[TTI] ZVR Watchlist––––History & Credit ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
This indicator/screener is inspired by the methodology of a great momentum master - Dan Zanger. Dan holds the world record for higher % gain in a 12month period, which was achieved in 1998 and has not been broken since. One of the secrets he has shared with the world is his famous Zanger Volume Ratio (ZVR), to which his attributes great part of his success.
–––––What it does –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The script allows you to monitor your watchlist for the most important momentum indicators on an intraday basis in order to maximise your chance of jumping in the right time.
1️⃣ ZVR - pre breakout indicator
ZVR measures unusual momentum at a given time of the day.
Example
Imagine it is the first hour of the trading session and you get AAPL with a daily volume (up to that time) of 2mn shares. Is this normal or not? If you just compare it to the average volume you will be making a logical mistake, since you have 7more hours for volume to reach the "average" level. Henceforth, average volume should be compared on an end of day basis. However, the ZVR looks at the current intraday cumulative volume at any particular time of day, and compare that to the average cumulative volume that has usually traded by that time of day in the past.
The 4 colors are 4 types:
🔴 (RED) — Volume is over 200% of the usual cumulative intraday volume for that day
🟣 (PURPLE) — Volume is between 150% and 200% of the usual cumulative intraday volume for that day
💓 (PINK) — Volume is between 100% and 150% of the usual cumulative intraday volume for that day
🟠 (ORANGE) — Volume is between 50% and 100% of the usual cumulative intraday volume for that day
🌚 (GRAY) — Volume is under 50% of the usual cumulative intraday volume for that day
2️⃣ SQN
The SQN is defined by the late Market Wizard Dr. Van Tharp: "A measure of a market’s movement through an application of the System Quality Number calculation. To calculate, the daily changes from close to close measured in percentage terms are averaged and the standard deviation is calculated. Plugged into the SQN formula, those values and the number of days (N) provide the market SQN score."
👉 Super Bullish - denoted by SB and lime color
👉 Bullish - denoted by B and green color
👉 Neutral - denoted by N and cyan/aqua color
👉 Bearish - denoted by Br and dark red color
👉 Super Bearish - denoted by SBr and light red color
–––––How to use it –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
I use the indicator very much like a watchlist. I put it on a secondary chart and load up all the stocks that I have identified as a buyable. I then wait to get signs of breakout. My favourites are stocks which are in SuperBullish trend (SQN) and starting to show RED ZVR in the beginning of the day. Often these are very strong names that show institutional buying. I purchase close to pivot point and hold for a swing trade. If the stock advances too fast 5-7% on the day, I take some off into strength.
Suggested use for this indicator is to combine with any volatility contraction methodology. Some examples include the TTM Squeeze, Squeeze Pro or my personal favorite Mark Minervini's Volatility Contraction Pattern (VCP).
Look for stocks in a long term uptrend (we have another indicator for Stage 2 identification).
SQN
Market System Quality Number (Market SQN)––––History & Credit
Developed by Dr. Van Tharp, SQN it is the ratio between the R-expectancy and its standard deviation, multiplied by the square root of the number of trades.
Here is an extract of Dr.Tharp's blog post:
Importance of Market Type
Basically, my definition of a bull market is one that’s going up. A neutral (or sideways) market is one that moves sideways in a range — or perhaps a bigger range if volatile. And a bear market goes down.
Market type has no predictive value, it is just descriptive. In other words, you never will know how long it is going to last. But you don’t need prediction to make money. You just need wins that are bigger or more numerous than your losses which need to be smaller or fewer.
In addition, you can learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t work when you use a particular market type that fits your time frame and how you want to trade. That concept is extremely important because two key Tharp Think principles are:
It’s easy to design a good system that works well in any one market type and
It’s insane to expect that same system to work well in all market types.
In fact, I have recently focused our Systems Development workshop upon the principle of creating trading systems for particular market types.
–––––How to use it
If you are a directional, momentum trader, the Market SQN can give you an unbaised measure of wether you are in an uptrend, sideways or downtrending market.
Color legend
Lime = Super Bullish trend
Green = Bullish trend
Cyan = Neutral trend
Dark Red = Bearish trend
Red = Super Bearish trend
AG Market QualityGiven that we are primarily focussed on trend-following, we built this indicator in a quest to assess the "quality" of a market. It was adapted primarily from methods that trading coach Dr. Van Tharp popularised, namely to do with his SQN.
This indicator has 5 zones that act to classify the market:
Strong Bull - Dark Green
Bull - Green
Neutral - Grey
Bear - Red
Strong Bear - Dark Red
The black line is an SMA(20) of Market Quality (indicating average quality over a period).
The simplistic theory is to look for long trades when the quality is indicating bull or strong bull conditions (green or dark green), and look for short trades when the quality is indicating bear or strong bear conditions (red or dark red). When the quality is in neutral territory (grey bars), the market is choppy/sideways/rangebound, and it's generally best to stay out in these conditions (for trend-followers).
We like to look for long trades when the quality is bull or strong bull, and above the average quality (black line), and look for short trades when the quality is bear or strong bear, and below the average quality.
So, not only does this indicator help you decide when to get in the market, it also tells you when to stay out of the market - really handy!
You can change the periods of the Market Quality, and also the SMA measuring average quality.
