Documentation

What ANEF is

Adaptive Node Efficiency Function (ANEF) is a TradingView oscillator that detects mean reversion potential at extremes.
It builds a normalized score from price change, VWAP-weighted effective volume, volatility, and an imbalance proxy, then flags moments where the market becomes over-extended.

ANEF is built to answer one core question:

“Has the market stretched far enough to expect a snap-back?”

What ANEF does

ANEF continuously:

• Calculates a core ANEF score using price change, effective volume near VWAP, volatility, and imbalance scaling.

• Normalizes the score using a Z-score so behavior stays consistent across regimes.

• Plots the ANEF score as a histogram (or optional line) around 0 (neutral).

• Draws two alert thresholds:

  • Efficient Zone (≥) (upper extreme)

  • Inefficient Zone (≤) (lower extreme)

• Detects breaches of those thresholds and prints:

  • ▼ at the top (upper extreme breach)

  • ▲ at the bottom (lower extreme breach)

• Optionally requires confirmation (a second breach within X bars) before printing.

• Optionally filters signals using EMA trend context.

• Optionally filters signals using Donchian proximity (only accept signals near channel extremes).

• Optionally prints the same markers on the main chart.

Core concepts

Mean reversion potential at extremes

ANEF treats both extremes as snap-back risk:

• ANEFnorm ≥ Efficient Zone → upside extension → mean reversion potential (snap-back down risk)

• ANEFnorm ≤ Inefficient Zone → downside extension → mean reversion potential (snap-back up risk)

VWAP-weighted effective volume (node proxy)

ANEF weights volume more when price is closer to VWAP (used as a proxy for a “node” area).
This makes the score more sensitive when the market is interacting near where trading is concentrated.

Volatility + imbalance scaling

ANEF dampens the score when volatility is high and caps extreme imbalance values (via Imbalance Factor).
This helps keep “extremes” meaningful across changing market regimes.

Trend wave (regime context)

The EMA wave is an optional visual layer that shows regime strength around the 0-line.
You can use it purely as context, or as a strict gate that limits which signals are allowed.

How to use ANEF

A practical workflow

1) Start with a clean view
Use Histogram ON and focus on zone breaches, not small wiggles around 0.

2) Treat breaches as stretch warnings

• Breach above the Efficient Zone = upside stretch → reversion risk down

• Breach below the Inefficient Zone = downside stretch → reversion risk up

3) Decide if you want confirmation
Turn on Print Only Confirmed Signal if you want fewer, stronger signals.
Increase Lookahead For Confirmation if your market needs more time to “prove” persistence.

4) Add trend context (optional)
If you enable trend filtering, understand this tradeoff:
it can reduce counter-trend mean-reversion signals (sometimes good, sometimes not).

5) Add Donchian proximity (optional)
Use it if you only want signals when price is near a clear extreme (channel high/low).

6) Execute with confluence
ANEF is strongest as a context trigger combined with:
levels, sweeps, rejection candles, displacement back inside a range, session structure, etc.

Signal behavior

ANEF prints signals when the normalized score breaches an extreme zone and your optional filters pass.

Breach logic

• Upper extreme breach: ANEFnorm crosses the Efficient Zone (≥)

  • Marker: ▼

  • Meaning: mean reversion potential (snap-back down risk)

• Lower extreme breach: ANEFnorm crosses the Inefficient Zone (≤)

  • Marker: ▲

  • Meaning: mean reversion potential (snap-back up risk)

Confirmation logic (optional)

If Print Only Confirmed Signal is enabled:

• The first breach starts a pending window.

• A second breach of the same type must occur within Lookahead For Confirmation bars.

• Only then the signal prints.

Donchian proximity logic (optional)

If enabled, signals must also occur near Donchian extremes:

• ▼ requires price near Donchian Upper (based on candle high).

• ▲ requires price near Donchian Lower (based on candle low).

“Near” is defined by Proximity margin (%).

Settings reference

General

Shows Chart Signals

Shows ▲/▼ markers on the main chart aligning with the alerts on the oscillator.

Signal Confirmation

Print Only Confirmed Signal

Wait for ANEF persistence. A breach must repeat within a set window before printing.

Lookahead For Confirmation

How many upcoming bars ANEF scans for the second breach to confirm the signal.

Visualization

Render ANEF Histogram

Switches from line mode to histogram mode.

Show Trend Flip

Marks points where the EMA trend flips (EMA delta crosses 0).

Flip Marker Transparency

Controls transparency of trend flip markers.

ANEF Core

Window Length

Lookback used for the price-change component.

Volume Node Lookback

Smoothing length for VWAP-weighted effective volume.

Volatility Lookback

Lookback used for volatility and Z-score normalization.

Imbalance Factor

Caps the imbalance ratio to avoid extreme distortion.

ANEF Alerts

Efficient Zone (≥)

Upper extreme threshold. Breach indicates mean reversion potential (snap-back down risk).

Inefficient Zone (≤)

Lower extreme threshold. Breach indicates mean reversion potential (snap-back up risk).

Donchian Filter

Enable Donchian Proximity

Filters signals so they only trigger near Donchian channel extremes.

Donchian Length

Lookback for the Donchian upper/lower bands.

Proximity margin (%)

Distance from the band required to count as “near”.

Plot Donchian Bands

Plots Donchian bands on the main chart.

Donchian Color

Color of the Donchian bands.

Donchian Fill Transparency

Transparency of the Donchian channel fill.

EMA Trend Filter & Wave

Enable Trend Filter

Enables EMA-based regime context and wave calculations.

EMA Length

Base EMA length.

Smoothing Type

Optional smoothing applied to the base EMA: None, SMA, EMA, SMMA (RMA), WMA, VWMA.

Smoothing Length

Length used for smoothing the EMA.

Show Trend Wave

Shows a gradient wave around 0 based on EMA delta strength.

Wave Thickness

Controls wave thickness.

Gradient Lookback

Normalization window for wave intensity.

Show only ▲ in uptrend and ▼ in downtrend

Restricts markers by EMA regime. Use only if it matches your playbook.

Wave Color Bullish / Wave Color Bearish / Smoothed MA Color

Visual controls for the wave and trend line.

Alerts

Built-in alerts

• ANEF Efficient Breakout (raw)

• ANEF Inefficient Zone (raw)

• ANEF Efficient Breakout (confirmed)

• ANEF Inefficient Zone (confirmed)

• ANEF Any Raw Breach

• ANEF Any Confirmed Breach

• ANEF Any Breach

Use cases

• Webhook routing

• Notifications

• Automated journaling

Best-practice presets (quick starting points)

Conservative (high quality reversion signals)

• Print Only Confirmed Signal: ON

• Lookahead For Confirmation: 6–10

• Enable Donchian Proximity: ON (margin 0.15%–0.30%)

• EMA wave: ON (context), regime filter optional

Aggressive (more signals)

• Print Only Confirmed Signal: OFF

• Donchian Proximity: OFF

• EMA filters: optional

• Histogram: ON

Notes & limitations

Performance tips

ANEF is fairly lightweight, but if the chart feels cluttered, reduce:

• Donchian plotting/fill

• Trend flip markers

• Chart signals (keep pane-only)