Every system on this site trades a fixed reference line or range. This one uses the plainest reference of all: the session's own volume-weighted average price, a single running line instead of a band with two edges. Charts below are interactive. Click Play on any setup and watch the signal bar fire, then the entry, stop, and target draw themselves, computed live from the actual candle.
“A wick through VWAP is not a signal. Only a trend bar that closes on the other side counts as a reclaim, and only that close sets up a trade.”Jason Parker · Founder
A handful of terms show up again and again below. Click one to see what it means.
Wait for the signal bar to close, then buy if price on the next bar trades one tick above the signal bar's high. The close confirms the signal. It isn't your entry price.
Wait for the signal bar to close, then sell if price on the next bar trades one tick below the signal bar's low. The close confirms the signal. It isn't your entry price.
The stop sits one tick past the far side of the signal bar. The target sits half that bar's range away from entry. The VWAP cross trend bar setup below runs a $0.50 signal bar, for an entry near $228.91, a stop near $228.39, and a target near $229.16. VWAP itself never enters that math directly. It only decides which side of the line a setup is trading from, and whether a bar counts as a reclaim.
Play with the numbers below. The default reflects the VWAP cross trend bar setup's own risk to reward.
≈70% is the honest break-even line once spread and slippage are priced in, not the raw number the math alone gives you. ≈80% is doing well. ≈90% is among the best scalpers running a system like this.
Four different jobs, same closing rule underneath all of them. A VWAP cross trend bar closes on the new side of the line right as it crosses over. A VWAP touch continuation bar closes back toward an existing trend after price touched the line without crossing it. A two-bar VWAP push is a pair of same-color trend bars holding one side of the line. A VWAP fade exhaustion bar is a reversal candle with a long wick, closing back toward the line after price stretched far away from it in three separate pushes. All four still come down to the same close: near the bar's own high for a long, near its own low for a short.
One honest note before the setups. A single VWAP line describes where the session's volume has traded on average, not where price is headed next. It resets every morning, so the first few minutes of a session carry a VWAP that moves fast and means less than it will by mid-morning. A cross or a touch late in a thin session can look identical to one during heavier volume and behave completely differently. VWAP narrows down which setup is on the table. It doesn't replace the signal bar's own close.
Each chart shows the setup forming, with the VWAP line plotted underneath. Hit Play and the signal bar fires, then the entry, stop, and target draw in, computed the same way you'd compute them live, straight from the signal bar's own high, low, and close.
The pattern: price crosses from one side of VWAP to the other, and the candle doing the crossing closes on the new side.
Long: price has been below VWAP, then a green trend bar crosses up through it and closes above. Buy the close.
Short: mirror this to the downside: price has been above VWAP, then a red trend bar crosses down through it and closes below. Sell the close.
The pattern: price is already trending on one side of VWAP, pulls back to touch the line without crossing it, then resumes with a trend bar.
Short: price pulls up to VWAP from below during a downtrend, touches it, then a red trend bar resumes down and closes near its low. Sell the close.
Long: mirror this to the upside: price pulls down to VWAP from above during an uptrend, touches it, then a green trend bar resumes up and closes near its high. Buy the close.
The pattern: two trend bars, same color, back to back, both on the same side of VWAP.
Long: two green trend bars in a row, both above VWAP. Buy the close of the second one.
Short: mirror this to the downside: two red trend bars in a row, both below VWAP. Sell the close of the second one.
The pattern: price stretches away from VWAP in three separate pushes, then the reversal candle has a long wick sticking out past its body (a pin bar), closing back toward the line.
Short: price pushed away above VWAP three times, then the reversal candle has a long wick sticking up above its body. Sell the close of that candle.
Long: mirror this to the downside: price pushed away below VWAP three times, then the reversal candle has a long wick sticking down below its body. Buy the close of that candle.
A wick through VWAP is not a signal. Trading a poke through the line before a trend bar actually closes there, because the move "has to" reclaim it, is how this system's edge disappears fastest. Run your own numbers in the position-size calculator, or head back to risk management for the account-level rules that sit underneath every system on this site.
Common questions about trading this specific system, answered straight.
It's a 1-minute AAPL system built around a single session VWAP line: four setups (VWAP cross trend bar, VWAP touch continuation, two-bar VWAP push, VWAP fade exhaustion) that all share the same entry, stop, and target math once a signal bar closes. Entry is one tick past that bar's own high or low, the stop is one tick past the far side, and the target is half the bar's range away.
SPY and MSTR trade the space between two VWAP bands, fading a tag of the outer band back toward the average. This AAPL system trades a single VWAP line instead, treating it as a trend filter and reclaim level rather than a channel with two edges. Same entry, stop, and target math underneath either way, once the signal bar closes.
Yes. VWAP is a running average built from that session's own volume and price, so it resets at the open every trading day. A VWAP reading from yesterday's close carries no information into today's session, which is why every setup on this page only counts bars from the current session.
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