Effort Heatmap

The Effort Heatmap visualizes where meaningful, same-direction volume occurred inside an imbalance during strong directional movement.
Instead of analyzing total bar volume or traditional volume-at-price distributions, this tool reconstructs a simplified internal volume profile using lower-timeframe data.
When a Fair Value Gap forms during a high-volume displacement, the script highlights the portions of the imbalance candle where directional effort was concentrated and projects those regions forward as a heatmap.

The purpose of this indicator is not to predict price or represent institutional activity, but to offer a visual way to study how the market delivered volume inside a move that created an imbalance.

How It Works

1. Lower-Timeframe Volume Extraction
The indicator retrieves open, close, and volume data from a selected lower timeframe.
Only sub-candles that move in the same direction as the previous bar are considered, ensuring the heatmap reflects directional effort—not mixed volume.

2. Candle Body Binning
The FVG candle is divided into multiple horizontal bins.
Each lower-timeframe sub-candle contributes volume proportionally to the bins it overlaps, creating a vertical volume distribution for that bar.

3. Imbalance (FVG) Detection
A simple 3-bar displacement logic detects bullish or bearish imbalances.
An optional Z-Score filter ensures the heatmap only forms when volume is relatively elevated compared to recent history.

4. Heatmap Projection
When a qualifying imbalance occurs:
• The FVG bar’s volume distribution is normalized
• Only areas with relatively elevated volume are displayed
• Colored heatmap boxes are created and extend forward
• These boxes remain until price trades into or through them
This allows traders to observe how price interacts with past zones of concentrated directional effort.

What Makes It Different

Most volume tools focus on fixed session profiles, market-wide volume-at-price calculations, or bar-level volume totals.
The Effort Heatmap instead reconstructs a per-bar vertical volume distribution using lower-timeframe price action and displays it only when displacement occurs.
Rather than treating the candle as a single block of volume, the indicator highlights where inside the candle body volume was delivered while moving in the displacement direction.
This creates a unique visualization of directional effort that conventional profiles, OB/FVG indicators, and classic oscillators do not show.

How to Use It
1. Apply to any timeframe: The indicator works on all chart timeframes, but gains more detail when higher timeframes are used in combination with lower-timeframe volume data.
2. Identify displacement moments: When a bullish or bearish FVG forms with a high volume Z-Score, the heatmap will appear.
3. Observe the heatmap structure:
Each horizontal band represents the relative concentration of same-direction volume inside the previous candle.
4. Watch how price interacts with these zones:
Heatmap areas extend until price touches or trades through them, at which point they stop extending and are finalized.
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5. Combine with your own analysis:
These areas can be used to study...
...how past directional volume clusters influence current movement
...structural reactions to zones of prior effort
...which parts of a displacement candle were most active

The indicator is a visual study tool, not a signal generator.

Settings

• Volume Source Timeframe
Chooses the lower timeframe used to reconstruct internal volume. Smaller timeframes give more detail; larger timeframes give smoother profiles.

• Z-Score Lookback
Controls how many bars are used to measure relative volume. Larger values make the volume filter stricter.

• Z-Score Threshold
Minimum relative-volume strength required to draw a heatmap. Higher values show only high-effort moves.

• Volume Filter (%)
Removes weaker bins based on how much volume they contain compared to the strongest one. Higher percentages = fewer but more meaningful zones.

• Bullish / Bearish Colors
Sets the base color for heatmap boxes depending on direction.