Settings

Settings

This page covers every configurable setting in Axiom CVD Osc Lite. The settings are organized by impact rather than by their order in the settings panel — the ones that most change what you see and what you can trust come first.

If you are setting this up for the first time, start with the first five sections. They cover the decisions that matter most. The rest is documentation for when you need it.

On Bar Close

Setting: On Bar Close? Default: On Location: PU Settings

This is the most important setting in the indicator. It controls whether the oscillator uses confirmed historical data or live-updating data from the current higher-timeframe bar.

When on (default): Each slot displays the CVD and Signal values from the last completed HTF bar. The current HTF bar's values do not appear until that bar closes. Historical values are stable — they will not change after the fact.

When off: Each slot displays the current HTF bar's values as they build in real time. The oscillator responds faster, but what you see on past bars reflects each bar's final state, not what was visible while it was forming.

The tradeoff is not about preference — it is about what kind of trust you can place in the chart's history. With On Bar Close on, you can scroll back and study the oscillator's behavior knowing it matches what was visible live. With it off, historical behavior is a reconstruction that benefits from hindsight. If you use the oscillator for historical study, replay, or any comparison between past readings and price action, leave this on.

For a full explanation of how this works and how to verify it yourself, see MTF and Repainting.

Per-slot settings

Each of the three CVD slots (01, 02, 03) has its own independent configuration. The settings below repeat for each slot. Default values differ by slot where noted.

Enable / Hide Plot

Settings: Enable CVD 0X / Hide CVD 0X Plot Defaults: Enable = on, Hide Plot = off

Enable controls whether the slot runs at all. A disabled slot does not compute CVD, does not contribute to the blend, does not fire alerts, and does not draw on the chart.

Hide Plot is a visual-only switch. A hidden slot still computes, still contributes to the blended oscillator at full weight, and still fires its alerts. The only thing it loses is its visible line in the pane.

The distinction matters. If you hide a slot to reduce visual clutter, be aware that it is still influencing the blend. The blended CVD line may reflect readings from a slot you cannot see. If the blend's behavior does not match the visible slot lines, a hidden active slot is the most likely reason.

If you want a slot to have no influence on anything, disable it — do not just hide it.

Timeframe

Setting: TimeFrame Defaults: Slot 01 = 5m, Slot 02 = 15m, Slot 03 = 60m

The timeframe used for the slot's higher-timeframe data request. This determines the resolution at which the slot computes and accumulates CVD. If left empty, the slot uses the chart's timeframe.

Constraint: The slot timeframe must be at or above the chart timeframe. Setting a slot to 5m on a 15m chart will produce a runtime error.

When to change: When you want a different cross-timeframe spread. The standard approach is to set slots at progressively higher timeframes — something like 5m/15m/60m for an intraday trader, or 1H/4H/D for a swing trader. The exact values depend on your chart timeframe and the timeframes you actually use in your analysis.

What to avoid: Setting all three slots to the same timeframe defeats the purpose of multi-TF stacking — you are running the same calculation three times. Setting them to very close timeframes (5m/6m/10m) produces readings that are substantially correlated and can create the appearance of multi-timeframe agreement when the slots are really measuring overlapping price action.

Lower TF Precision

Setting: Lower TF Precision Defaults: Slot 01 = 1m, Slot 02 = 1m, Slot 03 = 5m

This controls the sub-timeframe used to fetch the intrabar data that the estimation model classifies. For each bar at the slot's timeframe, the indicator pulls OHLCV data at this lower resolution, classifies each sub-bar using the participation model, and sums the results to estimate that bar's delta.

Constraint: Must be strictly lower than the slot's timeframe. Setting it equal to or higher than the slot TF produces a runtime error.

The tradeoff: Lower precision values fetch more sub-bars per slot bar, giving the participation model more data points to classify. This can produce a more granular estimate but also increases processing load and may introduce noise from very small bars on some instruments. Higher precision values fetch fewer sub-bars, producing a coarser but potentially more stable estimate.

Fallback behavior: When intrabar data is unavailable (sparse history or data coverage gaps), the indicator falls back to estimating delta from the slot bar's own OHLCV. The oscillator still works, but the estimate is rougher. The indicator does not warn you when this happens — the fallback is silent. If the Lower TF Precision matches or exceeds the slot TF, that is a runtime error, not a fallback path.

Window Mode

Setting: Window Mode Defaults: Session (all three slots) Options: Session, Rolling

This fundamentally changes what the oscillator remembers and how it normalizes.

Session mode anchors the CVD accumulation to a reset boundary defined by the Window setting. At each boundary, the running CVD accumulation restarts from the new bar's delta and zero is forced into the normalization range for the new window. The period high and period low are then rebuilt from that fresh window. The oscillator answers the question: "where is net estimated pressure within this anchored window?"

Rolling mode uses a continuously sliding window. Old bars age out of the back of the window as new bars enter the front. There are no resets — the accumulation and normalization range drift as the window contents change.

The difference is not cosmetic. Session mode gives you a fresh per-session accumulation window, but it does not hard-reset every bit of model state. The first bars after a reset are thin-data and may produce noisy or extreme-looking readings on modest volume. Rolling mode maintains continuity across session boundaries but introduces a different artifact: the oscillator can change direction not because new volume is directional, but because old directional volume is leaving the window. A +60 that drops to +30 without any new bearish bars may simply mean that the strongly bullish bars from an hour ago have aged out.

When to change: Session mode is natural for traders who think in daily (or weekly) sessions and want a fresh accumulation window each day — "how is estimated pressure developing within today?" Rolling mode suits markets that trade near-continuously (like crypto) or traders who want a longer-horizon pressure view without artificial resets — "what has estimated pressure looked like over the past 24 hours?" The choice depends on how you think about time and what question you are asking the oscillator to answer, not on which mode is "better."

Window

Setting: Window Defaults: D (daily, all three slots)

In Session mode, this is the anchor timeframe for the reset boundary. A value of D resets the CVD accumulation at each daily anchor boundary in the symbol's context. A value of W resets weekly. In Rolling mode, this is the lookback duration of the sliding window.

Constraint: Must be at or above the slot's timeframe.

Pressure Sensitivity

Setting: Pressure Sensitivity Defaults: 1.50 (all three slots) Range: 0.25 to 4.0, step 0.05

This controls how aggressively the estimation model classifies sub-bars into directional buckets. It is the single most impactful tuning parameter for how the oscillator reads volume.

At higher values, the model is more decisive. It classifies more bars as strongly bullish or strongly bearish, and when bars are ambiguous, it carries more of the prior classified direction forward. The oscillator becomes more responsive and tends to swing further. On clean trending instruments, this may produce a more vivid read. On choppy or ranging instruments, it can over-classify noise as directional commitment.

At lower values, the model is more conservative. It requires stronger candle structure before classifying a bar as strongly directional, and neutral bars carry less of the prior direction. The oscillator is calmer and less prone to whipsaw but may underweight genuine directional moves.

Do not treat higher sensitivity as "more accurate." It is more decisive, which is a different thing. Higher sensitivity makes the model more willing to commit to a direction — that confidence is earned during trends and overextended during chop. The right value depends on the instrument and conditions you are reading.

What "too high" looks like on-chart: The oscillator whipsaws between bullish and bearish regime on nearly every bar during ranging or low-volume conditions. The slot lines swing aggressively from +50 to -50 and back within a few bars even though the candle structure is mixed and indecisive. The blend looks hyperactive. You find yourself wondering whether the market is really this directional — and the answer is no, the sensitivity is over-classifying ambiguous bars. Lowering it should produce a calmer oscillator during those same periods while preserving responsiveness during genuine directional moves.

The For the Geeks page explains the mechanics of how Pressure Sensitivity shifts the classification model's behavior, if you want to understand the machinery.

Wick Weight

Setting: Wick Weight Defaults: 0.20 (all three slots) Range: 0.0 to 0.50, step 0.05

Controls how much wick structure influences the classification of each sub-bar. Higher values give wick rejection more power to upgrade, downgrade, or neutralize a bar's directional classification. At zero, the model ignores wicks entirely and classifies based only on body direction and close position.

When wicks are informative — instruments with genuine rejection wicks, like crypto pairs that spike and reverse — increasing wick weight may improve the estimate by letting the model account for rejection dynamics that body direction alone misses.

When wicks are noise — low-liquidity instruments where wicks reflect erratic fills rather than genuine price rejection — reducing wick weight keeps the model focused on body structure.

The tradeoff: More wick weight means a single long wick can flip a bar's classification from one bucket to another. This is useful when wicks signal genuine rejection. It is counterproductive when they are artifacts of thin order books.

CVD Length and CVD Type

Settings: CVD Length / CVD Type Defaults: Length = 3, Type = SMA

The moving average applied to the raw normalized CVD value to produce the slot's displayed CVD line. Longer lengths or smoother MA types (EMA, ALMA) will reduce noise but add lag. Short lengths keep the line close to the raw value.

When ALMA is selected, the global ALMA parameters (Offset, Sigma, Floor Offset) apply — see the ALMA section below.

Signal Length and Signal Type

Settings: Signal Length / Signal Type Defaults: Length = 3, Type = SMA

The moving average applied to the CVD line to produce the Signal line. This is the reference line that determines regime classification — bullish when CVD is above Signal, bearish when below.

Shorter signal = more responsive regime flips, more whipsaw risk. Longer signal = smoother regime classification, later transitions. The gap between CVD and Signal is what determines regime state, so the interplay between CVD Length and Signal Length matters. If both are long, regime transitions will be heavily delayed.

Blended Weight

Setting: Blended Weight Defaults: 33.3 (all three slots — equal weighting)

The relative influence of this slot in the blended oscillator. Weights auto-normalize: they are divided by the sum of all enabled slots' weights, so only the ratios between weights matter. Setting all three to 33.3 produces the same result as setting them all to 100.

When to change: When you want one timeframe's reading to carry more influence in the blend. Weighting the highest-timeframe slot more heavily biases the blend toward the larger-structure read. Weighting the lowest-timeframe slot more heavily makes the blend more responsive to recent pressure changes.

Zero weight: Setting a slot's weight to zero removes it from the blend calculation, but the slot's plot and alerts remain active. The slot still draws on the chart and fires its regime alerts — only its blend contribution is gone. This catches people off guard. If you want a slot to have no influence and no visibility, disable it.

Optional Ticker

Setting: Optional Ticker Default: Empty (uses chart symbol)

When set, the slot fetches OHLCV data from the specified symbol instead of the chart's symbol. This allows cross-ticker CVD comparison — for example, reading BTC's estimated volume pressure while charting ETH.

What to understand: Normalization makes the readings from different symbols look directly comparable (both bounded to -100/+100), but a +50 on BTCUSDT and a +50 on a low-cap altcoin represent very different things in terms of actual volume. The numbers are range-equivalent, not magnitude-equivalent. See Limitations and Trust Boundaries for more on cross-ticker interpretation.

Line Width

Setting: Line Width Default: 2 Range: 1+

Visual weight of the slot's CVD line. Cosmetic only — does not affect computation.

General oscillator settings

Overbought and Oversold Levels

Settings: Overbought Level / Oversold Level Defaults: +70 / -70

Horizontal reference lines drawn on the oscillator pane. These levels also serve as alert thresholds for the blended OB/OS crossing alerts.

The defaults are reasonable starting points but are not magic numbers. A +70 threshold means the reading has reached 70% of the current positive-side window extreme; -70 means 70% of the current negative-side extreme. These are relative thresholds, not percentiles of recent readings. If your instrument or window choice produces frequent +70 or -70 touches without much informational value, widen them. If the oscillator rarely reaches those levels even during moves you care about, tighten them.

Display settings

Plot Blended CVD/Signal

Setting: Plot Blended CVD/Signal Default: On

Shows or hides the blended CVD line, the blended Signal line, and the fill between them. Turning this off removes the blended visual but does not affect blended alerts — those still fire based on the computed blend values.

Blended Line Width

Setting: Blended Line Width Default: 3

Visual weight of the blended CVD and Signal lines.

Master Smoothing

Enable Master Smoothing

Setting: Enable Master Smoothing Default: Off

When enabled, applies an additional moving average to the blended CVD and Signal values after the blend is calculated. This is a second smoothing layer on top of the per-slot MA smoothing.

When to use: When the blended output is still too noisy for your use case, typically on lower chart timeframes or when using short per-slot MA lengths.

The cost: Additional lag on the blended oscillator. If per-slot MAs and master smoothing are both long, the blended output will respond very slowly to changes in directional pressure. The responsiveness you gain from short per-slot MAs can be negated by heavy master smoothing.

Master MA Type and Master Length

Settings: Master MA Type / Master Length Defaults: EMA / 3

The MA type and lookback used for the post-blend smoothing pass.

Global ALMA settings

ALMA Offset, ALMA Sigma, ALMA Floor Offset

Settings: ALMA Offset / ALMA Sigma / ALMA Floor Offset Defaults: 0.85 / 6.0 / Off

Global ALMA parameters used whenever any slot's CVD Type, Signal Type, or the Master Smoothing type is set to ALMA. These are shared across all slots — there are no per-slot ALMA overrides.

ALMA Offset controls the center of the Gaussian window (0.0 = far left/maximum smoothing, 1.0 = far right/minimum lag). ALMA Sigma controls the width of the Gaussian bell — lower values create a tighter, more focused weighting.

These only matter when ALMA is actively selected somewhere in the configuration. If you are not using ALMA, these settings have no effect.

Settings decision sequence

If you are configuring from scratch and the number of settings feels overwhelming, here is a reasonable order:

1. On Bar Close — decide whether you need stable history (leave on) or faster updates (turn off with awareness of the tradeoff).

2. Slot timeframes — set these to the timeframes you actually analyze. Make sure each is at or above your chart timeframe.

3. Window Mode — choose Session if you think in daily/weekly sessions, Rolling if you want continuous accumulation. This changes the oscillator's memory model.

4. Pressure Sensitivity — start with the default (1.50). If the oscillator feels too jumpy on your instrument, lower it. If it feels too flat during moves you know were directional, raise it. Move in small increments and observe.

5. Wick Weight — start with the default (0.20). Adjust based on whether wick structure is informative on your instrument.

6. Everything else — MA types, lengths, blend weights, display settings. These are refinements. Get the first five right before optimizing the rest.