfolio B averages 8% returns with 5% volatility. Which performs better over time?
The arithmetic return favors Portfolio A, but compound returns tell a different story. Portfolio A will experience occasional 20-30% drawdowns. Portfolio B rarely draws down more than 10%. Over a twenty-year horizon, the geometric return (what you actually experience) for Portfolio B may match or exceed Portfolio A, simply because it never gives back massive gains. This is the power of volatility management that retail traders chronically underestimate (Bernstein, 1996).
Moreover, low volatility enables behavioral advantages. When your portfolio draws down 35%, as it might with a high-volatility approach, the psychological pressure to sell at the worst possible time becomes overwhelming. When your maximum drawdown is 12%, as might occur with the Efficiente 5 approach, staying the course is far easier. Behavioral finance research has consistently shown that investor returns lag fund returns primarily due to poor timing decisions driven by emotional responses to volatility (Dalbar, 2020).
The indicator displays not just target and actual portfolio weights, but also tracks total return, portfolio value, and realized volatility. This isn't just data. It's feedback. Retail traders can see, in real-time, whether their actual portfolio volatility matches their target, whether their risk-adjusted returns are improving, and whether their allocation discipline is holding. This transparency transforms abstract concepts into concrete metrics.
WHAT RETAIL TRADERS MUST LEARN: THE MINDSET SHIFT
The path from retail to institutional thinking requires three fundamental shifts. First, stop thinking in positions and start thinking in portfolios. Your question should never be "Should I buy this stock?" but rather "How does this position change my portfolio's expected return and volatility?" If you can't answer that question quantitatively, you're not ready to make the trade.
Second, embrace systematic rebalancing even when it feels wrong. Perhaps especially when it feels wrong. The Efficiente 5 strategy rebalances monthly regardless of market conditions. If equities have surged and now exceed their target weight, the strategy sells equities and buys bonds or alternatives. Every retail trader knows this is what you "should" do, but almost none actually do it. The institutional edge isn't in having better information. It's in having better discipline (Swensen, 2009).
Third, accept that volatility is not your friend. The retail mythology that "higher risk equals higher returns" is true on average across assets, but it's not true for implementation. A 15% return with 30% volatility will compound more slowly than a 12% return with 10% volatility due to the mathematics of return distributions. Institutions figured this out decades ago. Retail is still learning.
The Efficiente 5 replication indicator provides a bridge. It won't solve the problem of prediction no indicator can. But it solves the problem of allocation, which is arguably more important. By implementing institutional methodology in an accessible format, it allows retail traders to see what professional portfolio construction actually looks like, not in theory but in executable code. The the colorful lines that retail traders love to draw, don't disappear. They simply become less central to the process. The portfolio becomes central instead.
IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS AND PRACTICAL REALITY
Running this indicator on TradingView provides a dynamic view of how institutional allocation would evolve over time. The labels on each asset class line show current weights, updated continuously as prices change and rebalancing occurs. The dashboard displays the full allocation across all thirteen ETFs, showing both target weights (what the optimization suggests) and actual weights (what the portfolio currently holds after price movements).
Several key insights emerge from watching this process unfold. First, the strategy is not static. Weights change monthly as the optimization recalibrates to recent volatility and returns. What worked last month may not be optimal this month. Second, the strategy is not market-timing. It doesn't try to predict whether stocks will rise or fall. It simply measures recent behavior and positions accordingly. If volatility has risen, the strategy shifts toward defensive assets. If correlations have changed, the diversification benefits adjust.
Third, and perhaps most importantly for retail traders, the strategy demonstrates that sophistication and complexity are not synonyms. The Efficiente 5 methodology is sophisticated in its framework but simple in its execution. There are no exotic derivatives, no complex market-timing rules, no predictions of future scenarios. Just systematic optimization, monthly rebalancing, and discipline. This simplicity is a feature, not a bug.
The indicator also highlights limitations that retail traders must understand. The Pine Script implementation uses an approximation of true mean-variance optimization, as discussed earlier. Transaction costs are not modeled. Slippage is ignored. Tax implications are not considered. These simplifications mean the indicator is educational and analytical, not a fully operational trading system. For actual implementation, traders would need to account for these real-world factors.
Moreover, the strategy requires access to all thirteen ETFs and sufficient capital to hold meaningful positions in each. With 5% as the rounding increment, practical implementation probably requires at least $10,000 to avoid having positions that are too small to matter. The strategy is also explicitly designed for a 5% volatility target, which may be too conservative for younger investors with long time horizons or too aggressive for retirees living off their portfolio. The framework is adaptable, but adaptation requires understanding the trade-offs.
CAN RETAIL TRULY COMPETE WITH INSTITUTIONS?
The honest answer is nuanced. Retail traders will never have the same resources as institutions. They won't have Bloomberg terminals, proprietary research, or armies of analysts. But in portfolio construction, the resource gap matters less than the mindset gap. The mathematics of Markowitz are available to everyone. ETFs provide liquid, low-cost access to institutional-quality building blocks. Computing power is essentially free. The barriers are not technological or financial. They're conceptual.
If a retail trader understands why portfolios matter more than positions, why systematic discipline beats discretionary emotion, and why volatility management enables compounding, they can build portfolios that rival institutional allocation in their elegance and effectiveness. Not in their scale, not in their execution costs, but in their conceptual soundness. The Efficiente 5 framework proves this is possible.
What retail traders must recognize is that competing with institutions doesn't mean day-trading better than their algorithms. It means portfolio-building better than their average client. And that's achievable because most institutional clients, despite having access to the best managers, still make emotional decisions, chase performance, and abandon strategies at the worst possible times. The retail edge isn't in outsmarting professionals. It's in out-disciplining amateurs who happen to have more money.
The J.P. Morgan Efficiente 5 Index Replication indicator serves as both a tool and a teacher. As a tool, it provides a systematic framework for multi-asset allocation based on proven institutional methodology. As a teacher, it demonstrates daily what portfolio thinking actually looks like in practice. The colorful lines remain on the chart, but they're no longer the focus. The portfolio is the focus. The risk-adjusted return is the focus. The systematic discipline is the focus.
Stop painting lines. Start building portfolios. The institutions have been doing it for seventy years. It's time retail caught up.
REFERENCES
Arnott, R. D., Hsu, J., & Moore, P. (2013). Fundamental Indexation. Financial Analysts Journal, 61(2), 83-99.
Bernstein, W. J. (1996). The Intelligent Asset Allocator. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Dalbar, Inc. (2020). Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior. Boston: Dalbar.
Damodaran, A. (2008). Strategic Risk Taking: A Framework for Risk Management. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Elton, E. J., Gruber, M. J., Brown, S. J., & Goetzmann, W. N. (2014). Modern Portfolio Theory and Investment Analysis (9th ed.). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Fama, E. F., & French, K. R. (1993). Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds. Journal of Financial Economics, 33(1), 3-56.
Jorion, P. (1992). Portfolio optimization in practice. Financial Analysts Journal, 48(1), 68-74.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management. (2016). Guide to the Markets. New York: J.P. Morgan.
Jungle Rock. (2025). Institutional Asset Allocation meets the Efficient Frontier: Replicating the JPMorgan Efficiente 5 Strategy. Working Paper.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263-291.
Markowitz, H. (1952). Portfolio Selection. The Journal of Finance, 7(1), 77-91.
Markowitz, H. (1959). Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification of Investments. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Swensen, D. F. (2009). Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment. New York: Free Press.
SECTOR ROTATION Sector Rotation Indicator with Auto Chart Symbol
This indicator helps traders track relative performance across multiple indices/sectors simultaneously, making it easy to identify sector rotation and market leadership.
Key Features:
✅ 21 Symbols Tracking: Monitor 20 customizable symbols + your current chart symbol automatically(DIVIDEND SYMBOL)
✅ Percentage Performance: All moving averages show percentage gain/loss from 1 timeframe period ago
✅ Color-Coded Visualization: Heat map coloring (red to green) based on relative performance ranking
✅ Flexible Timeframes: Works on any timeframe from 1-minute to 12-month charts
✅ Performance Table: Quick-view table showing candle performance with inside/outside bar detection
✅ Indian Market Ready: Pre-configured with NSE indices (NIFTY, BANKNIFTY, and sectoral indices)
Default Symbols (Customizable):
NIFTY, CNXSMALLCAP, CNXMIDCAP, BANKNIFTY
Sector indices: IT, AUTO, PHARMA, METAL, ENERGY, FMCG, etc.
Plus your current chart symbol (automatically added)
How It Works:
Select your preferred timeframe (1D, 1W, 1M, etc.)
The indicator calculates percentage performance from given period ago
Moving averages show smoothed performance trends
Colors indicate relative strength: Green = outperformers, Red = underperformers
Perfect For:
Sector rotation analysis
Relative strength comparison
Market breadth assessment
Index/ETF traders
Swing and position traders
Settings:
Adjustable MA length (default: 20)
Customizable colors and table position
Show/hide percentage labels
Horizontal or vertical table layout
This is not any buy or sell signal or recommendation, consult with your advisor first.
Devils Mark Plus Volume Imbalance Multi TimeframeFollowing the success of the devil marks multi timeframe indicator I decided to add volume imbalance. Devils mark code remains unchanged here.
Functionality of the Devils mark remains the same as in when a candle prints without a wick at either end it indicates an area of price imbalance and it is assumed that the market will want to re-balance this level at some point in the future.
The same can be said for volume imbalances where 2 adjacent candles bodies don't meet. Again it it assumed the market will come back at some point to readdress this imbalance. Once mitigated the volume imbalance will be removed by the indicator.
These areas are best used to add confluence to trade ideas and shouldn't be used to formulate trade ideas on their own.
A table is included for easy reference.
Please note that data for timeframes lower than the current timeframe will not be shown. It is also worth noting that data on much higher timeframes than the current chart timeframe may not be shown due to data restrictions. If in doubt go up a timeframe !
I hope you find this indicator useful.
TrendFlowTrendFlow is a visual trend analysis tool that helps identify changes in market direction and momentum.
It uses three exponential moving averages (EMA 21, EMA 50, and EMA 200) to define short-, medium-, and long-term trend structure.
A dynamic color fill highlights the relationship between the 21 and 50 EMAs:
When EMA 21 is above EMA 50, a green fill indicates upward momentum.
When EMA 21 is below EMA 50, a red fill shows downward momentum.
The EMA 200 line adapts its color based on its position relative to the shorter EMAs:
Red when above both EMAs (strong upward structure)
Green when below both EMAs (strong downward structure)
Gray when between them (neutral or consolidation phase)
This setup provides a clear visual framework for observing trend flow and directional bias over multiple timeframes.
Developed by The Volume Hub Fintech and Strategy Development
Zero Lag Trend Signals (MTF) [Quant Trading] V7Overview
The Zero Lag Trend Signals (MTF) V7 is a comprehensive trend-following strategy that combines Zero Lag Exponential Moving Average (ZLEMA) with volatility-based bands to identify high-probability trade entries and exits. This strategy is designed to reduce lag inherent in traditional moving averages while incorporating dynamic risk management through ATR-based stops and multiple exit mechanisms.
This is a longer term horizon strategy that takes limited trades. It is not a high frequency trading and therefore will also have limited data and not > 100 trades.
How It Works
Core Signal Generation:
The strategy uses a Zero Lag EMA (ZLEMA) calculated by applying an EMA to price data that has been adjusted for lag:
Calculate lag period: floor((length - 1) / 2)
Apply lag correction: src + (src - src )
Calculate ZLEMA: EMA of lag-corrected price
Volatility bands are created using the highest ATR over a lookback period multiplied by a band multiplier. These bands are added to and subtracted from the ZLEMA line to create upper and lower boundaries.
Trend Detection:
The strategy maintains a trend variable that switches between bullish (1) and bearish (-1):
Long Signal: Triggers when price crosses above ZLEMA + volatility band
Short Signal: Triggers when price crosses below ZLEMA - volatility band
Optional ZLEMA Trend Confirmation:
When enabled, this filter requires ZLEMA to show directional momentum before entry:
Bullish Confirmation: ZLEMA must increase for 4 consecutive bars
Bearish Confirmation: ZLEMA must decrease for 4 consecutive bars
This additional filter helps avoid false signals in choppy or ranging markets.
Risk Management Features:
The strategy includes multiple stop-loss and take-profit mechanisms:
Volatility-Based Stops: Default stop-loss is placed at ZLEMA ± volatility band
ATR-Based Stops: Dynamic stop-loss calculated as entry price ± (ATR × multiplier)
ATR Trailing Stop: Ratcheting stop-loss that follows price but never moves against position
Risk-Reward Profit Target: Take-profit level set as a multiple of stop distance
Break-Even Stop: Moves stop to entry price after reaching specified R:R ratio
Trend-Based Exit: Closes position when price crosses EMA in opposite direction
Performance Tracking:
The strategy includes optional features for monitoring and analyzing trades:
Floating Statistics Table: Displays key metrics including win rate, GOA (Gain on Account), net P&L, and max drawdown
Trade Log Labels: Shows entry/exit prices, P&L, bars held, and exit reason for each closed trade
CSV Export Fields: Outputs trade data for external analysis
Default Strategy Settings
Commission & Slippage:
Commission: 0.1% per trade
Slippage: 3 ticks
Initial Capital: $1,000
Position Size: 100% of equity per trade
Main Calculation Parameters:
Length: 70 (range: 70-7000) - Controls ZLEMA calculation period
Band Multiplier: 1.2 - Adjusts width of volatility bands
Entry Conditions (All Disabled by Default):
Use ZLEMA Trend Confirmation: OFF - Requires ZLEMA directional momentum
Re-Enter on Long Trend: OFF - Allows multiple entries during sustained trends
Short Trades:
Allow Short Trades: OFF - Strategy is long-only by default
Performance Settings (All Disabled by Default):
Use Profit Target: OFF
Profit Target Risk-Reward Ratio: 2.0 (when enabled)
Dynamic TP/SL (All Disabled by Default):
Use ATR-Based Stop-Loss & Take-Profit: OFF
ATR Length: 14
Stop-Loss ATR Multiplier: 1.5
Profit Target ATR Multiplier: 2.5
Use ATR Trailing Stop: OFF
Trailing Stop ATR Multiplier: 1.5
Use Break-Even Stop-Loss: OFF
Move SL to Break-Even After RR: 1.5
Use Trend-Based Take Profit: OFF
EMA Exit Length: 9
Trade Data Display (All Disabled by Default):
Show Floating Stats Table: OFF
Show Trade Log Labels: OFF
Enable CSV Export: OFF
Trade Label Vertical Offset: 0.5
Backtesting Date Range:
Start Date: January 1, 2018
End Date: December 31, 2069
Important Usage Notes
Default Configuration: The strategy operates in its most basic form with default settings - using only ZLEMA crossovers with volatility bands and volatility-based stop-losses. All advanced features must be manually enabled.
Stop-Loss Priority: If multiple stop-loss methods are enabled simultaneously, the strategy will use whichever condition is hit first. ATR-based stops override volatility-based stops when enabled.
Long-Only by Default: Short trading is disabled by default. Enable "Allow Short Trades" to trade both directions.
Performance Monitoring: Enable the floating stats table and trade log labels to visualize strategy performance during backtesting.
Exit Mechanisms: The strategy can exit trades through multiple methods: stop-loss hit, take-profit reached, trend reversal, or trailing stop activation. The trade log identifies which exit method was used.
Re-Entry Logic: When "Re-Enter on Long Trend" is enabled with ZLEMA trend confirmation, the strategy can take multiple long positions during extended uptrends as long as all entry conditions remain valid.
Capital Efficiency: Default setting uses 100% of equity per trade. Adjust "default_qty_value" to manage position sizing based on risk tolerance.
Realistic Backtesting: Strategy includes commission (0.1%) and slippage (3 ticks) to provide realistic performance expectations. These values should be adjusted based on your broker and market conditions.
Recommended Use Cases
Trending Markets: Best suited for markets with clear directional moves where trend-following strategies excel
Medium to Long-Term Trading: The default length of 70 makes this strategy more appropriate for swing trading rather than scalping
Risk-Conscious Traders: Multiple stop-loss options allow traders to customize risk management to their comfort level
Backtesting & Optimization: Comprehensive performance tracking features make this strategy ideal for testing different parameter combinations
Limitations & Considerations
Like all trend-following strategies, performance may suffer in choppy or ranging markets
Default 100% position sizing means full capital exposure per trade - consider reducing for conservative risk management
Higher length values (70+) reduce signal frequency but may improve signal quality
Multiple simultaneous risk management features may create conflicting exit signals
Past performance shown in backtests does not guarantee future results
Customization Tips
For more aggressive trading:
Reduce length parameter (minimum 70)
Decrease band multiplier for tighter bands
Enable short trades
Use lower profit target R:R ratios
For more conservative trading:
Increase length parameter
Enable ZLEMA trend confirmation
Use wider ATR stop-loss multipliers
Enable break-even stop-loss
Reduce position size from 100% default
For optimal choppy market performance:
Enable ZLEMA trend confirmation
Increase band multiplier
Use tighter profit targets
Avoid re-entry on trend continuation
Visual Elements
The strategy plots several elements on the chart:
ZLEMA line (color-coded by trend direction)
Upper and lower volatility bands
Long entry markers (green triangles)
Short entry markers (red triangles, when enabled)
Stop-loss levels (when positions are open)
Take-profit levels (when enabled and positions are open)
Trailing stop lines (when enabled and positions are open)
Optional ZLEMA trend markers (triangles at highs/lows)
Optional trade log labels showing complete trade information
Exit Reason Codes (for CSV Export)
When CSV export is enabled, exit reasons are coded as:
0 = Manual/Other
1 = Trailing Stop-Loss
2 = Profit Target
3 = ATR Stop-Loss
4 = Trend Change
Conclusion
Zero Lag Trend Signals V7 provides a robust framework for trend-following with extensive customization options. The strategy balances simplicity in its core logic with sophisticated risk management features, making it suitable for both beginner and advanced traders. By reducing moving average lag while incorporating volatility-based signals, it aims to capture trends earlier while managing risk through multiple configurable exit mechanisms.
The modular design allows traders to start with basic trend-following and progressively add complexity through ZLEMA confirmation, multiple stop-loss methods, and advanced exit strategies. Comprehensive performance tracking and export capabilities make this strategy an excellent tool for systematic testing and optimization.
Note: This strategy is provided for educational and backtesting purposes. All trading involves risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Always test thoroughly with paper trading before risking real capital, and adjust position sizing and risk parameters according to your risk tolerance and account size.
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TAGS:
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trend following, ZLEMA, zero lag, volatility bands, ATR stops, risk management, swing trading, momentum, trend confirmation, backtesting
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CATEGORY:
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Strategies
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CHART SETUP RECOMMENDATIONS:
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For optimal visualization when publishing:
Use a clean chart with no other indicators overlaid
Select a timeframe that shows multiple trade signals (4H or Daily recommended)
Choose a trending asset (crypto, forex major pairs, or trending stocks work well)
Show at least 6-12 months of data to demonstrate strategy across different market conditions
Enable the floating stats table to display key performance metrics
Ensure all indicator lines (ZLEMA, bands, stops) are clearly visible
Use the default chart type (candlesticks) - avoid Heikin Ashi, Renko, etc.
Make sure symbol information and timeframe are clearly visible
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COMPLIANCE NOTES:
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✅ Open-source publication with complete code visibility
✅ English-only title and description
✅ Detailed explanation of methodology and calculations
✅ Realistic commission (0.1%) and slippage (3 ticks) included
✅ All default parameters clearly documented
✅ Performance limitations and risks disclosed
✅ No unrealistic claims about performance
✅ No guaranteed results promised
✅ Appropriate for public library (original trend-following implementation with ZLEMA)
✅ Educational disclaimers included
✅ All features explained in detail
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EMA 9 + VWAP Bands Crossover With Buy Sell SignalsEMA 9 + VWAP Bands Crossover With Buy Sell Signals
Kalman Exponential SuperTrendThe Kalman Exponential SuperTrend is a new, smoother & superior version of the famous "SuperTrend". Using Kalman smoothing, a concept from the EMA (Exponential Moving Average), this script leverages the best out of each and combines it into a single indicator.
How does it work?
First, we need to calculate the Kalman smoothed source. This is a kind of complex calculation, so you need to study it if you want to know how it works precisely. It smooths the source of the SuperTrend, which helps us smooth the SuperTrend.
Then, we calculate "a" where:
n = user defined ATR length
a = 2/(n+1)
Now we calculate the ATR over "n" period. Classical calculation, nothing changed here.
Now we calculate the SuperTrend using the Kalman smoothed source & ATR where:
kalman = kalman smoothed source
ATR = Average True Range
m = Factor chosen by user.
Upper Band = kalman + ATR * m
Lower Band = kalman - ATR * m
Now we just smooth it a bit further using the "a" and a concept from the EMA.
u1 = Upper Band a bar ago
l1 = Lower Band a bar ago
u = Upper Band
l = Lower Band
Upper = u1 * (1-a) + u * a
Lower = l1 * (1-a) + u * a
When the classical (not Kalman) source crosses above the Upper, it indicates an uptrend. When it crosses below the Lower, it indicates a downtrend.
Methodology & Concepts
When I took a look at the classical SuperTrend => It was just far too slow, and if I made it faster it was noisy as hell. So I decided I would try to make up for it.
I tried the gaussian, bilateral filter, but then I tried kalman and that worked the best, so I added it. Now it was still too noisy and unconsistent, so I revisited my knowledge of concepts and picked the one from the EMA, and it kinda solved it.
In the core of the indicator, all it does is combine them in a really simple way, but if you go more deeply you see how it fits the puzzlé really well.
It is not about trying out random things´=> but about seeking what it is missing and trying to lessen its bad side.
That is the entire point of this indicator => Offer a unique approach to the SuperTrend type, that lessen the bad sides of it.
I also added different plotting types, this is so everyone can find their favorite
Enjoy Gs!
NEURAL FLOW INDEX — Core Energy • Momentum Stream • Pulse SyncNeural Flow Index (NFI) — Advanced Triple-Layer Reversal Framework
The Neural Flow Index (NFI) is a next-generation market oscillator designed to reveal the hidden synchronization between trend energy, cyclical momentum, and internal pulse dynamics.
It merges three powerful analytical layers into a single, normalized view:
Core Energy Curve (based on RSO logic) — captures structural trend bias and volatility expansion.
Momentum Stream (WaveTrend algorithm) — visualizes cyclical motion of price waves.
Pulse Sync (Stochastic RSI adaptation) — measures short-term momentum rhythm and overextension.
Each layer feeds into a unified flow model that adapts to both trend-following and reversal conditions. The goal is not to chase every fluctuation, but to sense where momentum, direction, and volatility converge into true inflection points.
Conceptual Mechanics
The oscillator translates complex market behavior into an elegant, multi-phase signal system:
Core Energy Curve (RSO foundation):
A smoothed dynamic field representing the overall strength and direction of market pressure.
Green energy indicates expansion (bullish dominance); red energy reflects contraction (bearish decay).
Momentum Stream (WaveTrend):
The teal line functions like an electro-wave, oscillating through phases of expansion and exhaustion.
It provides the heartbeat of the market — smooth, rhythmic, and beautifully cyclic.
Pulse Sync (Stochastic RSI):
The purple line acts as the market’s nervous pulse, reacting to micro-momentum changes before the larger trend adjusts.
It identifies micro-tops and micro-bottoms that precede major trend shifts.
When these three forces align, they create high-probability reversal zones known as Neural Nodes — regions where energy, momentum, and rhythm converge.
Trading Logic
Potential Entry Zones:
When the purple Pulse Sync line crosses the green Momentum Stream near the lower or upper bounds of the oscillator, a potential turning point forms.
Yet, these crossovers are only validated when the Core Energy histogram (RSO) simultaneously supports the same direction — confirming that energy and rhythm are synchronized.
Histogram Confirmation:
The histogram is the “voice” of the oscillator.
Rising green volume within the histogram during a Pulse-Momentum crossover suggests a legitimate upward reversal.
Conversely, expanding red energy during an upper-band cross indicates momentum exhaustion and an early short-side opportunity.
Neutral Zones:
When all three layers flatten near the zero line, the market enters an equilibrium phase — no clear trend dominance, ideal for patience and re-entry planning.
| Layer | Representation | Color | Function |
| --------------------- | ------------------- | ----------------- | ------------------------------ |
| **Core Energy Curve** | Area / Histogram | Lime-Red gradient | Trend bias & volatility energy |
| **Momentum Stream** | WaveTrend line | Teal | Cyclical flow of price |
| **Pulse Sync** | Stochastic RSI line | Purple | Short-term momentum rhythm |
Interpretation Summary
Converging Waves: Trend, momentum, and pulse move together → strong continuation.
Diverging Waves: Pulse or Momentum decouple from Core Energy → early reversal warnings.
Histogram Expansion: Confirms direction and strength of the new wave.
Crossovers at Extremes: Potential entries, especially when confirmed by energy alignment.
🪶 Philosophy Behind NFI
The Neural Flow Index is not just a technical indicator — it’s a behavioral visualization system.
Instead of focusing on lagging confirmations, it captures the neural pattern of price motion:
how liquidity flows, contracts, and expands through time.
It bridges the gap between pure mathematics and market intuition — giving traders a cinematic, harmonic view of energy transition inside price structure.
FluxVector Liquidity Universal Trendline FluxVector Liquidity Trendline FFTL
Summary in one paragraph
FFTL is a single adaptive trendline for stocks ETFs FX crypto and indices on one minute to daily. It fires only when price action pressure and volatility curvature align. It is original because it fuses a directional liquidity pulse from candle geometry and normalized volume with realized volatility curvature and an impact efficiency term to modulate a Kalman like state without ATR VWAP or moving averages. Add it to a clean chart and use the colored line plus alerts. Shapes can move while a bar is open and settle on close. For conservative alerts select on bar close.
Scope and intent
• Markets. Major FX pairs index futures large cap equities liquid crypto top ETFs
• Timeframes. One minute to daily
• Default demo used in the publication. SPY on 30min
• Purpose. Reduce false flips and chop by gating the line reaction to noise and by using a one bar projection
• Limits. This is a strategy. Orders are simulated on standard candles only
Originality and usefulness
• Unique fusion. Directional Liquidity Pulse plus Volatility Curvature plus Impact Efficiency drives an adaptive gain for a one dimensional state
• Failure mode addressed. One or two shock candles that break ordinary trendlines and saw chop in flat regimes
• Testability. All windows and gains are inputs
• Portable yardstick. Returns use natural log units and range is bar high minus low
• Protected scripts. Not used. Method disclosed plainly here
Method overview in plain language
Base measures
• Return basis. Natural log of close over prior close. Average absolute return over a window is a unit of motion
Components
• Directional Liquidity Pulse DLP. Measures signed participation from body and wick imbalance scaled by normalized volume and variance stabilized
• Volatility Curvature. Second difference of realized volatility from returns highlights expansion or compression
• Impact Efficiency. Price change per unit range and volume boosts gain during efficient moves
• Energy score. Z scores of the above form a single energy that controls the state gain
• One bar projection. Current slope extended by one bar for anticipatory checks
Fusion rule
Weighted sum inside the energy score then logistic mapping to a gain between k min and k max. The state updates toward price plus a small flow push.
Signal rule
• Long suggestion and order when close is below trend and the one bar projection is above the trend
• Short suggestion and flip when close is above trend and the one bar projection is below the trend
• WAIT is implicit when neither condition holds
• In position states end on the opposite condition
What you will see on the chart
• Colored trendline teal for rising red for falling gray for flat
• Optional projection line one bar ahead
• Optional background can be enabled in code
• Alerts on price cross and on slope flips
Inputs with guidance
Setup
• Price source. Close by default
Logic
• Flow window. Typical range 20 to 80. Higher smooths the pulse and reduces flips
• Vol window. Typical range 30 to 120. Higher calms curvature
• Energy window. Typical range 20 to 80. Higher slows regime changes
• Min gain and Max gain. Raise max to react faster. Raise min to keep momentum in chop
UI
• Show 1 bar projection. Colors for up down flat
Properties visible in this publication
• Initial capital 25000
• Base currency USD
• Commission percent 0.03
• Slippage 5
• Default order size method percent of equity value 3%
• Pyramiding 0
• Process orders on close off
• Calc on every tick off
• Recalculate after order is filled off
Realism and responsible publication
• No performance claims
• Intrabar reminder. Shapes can move while a bar forms and settle on close
• Strategy uses standard candles only
Honest limitations and failure modes
• Sudden gaps and thin liquidity can still produce fast flips
• Very quiet regimes reduce contrast. Use larger windows and lower max gain
• Session time uses the exchange time of the chart if you enable any windows later
• Past results never guarantee future outcomes
Open source reuse and credits
• None
