Vortex indicator
TrendIntermediate
The vortex indicator compares upside and downside price travel over a window. VI+ sums how far each bar's high is from the prior low. VI- does the mirror image. A cross of VI+ above VI- is treated as an uptrend starting, and the reverse cross as a downtrend. It is a two-line trend tool, not an overbought oscillator.
Not investment advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Backtests and historical studies are not guarantees, and a rule that worked in one sample can fail in the next. Trading can lose money. Links are for education, not endorsements. Do your own research.
- Rules
- The published length is often 14. Enter long on a cross of VI+ above VI- only if a longer trend filter agrees, and exit on the opposite cross or on an ATR stop. Ignore crosses that happen while both lines are tangled near each other. Confirm the cross on the bar close.
- Where AI fits
- AI can require a minimum separation between the two lines before a cross counts, and it can test that threshold out of sample. It can also log how often crosses happen inside a range defined by ADX or bandwidth. Those filters need to be specified before the results are viewed.
- Markets
- Stocks, futures, and ETFs.
- Timeframes
- Daily, and 1-hour only where costs are small relative to the swing.
- Risks
- Crosses in sideways markets are frequent and uninformative. The indicator uses highs and lows, so a single wide bar can force a cross. It will often agree with other trend crosses, so it is not a second independent opinion.