SUPPORT & RESISTANCESMART MONEY

Real Fair Value Gaps: Read FVGs by How Much They’ve Filled, Through the Support-Resistance Flip

Real Fair Value Gaps: Read FVGs by How Much They’ve Filled, Through the Support-Resistance Flip
Indicator Free Real Fair Value Gaps [GBB]
Created by GoodBadBitcoin
Rated 4.1 out of 5 Difficulty Intermediate
Why this rating “Real Fair Value Gaps” is an analysis and visualization tool for reading the state of FVGs, and it doesn't give buy or sell signals. Its biggest strength is reliability: everything runs on confirmed bars and HTF values come from closed candles only, so you never have to second-guess what's on the chart. Its effectiveness is also high, since you can follow every FVG stage by stage. Clarity is the weaker side. The defaults pick up even tiny FVGs, lower timeframes get busy, and price labels can overlap. It suits traders who are happy to trim the display themselves; if you want a clean chart without touching any settings, it may feel like a bit much.
Why this difficulty The FVG concept itself is simple: you just look at three candles. But “Real Fair Value Gaps” uses different colors and line styles for each stage (touch, midpoint tap, mitigation and the flip into an IFVG), so it takes a little while to learn what everything means. It only really shines once you know how to tell HTF FVGs apart, how to change what counts as mitigated, and how to pair it with another indicator for direction. That's why I rated it intermediate, best suited to traders who already have some exposure to FVGs or ICT concepts.

Overall 4.1/ 5.0

About our rating standards

  • Effectiveness 4.4 How fully it delivers what its author set out to do. It tracks each FVG from formation through touch, midpoint tap, mitigation and IFVG flip, both visually and via alerts, and adds HTF FVGs and running counts on top.
  • Originality 3.9 Whether it brings a perspective, structure or presentation existing indicators lack. FVGs themselves are nothing new, but shrinking the zone as it fills and spotlighting only the FVGs nearest to price is rarely seen in other FVG tools.
  • Clarity 3.4 Whether you can read what it tells you, once it is on the chart, without misreading it. The spotlight and drawing-range limit keep things organized, but the defaults pick up razor-thin FVGs, and the price labels on the right can overlap and become unreadable.
  • Flexibility 4.2 Whether it can be fitted to your instrument, timeframe and style of trading. Settings are split into five clear groups, and the ATR-based size filter makes it easy to tune across markets and timeframes.
  • Reliability 4.5 Whether you can take what is on screen at face value and act on it. Everything is evaluated on confirmed bars and HTF data comes from closed candles only, so nothing repaints. Just note that intermediate-stage alerts don't fire when one bar runs through several stages.
Article Summary
What does this indicator do?
Bottom line

“Real Fair Value Gaps” is a TradingView indicator that detects FVGs and tracks each one through every stage (touch, midpoint tap, mitigation and the flip into an IFVG) with changes in color and shape. It runs on confirmed bars only and overlays HTF FVGs without repainting.

Tell me more
Key points
  • It detects an FVG wherever the wicks of candle 1 and candle 3 in a three-candle sequence don't overlap.
  • Once price trades into an FVG, the zone shrinks to the unfilled part and the consumed portion becomes a dashed outline.
  • The dotted center line disappears once the FVG fills to the midpoint (CE), and the FVG turns into a gray box when price reaches the far edge.
  • An FVG that price closes through isn't retired. It flips into an inverse FVG (IFVG) instead.
  • Only the 6 FVGs closest to price are highlighted, and FVGs more than 6 ATR away aren't drawn, which keeps the chart clean.
  • FVGs from one timeframe higher are overlaid with dashed borders, built only from closed HTF candles, so nothing repaints.
  • The info table shows the FVG count, the nearest FVGs above and below price and the fill rate, and there are 8 alert types.
  • It doesn't tell you direction, so it works best for dips and rallies after you've set your trend bias with something like an EMA.

“Real Fair Value Gaps” shows you how an FVG gets filled, not just where it is

An FVG (fair value gap) is a price range where the wicks of candle 1 and candle 3 in a three-candle sequence don’t overlap, meaning price shot through it with barely any trading. It’s a staple of ICT-style trading, and the usual read is that price will come back later to fill that void, or react off it.

There are tons of FVG indicators on TradingView. What sets “Real Fair Value Gaps” apart is that it doesn’t stop at finding the gap and drawing a box. How deep has price traded into it? Has it tagged the midpoint? Is it fully filled, or did price close straight through and flip it into an inverse FVG? It’s built so you can follow each FVG from the moment it forms to the moment it’s done, just by watching how it looks on the chart.

“Real Fair Value Gaps” on a 1H chart in TradingView. Only active FVGs are drawn as colored zones.
“Real Fair Value Gaps” on a 1H chart in TradingView. Only active FVGs are drawn as colored zones.

If you load “Real Fair Value Gaps” yourself, you’ll probably feel it too: at first, the sheer number of lines and zones is a bit overwhelming. But once you know what each visual means, calls like “this FVG is already more than half eaten” or “that one hasn’t been touched yet” become almost instant. In this review I’ll walk through how to read it, one visual at a time.

ItemDetails
What it showsFVGs on the chart timeframe and one timeframe higher
Stages it tracksUntouched, touched, midpoint tapped, mitigated, inverted (IFVG)
Buy/sell signalsNone (alerts are available for new FVGs, touches and more)
RepaintingEvaluated on confirmed bars only. HTF data comes from closed candles only
Where it’s drawnOverlaid on the main price chart

Which three candles define an FVG?

Let’s start with the basics: how FVGs are found. Every time a bar closes, “Real Fair Value Gaps” looks at the last three candles. If candle 3’s low is above candle 1’s high, it registers a bullish FVG. If candle 3’s high is below candle 1’s low, it registers a bearish FVG.

The moment an FVG forms from three candles

When the high of candle 1 and the low of candle 3 don't overlap, the space between them is registered as a bullish FVG.

The moment an FVG forms from three candles① Candle 1's high becomes the bottom of the FVG ② Candle 3's low becomes the top of the FVG ③ Drawn from candle 1 after candle 3 closes65591.55Candle 1's high becomesthe bottom of the FVGCandle 3's low becomesthe top of the FVGDrawn from candle 1after candle 3 closesMidpoint (CE) price

Vowars DE ver.3.12.4

The FVG is detected once candle 3 closes, but it's drawn starting from candle 1. The solid block on the left edge marks the candle where the FVG was born.

For a bullish FVG, candle 1’s high in Figure ① becomes the bottom of the FVG, and candle 3’s low in Figure ② becomes the top. Candle 2 in the middle is the one that ripped through that empty space.

One thing worth remembering is how it gets drawn, shown in Figure ③. The FVG is only confirmed when candle 3 closes, yet the zone starts from candle 1. Scroll back through history and it looks like the FVG was visible two bars earlier, but it actually appeared on the chart at the close of candle 3. Keep that two-bar offset in mind whenever you review past setups.

Out of the box, it picks up even tiny FVGs

By default there’s no minimum size, so a gap of a single tick between wicks counts as an FVG. On a 5-minute chart, it showed 54 active bullish and 24 active bearish FVGs, plus 84 that were too far away to be drawn, HTF ones included (checked on BTCUSDT 5m, as of Sep 28, 2026). The razor-thin ones look like single lines, and honestly, it gets a little noisy.

There are three settings to trim that down.

  • Min size (ATR x) keeps only FVGs at least this many times ATR(14) tall. HTF FVGs are compared against the HTF ATR
  • Auto threshold keeps only FVGs whose height relative to price is above the average of every candidate found so far. When it’s on, Min size (ATR x) is ignored
  • Require displacement adds the condition that candle 2 closes beyond candle 1’s high (or low, for a bearish FVG). It narrows things down to gaps left by strong, impulsive candles

Note that the Auto threshold average is a running value counted from the first bar loaded on the chart. Scroll back and load more history, or switch timeframes, and the baseline shifts. If you want the same cutoff every time, I found Min size (ATR x) easier to work with.

Following an FVG from birth to retirement by color and shape

This is where “Real Fair Value Gaps” really earns its keep. Once registered, each FVG moves through the following stages as price interacts with it.

StageTrigger (bullish FVG)How it looks on the chart
UntouchedRight after it’s registeredThe whole zone glows, with a dotted center line, a solid block on the left edge and a price label on the right
TouchedThe low tags the topThe consumed part becomes a dashed outline and the shading shrinks to what’s left
Midpoint tappedThe low reaches the midpointThe dotted center line disappears
MitigatedBy default, the low reaches the bottomTurns into a gray dashed box that ends at that bar
Inverted (IFVG)A close below the bottomSwitches to the bearish color, gets a dotted border and an IFVG tag on the label

The zone gets thinner the deeper price goes

An FVG gets thinner as it fills

Once price trades into an FVG, the shaded zone shrinks to the unfilled part, and the consumed portion turns into a dashed outline.

An FVG gets thinner as it fills① A long lower wick taps into the top of the FVG ② The consumed part becomes just a dashed outline ③ Once filled to the midpoint, the dotted line is gone too62519.1063714.5364140.1664712.6964986.70A long lower wicktaps into the top of the FVGThe consumed part becomesjust a dashed outlineOnce filled to the midpoint,the dotted line is gone too

Vowars DE ver.3.12.4

Even as the shading shrinks, the FVG stays active until price reaches the bottom or closes below it. If price pushes past the midpoint, the dotted center line disappears.

With a typical FVG indicator, the box stays the same size even after price trades into it. With “Real Fair Value Gaps”, as soon as a wick enters the FVG as in Figure ①, the consumed part turns into just a dashed outline as in Figure ②, and the colored zone shrinks to the remaining range. The penetration depth doesn’t reset if price pulls away afterward. The deepest point reached stays on record.

The other thing to watch is the dotted center line. It marks the exact middle of the FVG, what ICT calls the CE (consequent encroachment), and it disappears once the FVG is filled to the midpoint, as in Figure ③. Whether that line is still there tells you at a glance if the FVG has held above its halfway point. Personally, this was the feature I found most useful.

Also, as long as Labels isn’t set to None (the default counts), highlighted FVGs that have been touched get a text tag on the box like “FVG · 45%”, showing what percentage of the gap’s height has been filled.

Once price hits the far edge, it stays as a gray box

Once price hits the bottom, the FVG turns into a gray box and stops

When price reaches the bottom of a bullish FVG, it's treated as mitigated and switches from a colored zone to a faint gray dashed box.

Once price hits the bottom, the FVG turns into a gray box and stops① The bar whose lower wick hit the bottom of the FVG ② Turns into a gray dashed box that ends at that bar ③ Active FVGs keep extending to the right64601.2066381.4169952.39The bar whose lower wick hit the bottom of the FVGTurns into a gray dashed boxthat ends at that barActive FVGs keepextending to the right

Vowars DE ver.3.12.4

By default, a wick touching the far edge is enough to count as mitigated. The gray boxes stay on the chart for 500 bars by default, then disappear automatically.

By default, an FVG counts as mitigated as soon as a wick reaches the far edge, as in Figure ①. A mitigated FVG becomes a faint gray dashed box as in Figure ② and stops extending to the right. Next to the active FVGs in Figure ③, you’ll rarely have trouble telling which ones are still in play.

The gray boxes disappear after the number of bars set in Keep mitigated (bars) (500 by default). Go longer if you want to review past reactions, shorter if you want a cleaner chart.

An FVG that price closes through comes back as an IFVG

An FVG that price closes through flips into an inverse FVG

When price closes below the bottom of a bullish FVG, the FVG doesn't disappear. It flips into a bearish FVG (IFVG).

An FVG that price closes through flips into an inverse FVG① Registered here as a bullish FVG (green) ② The bar that closed below the bottom of the FVG ③ Switches to the bearish color and gets the IFVG tag60368.72IFVG · 65471.5365009.47Registered here asa bullish FVG (green)The bar that closed belowthe bottom of the FVGSwitches to the bearish colorand gets the IFVG tag

Vowars DE ver.3.12.4

The flipped FVG gets a dotted border and a slightly dimmer glow. From then on it acts as overhead resistance and tracks any pullback into it. If price closes through the IFVG again, it doesn't flip a second time and is retired.

Things change when price crosses the far edge on a close rather than with a wick. With Track inversions on (the default), the FVG isn’t retired. It flips color and direction and becomes an IFVG (inverse FVG). In Figure ① the FVG is registered as bullish, price closes below its bottom in Figure ②, and it switches to the bearish color in Figure ③. At the moment it flips, the bar count resets and the penetration record starts over from zero.

A zone that used to be support gets treated as resistance once it breaks. This is that classic role reversal, drawn right on your chart. The catch is that it only flips once. If price closes through the IFVG again, or a wick reaches its far edge, it doesn’t flip back. It just turns into a gray box.

When the wick and the close both break through on the same bar

When a single big red candle slices through an FVG, the wick obviously hits the bottom too, but the close is checked first. If it closed below, the FVG flips to an IFVG. If only the wick went through and the close stayed inside or above the FVG, it’s mitigated.

Two settings decide what counts as mitigated

Use Source to choose which price is used for mitigation, and Point to choose how far it has to reach. Here’s how each combination behaves.

Source × PointWhen a bullish FVG counts as mitigatedBest suited for
Wick × Far edge (default)The low reaches the bottomTreating the FVG as valid until it’s completely filled
Wick × MidpointThe low reaches the midpointTreating the FVG as done once the CE is tagged
Wick × Near edgeThe low tags the topNever reusing an FVG once it’s been touched
Close × MidpointA close at or below the midpointTolerating wicks that poke into the zone
Close × Far edgeOnly when price closes exactly at the bottom. A close below the bottom triggers the flip firstMaking inversions the main focus

The last one, Close × Far edge, is a bit quirky. With Track inversions left on, a close below the bottom triggers the flip first, so an FVG almost never turns gray before inverting. It only goes gray after it has become an IFVG.

Three tricks that keep an FVG-heavy chart readable

Since the defaults pick up even the smallest FVGs, you’d expect the chart to drown in zones. It stays surprisingly readable thanks to the following three mechanisms.

Only the 6 FVGs closest to price get highlighted

“Real Fair Value Gaps” highlights a fixed number of active FVGs, starting with the ones closest to the current price.

Only the 6 FVGs closest to price get highlighted① FVGs are ranked by distance from the latest close ② The nearest 6 get the zone, dotted line and price label ③ Everything after the 6th is just a faint outlineIFVG · 54034.23IFVG · 54503.8055573.2354288.6852505.2852314.24FVGs are ranked by distancefrom the latest closeThe nearest 6 get the zone, dotted lineand price labelEverything after the 6this just a faint outline

Vowars DE ver.3.12.4

The number of highlighted FVGs is set by Spotlight gaps (default 6). An FVG that price is currently inside counts as distance 0 and always ranks first. FVGs that drop out of the spotlight are still tracked and still counted.

Only the FVGs closest to price are highlighted

Active FVGs are ranked by their distance from the latest close, as in Figure ①, and only the closest ones, up to the number set in Spotlight gaps (6 by default), get highlighted. Highlighted FVGs get a zone that’s brightest in the middle, a dotted center line, a block on the left edge and a price label on the right, as in Figure ②. Everything from the 7th onward in Figure ③ is just a nearly transparent fill with a thin outline. When price is inside an FVG, that FVG counts as distance 0, so whichever FVG is being fought over right now always ranks at the top.

Older FVGs slowly fade

The highlight fades as bars pass after an FVG is registered. It drops to half strength over the number of bars set in Fade over (bars) (100 by default) and holds there. That works out to about 8 hours on a 5-minute chart and about 4 days on a 1-hour chart. Just remember: the brighter the FVG, the newer it is. HTF FVGs are drawn a little dimmer and IFVGs dimmer still, so you can tell them apart even when they’re the same age.

FVGs that are too far away aren’t drawn

FVGs farther from the close than Show gaps within (ATR x) times ATR(14) are still tracked, but not drawn. The default is 6. This avoids a common annoyance with FVG indicators, where a gap from months ago stretches the price scale and squashes your candles. As soon as price gets close again, the FVG is drawn automatically.

“Real Fair Value Gaps” on a weekly chart. On higher timeframes each FVG spans a wide price range, and the highlighted zones work as rough support and resistance levels.
“Real Fair Value Gaps” on a weekly chart. On higher timeframes each FVG spans a wide price range, and the highlighted zones work as rough support and resistance levels.
Price labels can overlap

All the price labels line up to the right of the latest bar, so FVGs with nearby midpoints can end up with overlapping, unreadable labels. When I tested it on the weekly chart, the HTF (monthly) label overlapped another FVG’s label. If you can’t read the numbers, stretch the chart vertically or lower Spotlight gaps, and that usually clears it up.

See HTF FVGs on the same chart

On top of the chart timeframe, “Real Fair Value Gaps” automatically draws FVGs from one timeframe higher. On a 5-minute chart that’s the 1H, on a 1-hour chart it’s the daily. For anyone trading the lower timeframes, HTF FVGs are handy for getting a feel for where price is likely to stall today.

Tell HTF FVGs apart by the dashed border and the timeframe label

On top of the chart timeframe, “Real Fair Value Gaps” also draws FVGs from one timeframe higher on the same chart.

Tell HTF FVGs apart by the dashed border and the timeframe label① Four 1H bars form one 4H candle, and three 4H candles define the FVG ② HTF FVGs have a dashed border ③ The label starts with the timeframe4H · 61119.3563803.60Four 1H bars form one 4H candle,and three 4H candles define the FVGHTF FVGs have a dashed borderThe label starts with the timeframe

Vowars DE ver.3.12.4

A simplified example of 4H FVGs overlaid on a 1H chart. An HTF FVG appears once the third HTF candle has closed and the first chart bar of the next HTF candle has closed. Its left edge lines up with the open of the first HTF candle.

They’re easy to spot: the border is dashed as in Figure ②, and the label starts with the timeframe, like “4H” or “D”, as in Figure ③. As Figure ① shows, the gap is defined by three candles on the higher timeframe itself.

Chart timeframeAuto-selected HTF
1m, 3m15m
5m1H
15m, 30m4H
1H, 2HDaily
3H to DailyWeekly
WeeklyMonthly

The table shows the automatic selection when Timeframe is left blank. You can enter any timeframe you like, but if it isn’t higher than the chart timeframe, no HTF FVGs are drawn and the info table shows “HTF off: not above chart TF”. The same thing happens on a monthly chart with the auto setting, since nothing above monthly gets selected.

HTF FVGs are only registered after the HTF candle has closed. More precisely, they appear once the third HTF candle closes and the first chart bar of the next HTF candle closes. HTF values are only read from closed candles, so nothing gets redrawn after the fact.

Touches and mitigation are checked against the chart bars’ wicks on every bar, HTF FVGs included. Anything based on the close, though (the flip to an IFVG, or mitigation with Source set to Close), is judged on the HTF close. If you’re showing daily FVGs on a 1H chart, price can dump well below an FVG intraday, and if the daily candle closes back inside the FVG, it won’t flip.

“Real Fair Value Gaps” on a 5-minute chart. The dashed boxes with the “1H” label are HTF FVGs.
“Real Fair Value Gaps” on a 5-minute chart. The dashed boxes with the “1H” label are HTF FVGs.

You can only set one higher timeframe. If you want both the 4H and the daily, you can add a second copy of the indicator to the chart and change the Timeframe on one of them. Keep in mind that the number of indicators you can add to a single chart is capped depending on your TradingView plan.

What the info table and alerts tell you

The four numbers in the info table

The table in the top-right corner shows the FVG count, the nearest FVGs to current price, and the fill rate.

The four numbers in the info table① Number of active FVGs (far = too far away to be drawn) ② Nearest FVG edges above and below price ③ Share of registered FVGs that got filledFVG · GBBD · 10 activeActive47 bull · 23 bear · 71 farAbove83536.48Below81027.11Fill rate▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱ 94% running counts on loaded bars — not a backtestNumber of active FVGs(far = too far awayto be drawn)Nearest FVG edgesabove and below priceShare of registered FVGsthat got filledHigher timeframe and its FVG count

Values in the table are illustrative.

Vowars DE ver.3.12.4

Values shown are an example from a 1H chart. The counts and the rate are running totals over the bars currently loaded on the chart, not backtest results.

The info table in the top-right corner shows how many FVGs are currently active, where the nearest FVGs above and below price are, and the fill rate.

First, the Active row in Figure ①. It lists the number of bullish (bull) and bearish (bear) FVGs on the chart timeframe, plus the number that are outside the drawing range (far). The far count covers everything not being drawn, HTF FVGs included, and it isn’t something you add on top of bull and bear. The HTF FVG count appears on the right side of the top row, like “D · 10 active”.

Below that, Above and Below in Figure ② show the bottom edge of the nearest FVG above current price and the top edge of the nearest FVG below it. FVGs outside the drawing range are included here too. An FVG that price is already trading inside isn’t counted in either one.

The one I personally found most interesting is Fill rate in Figure ③. It shows the share of all registered FVGs that have been judged as mitigated. On my charts it was 95% on the 5-minute, 94% on the 1-hour and 75% on the weekly (checked on BTCUSDT, as of Sep 28, 2026). The lower the timeframe, the more likely an FVG is to get filled, which matched my gut feeling once I saw the numbers.

Fill rate is not a win rate

As the bottom row of the table itself says, this is a running count over the bars loaded on the chart, not a backtest. FVGs that flip into IFVGs aren’t counted as filled; they’re counted once they get mitigated after flipping. It does not mean you’ll win 95% of the time by fading price into FVGs, so be careful with how you read it.

Eight alerts, and one thing to watch out for

To set an alert, open TradingView’s alert dialog, choose “RFVG [GBB]” as the condition, and pick the event you want from the list below it. All of them are evaluated on bar close.

Alert nameWhat it tells youApplies to
New bullish FVG / New bearish FVGA bullish or bearish FVG was registeredChart timeframe
New HTF bullish FVG / New HTF bearish FVGAn HTF FVG was registeredHTF
Price entered a gapPrice started trading into an FVGBoth
Midpoint tappedPrice reached the midpointBoth
Gap mitigatedThe FVG was mitigatedBoth
Gap invertedThe FVG flipped into an IFVGBoth

The thing to watch out for is when a single bar blows through several stages at once. Say one big candle enters an FVG and runs straight to the midpoint: for that FVG, only “Midpoint tapped” fires, and “Price entered a gap” doesn’t. If it goes all the way to the bottom in one bar, you only get “Gap mitigated”. For each FVG you’re only alerted to the furthest stage reached on that bar, so don’t assume you’ll always get a ping on first touch.

On top of that, the Data Window shows the number of bullish and bearish FVGs on the chart timeframe, the running count of mitigated FVGs on the chart timeframe, the HTF FVG count, and an event code for that bar (1 = new bullish, 2 = new bearish, 3 = touch, 4 = midpoint, 5 = mitigated, 6 = inverted, 0 = nothing). The event code only covers FVGs on the chart timeframe, and if several events happen on the same bar, the highest code is shown. These values aren’t drawn on the chart, but you can select them as a source input in another indicator.

Settings, and how to tune them for your style

The settings are split into five groups: Detection, Mitigation, Higher timeframe, Look and Display. The suggested values are what worked for me on the 5-minute and 1-hour charts. They’ll vary with the market and your preferences, so treat them as a starting point.

Detection and Mitigation (which FVGs to track, and for how long)

SettingDefaultSuggestedEffect
Min size (ATR x)0 (off)0.3–0.5 on 5–15m, 0 on 1H and upKeeps only FVGs at least this many times ATR(14) tall. Higher values remove small FVGs; lower values pick up finer ones
Auto thresholdOffOffWhen on, keeps only FVGs whose height relative to price beats the running average of all candidates so far. Min size (ATR x) is ignored while this is on
Require displacementOffOn for day trading and longer timeframesKeeps only FVGs where candle 2 closed beyond candle 1’s high (or low). Filters out gaps left by weak candles
SourceWickWickWhether mitigation is judged by the wick (Wick) or the close (Close)
PointFar edgeFar edge, or Midpoint if you trade the CEHow far price must travel for the FVG to count as mitigated. Near edge = the entry side, Midpoint = the CE, Far edge = the opposite side
Track inversionsOnOnInstead of retiring an FVG that price closes through, flips it into an inverse FVG (IFVG)

Setting Min size (ATR x) to around 0.3–0.5 on the 5- or 15-minute chart gets rid of almost all the razor-thin FVGs where the wicks barely miss each other. On lower timeframes most FVGs get filled quickly anyway, and in my experience tracking gaps smaller than half an ATR doesn’t add much to your read. On the daily and above, FVGs are rare enough that leaving it at 0 was fine.

Higher timeframe (HTF FVGs)

SettingDefaultSuggestedEffect
EnableOnOnShows FVGs from the higher timeframe
TimeframeBlank (auto)BlankSets the higher timeframe. Leave it blank to use one step above the chart automatically. If you pick a timeframe at or below the chart’s, no HTF FVGs are drawn

Look and Display (appearance and how much gets drawn)

SettingDefaultSuggestedEffect
PaletteGBBGBBColor scheme. GBB is green and pink, Calm blue-amber is blue and amber, Custom uses the two colors below
Custom up#00E676Your preferenceBullish color when Palette is set to Custom
down#FF3D71Your preferenceBearish color when Palette is set to Custom
Glow intensity (%)10060–100Zone opacity (0–150). At 0 the fill almost disappears; higher values make it stronger
Spotlight gaps63–6How many FVGs get the zone, dotted line and label (0–20). Fewer means a cleaner chart
Fade over (bars)100100Number of bars over which the highlight fades to half strength. Shorter values make old FVGs fade sooner
Keep mitigated (bars)50050–100 on lower timeframesHow many bars the gray box of a mitigated FVG stays on the chart
LabelsHTF badgeHTF badgeChoose HTF badge, All or None. All adds a text tag to untouched FVGs too; None removes both the price labels and the text
Show gaps within (ATR x)63–6Draws only FVGs within this many times ATR(14) from the close. 0 draws everything
Show info tableOnOnShows the info table in the top-right corner

The difference between the Labels options is a little confusing, so here’s the breakdown. With both HTF badge (the default) and All, highlighted FVGs get a price label on the right, plus the fill-percentage text once touched. All also adds an “FVG” text tag to untouched FVGs on the chart timeframe. None removes the labels and the text, leaving just the zones.

StyleSettings to changeGoal
Scalping (1–5m)Min size (ATR x) 0.3–0.5, Spotlight gaps 3–4, Keep mitigated (bars) 50–100Cut the razor-thin FVGs and old gray boxes, and focus only on the action near price
Day trading (15m–1H)Require displacement on, everything else defaultFocus on FVGs left by impulsive candles
Swing trading (4H–Daily)Defaults, or Point set to Midpoint if neededCombine with HTF (weekly) FVGs to spot the major levels
Lighter visualsShow gaps within (ATR x) 3, Glow intensity (%) around 60Draw only nearby FVGs in softer colors

How I actually use it on live charts

“Real Fair Value Gaps” doesn’t give buy or sell signals on its own. It organizes FVGs, the places price tends to come back to, so you need something else to decide direction. What worked best for me was using the EMA 50 to set the trend, then only taking dips and rallies into FVGs that line up with it.

Use the EMA 50 for direction and only take pullbacks into FVGs

An example combo: decide the trend with the EMA 50 first, then only consider setups where price pulls back into an FVG of the same color.

Use the EMA 50 for direction and only take pullbacks into FVGs① While price is above the EMA 50, only use bullish FVGs ② The bar where the pullback tagged the top of the FVG and bounced ③ A close below the bottom invalidates the idea73057.4275459.3776281.33While price is above the EMA 50,only use bullish FVGsThe bar where the pullback taggedthe top of the FVG and bouncedA close below the bottominvalidates the idea
  • EMA 50

Vowars DE ver.3.12.4

The EMA 50 is not part of “Real Fair Value Gaps”. It's a separate moving average you add yourself. Simply skipping FVGs while price is on the wrong side of the EMA 50 filters out a lot of counter-trend setups.

1Use the EMA 50 to pick a direction

If price is above the EMA 50, only bullish (green) FVGs are candidates; if it’s below, only bearish (red) ones. As in Figure ①, cutting the field in half at this stage keeps you from getting lost even when the chart is full of FVGs.

2Wait for price to come back to a highlighted, untouched FVG

The target is a highlighted FVG that still has its dotted center line. If the line is still there, at least half of the gap is untouched. A bar that tags the top of the FVG on the pullback and leaves a lower wick, like the one in Figure ②, is your first clue for gauging the reaction. Set a “Price entered a gap” alert and you can wait without staring at the chart.

3Watch the reaction at the midpoint, and get out if it breaks

My approach is to wait for a reaction, like price holding at the midpoint (CE) and printing a green candle, before getting in. My stop reference is a close below the bottom of the FVG, as in Figure ③. When that happens the FVG flips into an IFVG right on the chart, which makes it hard to miss that the idea is invalidated.

I pay extra attention when an HTF FVG overlaps the same price area. For example, if there’s a 1H FVG right below a bullish 5-minute FVG, you can treat it as a two-layer support. On the flip side, when a bearish HTF FVG is sitting right overhead, I take profits earlier.

Also, since FVGs form when price moves fast in one direction, more volatile markets produce more of them. On something like Bitcoin that trades 24/7, FVGs keep lining up across day boundaries without a break. It works the same way on gold, FX pairs like USD/JPY and stock indices, but bars that span a weekend or holiday gap can leave extra space between candles, so FVGs that include those bars may come out larger than usual.

Where it fits, and where it doesn’t

After using it for a while, its strengths and weaknesses felt pretty clear-cut.

Where it shines

  • You can see at a glance how much of an FVG is filled from the zone’s thickness and whether the dotted line is still there
  • FVGs that price closes through flip into IFVGs, making support-to-resistance flips easy to track
  • Only FVGs near price are highlighted and far-away ones aren’t drawn, so the price scale doesn’t get stretched
  • HTF FVGs show up on the same chart, and since everything runs on confirmed bars, nothing gets redrawn
  • Alerts are available for every stage: touch, midpoint, mitigation and inversion

What to watch out for

  • The defaults pick up even razor-thin FVGs, so lower timeframes can get cluttered
  • When FVGs with nearby midpoints stack up, the price labels on the right overlap and get hard to read
  • It doesn’t tell you direction, so you need another indicator for trend bias
  • In long stretches of chop, FVGs form and fill in quick succession, and none of them really hold
  • When one bar runs through several stages, the alerts for the stages in between don’t fire

It’s at its best on pullbacks in the middle of a clear trend. FVGs left by strong candles tend to act as landing zones on the next dip, and together with the IFVG flip, they give you a clear line for deciding how far a pullback can go before the trend has turned. In a directionless, choppy market, on the other hand, small FVGs keep popping up and getting filled, and staring at the chart won’t get you any closer to a decision.

Behavior to know before you use it

No repainting, but you only see things after the bar closes

FVG registration, stage changes and alerts only update when a bar closes. You won’t see an FVG flash up and vanish on the live bar. HTF FVGs are also built from closed candles only, so nothing in the past gets rewritten after the fact.

The trade-off is a one-bar lag. Even if a wick is poking into an FVG on the live bar, the zone doesn’t shrink until the bar closes. The one exception is Above and Below in the info table, which are recalculated from the live bar’s price on every tick and can change mid-bar.

Don’t take how past charts look at face value

As mentioned earlier, the FVG zone is drawn from candle 1, but it only appears when candle 3 closes. When you look back and think “price bounced off this FVG”, leave out the two bars when the FVG wasn’t visible yet. If you want to see what it actually looked like at the time, stepping through bar by bar with TradingView’s Bar Replay is the reliable way. How far back Bar Replay goes depends on your plan and the timeframe, and lower-tier plans, including the free one, have limits on intraday history (as of Sep 28, 2026).

Once the record limit is hit, the oldest FVGs get dropped

TradingView caps how many boxes a single indicator can draw, so “Real Fair Value Gaps” manages the number of FVGs it tracks on its own. As it approaches the limit, it deletes mitigated (gray) FVGs first, oldest first, and if that’s not enough, the oldest FVGs that aren’t highlighted. If an active FVG gets deleted, the info table shows a red warning: “budget hit: oldest gaps dropped”. If you see it, raise Min size (ATR x) or shorten Keep mitigated (bars) to cut down the number of registered FVGs.

An FVG is not a “guaranteed fill” zone

An FVG marks a likely area for price to return to. There’s no guarantee it will bounce there or get filled. In a strong trend, price can easily run away without ever touching the FVG. Treat FVGs not as a reason to enter, but as a way to decide where to wait and where to bail. In my view, that’s the safest way to use this indicator.

For traders who want to read FVGs as a process, not a single point

“Real Fair Value Gaps” does more than just find FVGs. It leaves the whole story on your chart through changes in color and shape: how far each gap has been filled, whether the midpoint has broken, and whether support has flipped into resistance. Thanks to the spotlight and the drawing-range limit, the chart holds up surprisingly well given how many FVGs it tracks, which I liked.

On the other hand, it won’t tell you which way to trade, and with the default settings lower timeframes get a bit busy. Set your direction with something like an EMA, then dial in Min size (ATR x) and Spotlight gaps to suit your timeframe. If you’re willing to put in that little bit of setup, it should make trading FVG pullbacks and rallies a lot cleaner.

Sources: For this article we tested an indicator built by GoodBadBitcoin on the charting platform TradingView, then analyzed it in depth before publishing.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and isn't investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell. All investment decisions are your own.

FOLLOW VOWARS
Never miss a new indicator
See Vowars more often on Google, or get an alert when a new review goes live.
YUZURU
AuthorYUZURUTrader / Indicator Developer / Web Producer
View profileClose

An editor for content sites at a web agency, I started trading crypto in 2018. Working my way from spot to futures got me hooked on chart analysis, and I now build my own custom indicators on TradingView. On Vowars, I test TradingView indicators one by one on my own charts and review everything from the math behind them to how to use them and where they fall short, with custom visuals throughout.…

Created by