What is Effort vs Result?
Effort vs Result puts Wyckoff's law of effort and result on a chart. Effort is the bar's volume compared with its recent typical volume. Result is the ground the bar covered compared with its recent typical spread. Both come out as ratios around 1, so they can be compared directly and work the same on any market, whatever its price.
The sub-pane shows effort and result as two lines and their difference as a histogram about zero. Above zero, heavy volume achieved little, which Wyckoff readers call absorption. Below zero, the bar covered a lot of ground on light volume, a thin move.
This is a closed-source premium script. It runs on Altrady's servers, so only its output reaches your chart and its code is not published.
How to use Effort vs Result
- Absorption. Heavy volume on a bar that went nowhere. Someone is filling orders into the move and price is not making progress. Near a range edge it is often read as the move running out.
- Thin move. A wide bar on light volume. Price travelled because nothing was in the way, not because much was behind it.
- Agreement. When the two lines move together, effort and result agree and there is nothing unusual to read.
- Context matters. Which way a disagreement resolves is a reading the trader makes. The script measures the disagreement and stops there.
Settings
Measure
| Setting | Default | Range | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timeframe | Chart | Chart, 15m, 30m, 1h, 4h, 1D | Read effort and result from a higher timeframe while trading a lower one. The chart's own period must divide it exactly. The settled candle is used, so the one still forming, whose volume and spread are both partial, is not reported. |
| Volume Length | 14 | 2 to 500 | The window the typical volume is averaged over. 14 by default to match the ATR window the result is scaled by, so the two ratios are built on comparable amounts of history. That ATR window is fixed by the shared engine. |
| Result Basis | Bar Range | Bar Range, Close Change | What counts as the bar's result. Bar Range is the spread, high to low, which is what Wyckoff means and the default. Close Change is |close − previous close|, which ignores the wicks: a stricter reading that calls a long-wicked bar a small result. Note §4.10's close-to-close rule is about displacement legs and deliberately does NOT apply here. |
Signal
| Setting | Default | Range | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alert Threshold | 1 | 0 to 20 | How far effort and result must diverge before an alert fires, in the same ratio units as the plot. 1.0 means one whole multiple of typical: heavy volume on an ordinary bar, or an ordinary bar's volume on a double-width one. |
Display
| Setting | Default | Range | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show Effort | On | Volume over its typical, as a line. | |
| Show Result | On | Spread over its typical, as a line. Where it sits below effort, the bar did less than its volume suggests. | |
| Show Divergence | On | The difference, as a histogram about zero. Above zero is absorption, below it a thin move. |
Colours
| Setting | Default | Range | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Effort | #2962ff | ||
| Result | #ff6d00 | ||
| Divergence | #787b86 |
Alerts: absorption, thin_move.
How it works
For every bar, the script divides its volume by the typical volume over the Volume Length window, 14 bars by default. It divides the bar's result by the average true range, which already is the typical spread. Result is the bar's high to low range by default; Result Basis can switch it to the change from the previous close, which ignores wicks.
The difference between the two is the divergence histogram. When it is above the Alert Threshold, the absorption alert fires; when it is below the negative of the threshold, the thin_move alert fires. The default threshold of 1.0 means one whole multiple of typical, such as heavy volume on an ordinary bar.
Everything is known on the bar it describes, so there is no lookback pattern and no lag. On a higher timeframe the script reads the last settled candle and says nothing about the one still forming. If the market supplies no volume at all, the script stops with an error rather than plotting zeros.
Limitations
- Needs real volume. Without volume data the script will not run. Volume quality also varies between exchanges and markets.
- One bar at a time. Each reading covers a single bar. Absorption over a series of bars has to be read by eye.
- Direction is not given. Absorption can come before a reversal or before a continuation. The script does not say which.
- Higher timeframe readings wait. When a higher timeframe is chosen, the forming candle is ignored, so readings arrive when that candle settles.
- It is not a strategy. The histogram is a measurement. It carries no entry or exit rule.
Get Effort vs Result
Premium scripts are a one-time purchase in the Altrady marketplace and need a paid Altrady plan to run.
- Effort vs Result $7 This script on its own.
- Structure & Wyckoff bundle $29 7 premium scripts, Effort vs Result included.
- Altrady Complete Suite $109 All 36 premium scripts.
Frequently asked questions
A Wyckoff idea that volume (effort) and price movement (result) should agree. Where they do not, Wyckoff's law says believe the volume. This script measures that disagreement bar by bar.
Effort exceeded result, heavy volume with little ground covered. That is absorption. A negative histogram is the reverse, a wide bar on light volume.
Because Wyckoff's result is the spread, the ground the bar covered, and the wick is part of that ground. Close Change is offered for traders who prefer to ignore wicks.
Two. absorption fires when effort exceeds result by more than the Alert Threshold, and thin_move fires when result exceeds effort by more than it.
Yes. Effort vs Result is a closed-source premium script. It runs on Altrady's servers, so only its output reaches your chart and the code is never shared. You buy it once in the Altrady marketplace, on its own, in the Structure & Wyckoff bundle or in the Altrady Complete Suite, and it needs a paid Altrady plan to run. It is also included with your first annual Premium subscription.
Use the Get it in Altrady button on this page to open its listing in the Altrady marketplace. Once it is in your account, open the indicator picker on any chart in Altrady Charts and add Effort vs Result like any other indicator. Its settings are in the indicator's settings panel.