The Ants indicator for TradingView is based on the research of David Ryan, three-time winner of the U.S. Investing Championship. David came up with the idea for the indicator while managing the New USA Growth Fund at William O’Neil + Company. David was interested to understand what drove some stocks higher once they were extended from their most recent base, while others had only moderate moves up.

What David found during his research was that stocks making the biggest moves often had consistent buying on volume over a period of 12 to 15 trading days. Stocks with these characteristics may be under institutional accumulation, where it may take days to weeks to fill a position.

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Here’s where you can find the latest release of Ants — Momentum, Volume and Price (MVP)

— Momentum, Volume And Price (MVP) —

The Ants indicator looks for the following:

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎■ Momentum - The stock is up at least 12 of the past 15 days.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎■ Volume - The volume has increased over the past 15 days by 20% to 25%.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎■ Price - The price is up at least 20% over the past 15 days.

— Why Is The Indicator Called Ants? —

The “Ants” reference comes from the original implementation at William O’Neil where small black marks were placed above price bars when the MVP criteria were met.

— Ant Colors —

When the indicator was created at William O’Neil, Ants were shown only when all three MVP requirements had been met. You may find it helpful to see Ants when momentum and volume or momentum and price are detected. With that in mind, the Ants indicator supports the following:

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎■ Gray Ants - Momentum requirement met.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎■ Blue Ants - Momentum and price requirements met.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎■ Yellow Ants - Momentum and volume requirements met.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎■ Green Ants - Momentum, volume and price requirements met.

— What Does It Mean If More Than 15 Ants Are Shown?—

It is possible that two or more consecutive series of ants overlap. For example, you may have one series of 15 bars that meet all the MVP requirements. Somewhere within that series, another run of 15 bars may begin that also meets the MVP requirements. In situations such as this, once each run of 15 ants is displayed, the total number of consecutive ants shown will be greater than 15.

— Acknowledgement —

Many thanks to David Ryan for his time to clarify the details of the MVP requirements and providing feedback and suggestions during the development of the indicator.