The Ants indicator is based on the research of David Ryan, three-time winner of the U.S. Investing Championship. David came up with the idea for the indicator while managing the New USA Growth Fund at William O’Neil + Company. David was interested to understand what drove some stocks higher once they were extended from their most recent base, while others had only moderate moves up.
What David found during his research was that stocks making the biggest moves often had consistent buying on volume over a period of 12 to 15 trading days. Stocks with these characteristics may be under institutional accumulation, where it may take days to weeks to fill a position.
— Momentum, Volume And Price (MVP) —
The Ants indicator looks for the following:
■ Momentum - The stock is up at least 12 of the past 15 days. ■ Volume - The volume has increased over the past 15 days by 20% to 25%. ■ Price - The price is up at least 20% over the past 15 days.
— Why Is The Indicator Called Ants? —
The "Ants" reference comes from the original implementation at William O'Neil where small black marks were placed above price bars when the MVP criteria were met.
— Ant Colors —
When the indicator was created at William O'Neil, Ants were shown only when all three MVP requirements had been met. You may find it helpful to see Ants when momentum and volume or momentum and price are detected. With that in mind, the Ants indicator supports the following:
■ Gray Ants - Momentum requirement met. ■ Blue Ants - Momentum and price requirements met. ■ Yellow Ants - Momentum and volume requirements met. ■ Green Ants - Momentum, volume and price requirements met.
— What Does It Mean If More Than 15 Ants Are Shown? —
It is possible that two or more consecutive series of Ants overlap. For example, you may have one series of 15 bars that meet all the MVP requirements. Somewhere within that series, another run of 15 bars may begin that also meets the MVP requirements. In situations such as this, once each run of 15 Ants is displayed, the total number of consecutive Ants shown will be greater than 15.
— Acknowledgement —
Many thanks to David Ryan for his time to clarify the details of the MVP requirements and providing feedback and suggestions during the development of the Ants indicator.
הערות שחרור
⋅
version 2.0
What's new: ■ Ants can be shown on a horizontal line versus over each price bar. ■ Colors can be configured for each of the MVP criteria.
הערות שחרור
⋅
version 3.0
What's new: ■ Minor updates to the vertical offset calculations so changes are more consistent across all price ranges.
הערות שחרור
⋅
version 4.0
What's new: ■ Minor changes to how Ants are displayed. ■ Ants can now be shown on all timeframes.
הערות שחרור
⋅
version 5.0
What's new: ■ Updates to properly display Ants when there is no volume data.
הערות שחרור
⋅
Version 6.0
What's New: ▪ Hover over ANTS to get a description of the MVP criteria. ▪ Minor updates to the placement of ANTS.
Hi, thanks a lot again for this contribution, but what does it mean all that. Would it mean that we should buy after 15 days or between 11 days and 15 days if criteria are met ... for example?
JohnMuchow
⋅
Often times stocks making big moves will have consistent buying on volume over a period of 12 to 15 trading days. This may mean the stock is being bought by institutional investors (mutual funds, etc).
The ants indicate the range of 15 days where the momentum, volume and price met the criteria as described. Depending on your trading style, after you see the ants, you could look for an opportunity to buy.
CANSLIM_SHADY
⋅
@PlayTheTrade, thank you very much for your clarification. Appreciated. Best regards
ravikapa1
⋅
Can you share the source code. Based on it will create a screener in chartink
JohnMuchow
⋅
Thanks for your interest. All the fundamental criteria are included in the description, which should provide a solid foundation for a screener/scanner.
mbtrading1973
⋅
Hi John , sorry just one last question , when the first ANT appears in that day 12 or day 1? so would you wait to all 12 -15 appear before looking to buy or after 1 ANT appears?
Jamxliu
⋅
Hello John, Thank you very much for sharing your ANTS as well as the RSL indicator with the community. I’m using both on my TBIO chart.
Having read your response to the comments, I get that “ants” would only surface after the 15-day cycle ends so it’s more a historical analysis than a “forecast” of what’s to come.
The narrative is not a forecast but rather an indication of probable institutional buy and hence the likelihood of a possible further uptrend, isn’t it?
Looking at my TBIO chart, however, this narrative doesn’t always hold since there have been instances where the price fell immediately after the end of the 15-day cycle.
This actually happened towards the end of April 2021 where grey ants first appeared and then overlapped by blue ants but eventually went against the narrative.
Am I missing some aspects of the indicator? Thanks for your help.