Vortex Reversal Engine TradingView Strategy

Written by Dominic Walsh · Published 22 Jul 2026

Vortex Reversal Engine is a mean reversion strategy TradingView runs through its own backtest engine, not a plain overlay indicator. It fades stretched moves. Price has to reach a Bollinger extreme, RSI has to confirm the stretch and then turn back, and ADX has to say the market is ranging. Also, only then does the script place a simulated entry with an ATR stop and an ATR target attached.

It is free and open source. Indeed, you can add it to any chart from the Vortex Reversal Engine script page on TradingView, and the full Pine source is published there for you to read.

What Vortex Reversal Engine plots on the price chart

Bollinger Bands frame the chart with a dotted basis and a two-tone fill that shows which half price sits in. Still, entries print as triangles with BUY or SELL text, a glow circle and a small confirmation dot. Each entry then draws its own boxes and lines: a dashed stop level, a dotted target level, an entry line and pip-distance labels, all extended about 25 bars forward. Thus, background tints mark the stretched zones. A fifteen-row dashboard reports market state and backtest statistics.

How Vortex Reversal Engine is built

The four conditions behind an entry

The range filter runs first. Hence, the script reads ADX from ta.dmi with a length of 14 and allows trades only while ADX sits under 30. Mean reversion assumes the market keeps returning to a middle, so the strategy stands aside when the trend gauge climbs.

Then comes the stretch. Next, price must have touched the outer band within the last five bars – low at or under the lower band for longs, high at or above the upper band for shorts. Bands use a 20-bar SMA with 2.0 standard deviations. Then, RSI(14) must also have dropped under 30, or pushed over 70 for shorts, inside that same five-bar window.

Recovery comes third. Yet, RSI must now be rising and still under 55 for a long, or falling and still above 45 for a short. Price must have closed back inside the band while staying on its own side of the basis, which leaves room to revert. Truly, the bar must also close as a reversal candle, above its own midpoint for a long. A five-bar cooldown, a flat-position check and barstate.isconfirmed gate the rest.

Exits, sizing and what the backtest assumes

Every entry ships with a bracket. Plainly, the target sits 1.0 ATR(14) from entry and the stop sits 3.5 ATR away. That asymmetry is deliberate: a near target gets hit often, and a far stop survives noise at the extreme. Also, it also means one stopped trade offsets roughly three and a half winners, so a high share of winning trades tells you little on its own. Read total pips and profit factor next to it.

Partial Exit Mode, off by default, splits the position. Indeed, half exits at the 1.0 ATR target and the rest runs toward 3.0 ATR with an optional 1.5 ATR trailing stop. An optional session filter restricts entries to Asia, London, New York or the combined London and New York block, using UTC hours.

The declaration matters as much as the logic. Still, it sets 10,000 USD of starting capital, sizes every entry at 100 percent of equity, applies zero commission and one tick of slippage. Those defaults flatter any equity curve. Thus, set a realistic commission and a fixed position size before you read anything into the results.

How to read the signals

The dashboard splits in two. Hence, the top rows describe the market right now: Bollinger width as SQUEEZE, NORMAL or WIDE, the ADX reading with RANGE or TREND beside it, and the RSI state. Those rows tell you whether conditions match what the strategy wants.

Everything under the PERFORMANCE header is backtest output. Next, trades, winners and losers, profit factor, total pips, net profit, average win against average loss, streaks and maximum drawdown all come from simulated fills on the history your chart holds. They describe one past sample. Then, they are not a forecast, and they change whenever you switch symbol, feed or date range.

Watch the reversal-zone background too. Yet, it lights up when price sits at a band extreme with RSI stretched, before any entry exists. That is the setup forming. Truly, whether an entry follows depends on RSI turning, the candle closing correctly and ADX staying under the limit.

Every Vortex Reversal Engine setting explained

The script exposes 34 inputs, grouped in the settings panel exactly as shown below. Defaults are the published values.

Strategy

Setting	What it does	Default	Range
BB Length	Sets the bb length used in the calculation.	20	5 to 50
BB Multiplier	Sets the bb multiplier used in the calculation.	2.0	1.0 to 4.0
RSI Length	Sets the rsi length used in the calculation.	14	2 to 50
RSI Overbought	Sets the rsi overbought used in the calculation.	70	55 to 90
RSI Oversold	Sets the rsi oversold used in the calculation.	30	10 to 45
ADX Length	Sets the adx length used in the calculation.	14	5 to 50
ADX Max (Range Filter)	Only trade when ADX is BELOW this — confirms ranging market where mean-reversion works	30.0	15 to 50
Band Touch Lookback	How many bars back to check for BB touch	5	1 to 15
Volume Filter	Toggles volume filter on the chart.	off	on / off
Volume Filter ×	Sets the volume filter × used in the calculation.	1.0	0.5 to 3.0

Risk Management

Setting	What it does	Default	Range
ATR Length	Sets the atr length used in the calculation.	14	5 to 50
TP ATR Mult	Take profit = ATR × this (closer = more frequent target hits)	1.0	0.5 to 5.0
SL ATR Mult	Stop loss = ATR × this (wider = less likely hit at extremes)	3.5	1.0 to 6.0
Partial Exit Mode	ON: 50% at TP1, trail rest to TP2.	off	on / off
TP2 ATR Mult (partial)	Sets the tp2 atr mult (partial) used in the calculation.	3.0	1.0 to 8.0
Trailing Stop (partial)	Toggles trailing stop (partial) on the chart.	on	on / off
Trail ATR Mult	Sets the trail atr mult used in the calculation.	1.5	0.5 to 4.0

Filters

Setting	What it does	Default	Range
Signal Cooldown (bars)	Sets the signal cooldown (bars) used in the calculation.	5	1 to 50
Session Filter	Toggles session filter on the chart.	off	on / off
Session	Choose the session from the listed options.	London+NY	Asia, London, New York, London+NY

Display

Setting	What it does	Default	Range
Show Dashboard	Toggles show dashboard on the chart.	on	on / off
Show Bollinger Bands	Toggles show bollinger bands on the chart.	on	on / off
Show Signal Glow	Toggles show signal glow on the chart.	on	on / off
Show SL/TP Zones	Toggles show sl/tp zones on the chart.	on	on / off
Color Bars	Toggles color bars on the chart.	on	on / off
Table Position	Choose the table position from the listed options.	top_right	top_left, top_center, top_right, bottom_left, bottom_center, bottom_right
Text Size	Choose the text size from the listed options.	small	tiny, small, normal

Colors

Setting	What it does	Default	Range
Neon Bull	Colour used for neon bull.	#00E676
Neon Bear	Colour used for neon bear.	#FF1744
TP	Colour used for tp.	#00B0FF
TP2	Colour used for tp2.	#FFD740
Stop Loss	Colour used for stop loss.	#FF4081
BB Bands	Colour used for bb bands.	#E040FB
Neutral	Colour used for neutral.	#787B86

Alerts built into Vortex Reversal Engine

The script ships 5 alert conditions. Plainly, open the alert dialog on the chart, pick the indicator as the condition source, then choose the event you want. Alerts fire on the close of the bar, so they follow the same confirmed-bar rule the on-chart signals use.

• Bullish Reversal
• Bearish Reversal
• Any Reversal
• Oversold Zone
• Overbought Zone

Other markets and timeframes

The signal logic stays fully relative – bands from standard deviation, RSI, ADX and ATR-based exits – so it transfers to indices, crypto, gold and stocks. Two parts do not. The pip conversion assumes forex, multiplying mintick by 100 on JPY pairs and by 10 elsewhere, so pip readouts on an index or a crypto pair become arbitrary units. Also, the session filter also uses UTC forex hours. On those markets, read net profit and the R ratio instead of the pip figures.

Limitations worth knowing

This is a strategy script, so it produces backtest results rather than a study you simply overlay. Indeed, those results come from simulated orders on historical bars. A past simulation is not evidence about future trades, and the numbers move whenever you change symbol, timeframe or data range.

Same-bar exits are a known modelling gap. Still, with a 1.0 ATR target and a 3.5 ATR stop, both levels can fall inside one candle. The tester cannot see which one price touched first without bar magnifier data, so it applies its own assumption. Treat borderline results with care.

It holds one position at a time and takes a new signal only while flat. Thus, it carries no trend context beyond the ADX filter, no news awareness and no dynamic sizing. The ADX gate under 30 also means it skips trending markets by design, so long stretches can pass with no trades at all.

Get Vortex Reversal Engine on TradingView

Open Vortex Reversal Engine on TradingView

If you also trade MetaTrader, the MT4 and MT5 indicator library is available below.

Using it alongside MetaTrader

Adding a script on TradingView takes one click, so there is no install step here. Next, if you want the same idea on MetaTrader, the MT4 and MT5 indicator installation guide walks through copying files into the data folder and attaching them to a chart. You can also browse the full MetaTrader indicator library, the MT4 indicators section, or the other free TradingView scripts published on this profile. For related chart tools see the MT5 indicators section and the forex trading strategies guides.

External references

• Average true range on Wikipedia
• Bollinger Bands at Investopedia
• Arthur Hill On Goals Style And Strategy at StockCharts ChartSchool

Frequently asked questions

Is Vortex Reversal Engine an indicator or a strategy?

A strategy. Then, the script opens with strategy() rather than indicator(), so it places simulated orders and fills the Strategy Tester tab. You can still read the arrows as signals on the chart, but the dashboard numbers are backtest output from historical fills.

Does it repaint?

Entries do not. Yet, both signals require barstate.isconfirmed, so they evaluate only on a closed bar, and the plotted triangles come from those same gated variables. The dashboard updates live on the last bar, as any Pine table does.

Why does it refuse to trade in a strong trend?

By design. Truly, the ADX(14) filter blocks entries once ADX reaches 30. Fading a band extreme inside a strong trend means selling into strength, which is exactly what the filter exists to avoid. Plainly, raise ADX Max if you want the script to try anyway.

Should I trust the performance table?

Treat it as a description of one historical sample, nothing more. Also, default sizing uses 100 percent of equity with zero commission, which flatters the curve. Set your own commission, use a fixed quantity, then compare several symbols and date ranges before you draw conclusions.

How much should I rely on this indicator?

Treat it as one input, not a decision. Indeed, it is a chart analysis tool, not trading advice. Test it on your own markets and timeframes before relying on it. Results are not guaranteed; past performance is not indicative of future results.