Published
The principle
A Fair Value Gap (FVG) is a 'skipped' price zone: when the market moves so fast it leaves a hole in the structure — typically an impulse candle whose body creates a gap between the preceding and following candles. It's a price where trading was lopsided, an inefficiency.
What DeepCharts does better
DeepCharts' FVG identifier spots these zones automatically over three candles, and lets you (v15.6) customize the color of bullish and bearish gaps separately. Above all, sitting on an order-flow platform, an FVG stops being a mere price pattern: you see whether it's actually defended by absorption or liquidity.
Using it day to day
Day to day, use them as entry zones (price returning into the gap) or targets (price coming to fill the inefficiency). An unfilled FVG above price is a potential bullish target; below, a bearish one. Especially followed on fast indices — NQ, ES, FDAX.
Example: the NQ leaves a clean bullish FVG on a morning impulse. An hour later price drops back into the gap, finds buy-side absorption there (visible on the footprint), and moves off: the FVG served as an entry zone, order flow confirmed it.
⚠ The trap to avoid
The trap: treating every FVG as a guaranteed reversal zone. Many gaps are filled then passed with no reaction. An FVG is only a zone of interest once confirmed by context — trend, liquidity, and how the flow reacts when price returns.
Combine it with
Combine it with the Imbalance Tracker (both often mark the same zones to defend), the footprint and delta: the FVG says where to look, order flow says whether the zone holds.
FAQ
What is a Fair Value Gap?+
A price inefficiency left by a fast move: over three candles, an unfilled gap between the first and third, created by the middle impulse candle. Price tends to return to fill it.
What does the v15.6 FVG identifier add?+
It spots FVGs automatically and, since v15.6, lets you customize the color of bullish and bearish gaps separately to tell them apart instantly.
How do I trade an FVG?+
As an entry zone (price returning into the gap) or a target (price coming to fill the inefficiency). Always with context confirmation: an FVG defended by absorption is far more reliable.
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