LazyBear

Volatility Switch Indicator [LazyBear]

The Volatility Switch (VOLSWITCH) indicator, by Ron McEwan, estimates current volatility in respect to historical data, thus indicating whether the market is trending or in mean reversion mode. Range is normalized to 0 - 1.

When Volatility Switch rises above the 0.5 level, volatility in the market is increasing, thus the price action can be expected to become choppier with abrupt moves. When the indicator falls below the 0.5 level from recent high readings, volatility decreases, which may be considered a sign of trend formation.

Trading strategy as suggested by Ron McEwan is:
- If VOLSWITCH is less than 0.5, volatility decreases, which may be considered a sign of trend formation
- If VOLSWITCH is greater than 0.5, market is in high volatility mode. Can be choppy. Use RSI to look for OB/OS levels.

I have implemented support for 2 lengths (14 and 21) Note that, Pine doesn't support loops. Once it is introduced, I will publish an updated version.

Building a strategy out of this is straightforward (refer to my strategy explanation above), I strongly encourage new Pinescript coders to try to a plotarrow() based overlay indicator to get more familiar with Pine.

More info:
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The Volatility (Regime) Switch Indicator : traders.com/Document.../2013/02/McEwan.html

Complete list of my indicators:
-------------------------------------
docs.google.com...ByMEvm5MLo/edit?usp=sharin...

List of my free indicators: bit.ly/1LQaPK8
List of my indicators at Appstore: blog.tradingview.com/?p=970
Open-source script

In true TradingView spirit, the author of this script has published it open-source, so traders can understand and verify it. Cheers to the author! You may use it for free, but reuse of this code in a publication is governed by House Rules. You can favorite it to use it on a chart.

Disclaimer

The information and publications are not meant to be, and do not constitute, financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice or recommendations supplied or endorsed by TradingView. Read more in the Terms of Use.

Want to use this script on a chart?
//
// @author LazyBear 
// List of all my indicators: 
// https://docs.google.com/document/d/15AGCufJZ8CIUvwFJ9WIKns88gkWOKBCvByMEvm5MLo/edit?usp=sharing
//
study(title="Volatility Switch [LazyBear]", shorttitle="VOLSWITCH_LB")
dr= roc(close,1)/sma(close,2)
dummy=input(false, title="------- Choose lengths below ----"), il21=input(true, title="21"), il14=input(false, title="14")

vola21=stdev(dr, 21)
vswitch21=((vola21[1] <= vola21 ) + (vola21[2] <= vola21 ) +   (vola21[3] <= vola21 ) +   
		(vola21[4] <= vola21 ) +  (vola21[5] <= vola21 ) + (vola21[6] <= vola21 ) +   
		(vola21[7] <= vola21 ) +  (vola21[8] <= vola21 ) +  (vola21[9] <= vola21 ) +  
		(vola21[10] <= vola21 ) + (vola21[11] <= vola21 ) +  (vola21[12] <= vola21 ) +  
		(vola21[13] <= vola21 ) +  (vola21[14] <= vola21 ) +  (vola21[15] <= vola21 ) +  
		(vola21[16] <= vola21 ) +  (vola21[17] <= vola21 ) +  (vola21[18] <= vola21 ) +  
		(vola21[19] <= vola21 ) +  (vola21[20] <= vola21 ) + 1) / 21

vola14=stdev(dr, 14)
vswitch14=((vola14[1] <= vola14 ) + (vola14[2] <= vola14 ) +   (vola14[3] <= vola14 ) +   
		(vola14[4] <= vola14 ) +  (vola14[5] <= vola14 ) + (vola14[6] <= vola14 ) +   
		(vola14[7] <= vola14 ) +  (vola14[8] <= vola14 ) +  (vola14[9] <= vola14 ) +  
		(vola14[10] <= vola14 ) + (vola14[11] <= vola14 ) +  (vola14[12] <= vola14 ) +  
		(vola14[13] <= vola14 ) + 1) / 14 
 
hline(0.5, title="Median")
plot(il21?vswitch21:na, color=red, linewidth=2, title="VOLSWITCH_21")
plot(il14?vswitch14:na, color=green, linewidth=2, title="VOLSWITCH_14")