Fair Value Gap Indicators on TradingView: Definitions and Comparison
A fair value gap indicator marks a defined three-candle price pattern. The useful comparison is whether the script's detection, mitigation, timeframe, and history rules match your research question. A highlighted zone does not establish institutional activity, a required future fill, or a profitable entry. No independently verified success rate is presented here.
Define the pattern before interpreting it
Under a common wick-based definition, a bullish FVG exists when the third candle's low is above the first candle's high; the zone lies between those prices. A bearish FVG exists when the third candle's high is below the first candle's low. Individual scripts can add middle-candle, trend, size, or volume conditions.
The non-overlap is between the first and third candles. The middle candle can trade through the zone, so ordinary OHLC data does not show that no trades occurred there or measure how much volume occurred at each price. An FVG is also different from a conventional opening gap between adjacent sessions.
“Bullish” and “bearish” describe the formation's orientation, not a guaranteed trend or future reaction. Price may revisit the zone, pass through it, or leave it untouched over the horizon being studied. There is no market obligation to complete a supposedly missed transaction.
Compare these specific tools
Fair Value Gap [LuxAlgo]
The standalone LuxAlgo publication is a free open-source script. It documents gap-size thresholds, an automatic-threshold option, a selected data timeframe, mitigation displays, and statistics concerning filled gaps. Inspect its current source and settings rather than assuming all LuxAlgo FVG products share the same behavior.
Its title should not be used as a catch-all for features from Price Action Concepts, HTF FVG, volume tools, EMA ribbons, or other publications. FVG Instantaneous Mitigation Signals is a separate script that specifically examines mitigation one bar after formation.
An automatic size threshold is a filtering formula, not a judgment that the retained gaps have the highest probability of success. Check its units before adjusting it: a percentage threshold is different from a raw price distance or an ATR multiple.
Fair Value Gap & Gap Profile [BigBeluga]
The BigBeluga publication is also free and open source. It describes gap visualization, filtering, filled-gap display options, volume-related coloring, and a profile of gaps across price levels over a lookback.
A concentration of historical gaps is an observation about the selected sample. It is not proof of low resistance to the next move. Nor should a gap-frequency profile automatically be read as exchange-level volume-at-price data. If another version displays bull/bear percentages, inspect how they are calculated before treating them as measured aggressive buying or selling.
Edgeful FVG reports and chart tools
Edgeful's report documentation describes historical mitigation statistics with ticker, session, lookback, and fill-threshold choices. The report can use several sessions, including custom sessions; it should not be described as universally fixed to New York 9:30–16:00.
Distinguish the statistical report from whichever TradingView drawing script is supplied with the service. Verify their settings agree before comparing the displayed zones with a reported percentage. The documentation establishes the report's purpose, not an independent strategy benchmark or a universal fill probability.
Mitigation and inversion are not interchangeable
“Filled” or “mitigated” can mean first touch, midpoint reach, full wick traversal, or a close beyond a chosen boundary. Record the exact rule. A gap with a first-candle high of 100 and third-candle low of 102 has boundaries at 100 and 102 and a midpoint of 101. A return to 101 reaches the midpoint but does not traverse the full bullish zone to 100.
An inverse FVG commonly means that a former gap has been invalidated under the chosen rule and is monitored for the opposite role. It does not inherently require invalidation on the next candle. LuxAlgo's imbalance documentation describes its own inverse-FVG implementation; other scripts may track different historical zones or use different invalidation rules.
Neither a midpoint touch nor an inversion establishes a reversal trade. Any entry still needs a specified trigger, timing, stop, target, and expiration of the setup.
What to check on a TradingView chart
| Item | Verification question |
|---|---|
| Detection | Are the first and third wicks compared, and what extra filters apply? |
| Confirmation | Can a zone appear or disappear before the third bar closes? |
| Higher timeframe | Does the script use a developing or completed higher-timeframe candle? |
| Mitigation | Is removal based on a touch, percentage, wick, or close? |
| History | Are filled boxes deleted or old zones limited by a display cap? |
| Session | Which timezone and daylight-saving convention define the window? |
| Alerts | Does the selected alert mean formation, touch, fill, or inversion? |
Observe several known zones at formation, after a later touch, and after reloading the chart. Deleting filled boxes can make a historical chart emphasize surviving zones; that is not evidence that most original zones held. A drawing that extends back to the first candle was not necessarily known before the third candle completed.
TradingView's repainting documentation is relevant when examining open bars, higher-timeframe data, and historical drawings. Alert settings should agree with the signal timing you intend to use.
Separate a fill-rate study from a trading backtest
A fill-rate study asks how many eligible gaps reached a defined level within a defined horizon. A strategy backtest asks what happened to actual entry and exit rules after costs. They are not the same statistic.
For a hypothetical sample of 100 eligible gaps, 30 reaching a chosen mitigation threshold would give a 30% observed fill rate. That alone says nothing about the win rate of buying a midpoint retest, selling toward the gap, or trading an inverse gap. Those strategies take different positions and may not enter on every event.
To reproduce a study, save the instrument and feed, dates, interval, session, minimum size, formation rule, fill definition, event count, and treatment of overlapping gaps. Include unfilled observations and explain how gaps formed near the session end are handled. Avoid treating many overlapping zones from one price move as fully independent evidence.
For a trading test, enter only after the required information becomes available. Model spread, fees, slippage, gaps through orders, and ambiguous intrabar stop/target ordering. Keep the chosen rules fixed on a separate chronological period. An attractive 30-minute chart or a vendor's headline percentage does not establish the result elsewhere.
Test a retest or inversion hypothesis explicitly
A retest strategy might wait for price to return to a previously confirmed gap; an inversion strategy might wait for a close beyond it and a later retest. State these as alternative hypotheses rather than switching the interpretation after a failed trade.
A stop just beyond the opposite edge is one candidate invalidation rule. It is not necessarily suitable for the instrument's tick size, volatility, or liquidity. FVG trades are not inherently less risky than other directional trades, and no fixed account-risk percentage guarantees survival through correlated losses or execution gaps.
Adding moving averages, momentum, or other chart levels narrows the sample. Test whether it helps after accounting for the extra choices made during development. Multiple labels derived from the same price history are not independent proof of institutional demand.
Build a custom rule with clear limits
Pineify's visual library includes Fair Value Gap Finder – Close Condition Mode, with EMA length, optional volume filtering, gap-size, display-length, and filled-gap deletion settings. These are supported controls, not a promise of arbitrary session and mitigation behavior in every visual component.
For a different definition, specify the exact rule to the AI coding workflow or use available custom source. Review and test the result in TradingView. Pineify does not guarantee instant, error-free code or a trading advantage from making the detector proprietary.
Frequently asked questions
Are LuxAlgo and BigBeluga FVG indicators paid tools?
The specific standalone publications linked above are free and open source. The vendors also offer other products. Check the exact script and access terms instead of assigning one price model to the entire brand.
Must a fair value gap fill?
No. Specify the observation horizon and fill rule before discussing frequency. A zone can remain unvisited or be crossed without the reversal a trader expected.
Is an inverse FVG the same as next-bar mitigation?
No. Inversion changes the proposed role after invalidation. Next-bar mitigation is a timing-specific event used by some separate scripts.
Which timeframe is most reliable?
No universal ranking is established. The timeframe changes event count, timing, and trading costs. Compare a fixed definition on the intended data rather than assuming larger bars guarantee better outcomes.