In this week’s episode of Trading Talk, Tom revisits the custom calculation framework introduced in the previous Z-Score Trading Talk and shows how loop-based calculations can be used to create completely new trading logic inside Trade View X.
The focus of Episode 419 is a market efficiency function designed to identify sideways market conditions. By measuring the relationship between overall price movement and cumulative bar movement over time, this custom filter helps traders better understand when a market may be moving efficiently and when it may be caught in lower-quality, sideways conditions.
Tom then combines this market efficiency filter with Bollinger Bands to demonstrate how custom indicators and market filters can work together inside an automated trading model.
Rather than relying only on entries and exits, this episode highlights the importance of market condition filtering. By adding logic that can assess whether a market is trending, ranging, or moving with limited momentum, traders can build more structured and selective automated strategies.
This is another example of how Trade View X can be used to build custom indicators, test logic, and develop rule-based trading models with greater flexibility.
Key Points
- Tom revisits the custom calculation framework from the previous Z-Score Trading Talk
- Loop-based calculations are used to build new trading logic
- A market efficiency function is created to identify sideways market conditions
- The function compares overall price movement against cumulative bar movement
- Bollinger Bands are added to help refine trade selection
- The episode shows how market filters can support more structured automated trading models
- Trade View X is used to build, test, and customise the full logic
Why Market Efficiency Matters
Many trading strategies can perform differently depending on the market environment.
A strategy designed for momentum conditions may struggle when price becomes sideways. A mean reversion model may behave differently when the market starts moving strongly in one direction. This is why filtering for market conditions can be an important part of model development.
In this episode, the market efficiency function is designed to help identify whether price movement is direct and efficient, or whether the market is moving back and forth without clear direction.
This type of logic can help traders build more selective models by adding an extra decision layer before a trade setup is allowed to trigger.
Combining Market Efficiency with Bollinger Bands
Bollinger Bands are often used to identify volatility, price extremes, and potential mean reversion zones.
In Episode 419, Tom combines Bollinger Bands with the custom market efficiency filter to help avoid lower-momentum conditions and focus on cleaner trading opportunities.
The goal is not just to create an entry signal, but to build a more complete trading framework that considers both price location and market behaviour.
Building Custom Indicators in Trade View X
One of the key themes of this episode is flexibility.
Using Trade View X, traders can go beyond standard indicators and build custom functions using their own logic. This allows users to test different market filters, risk rules, entry conditions, exit structures, and model management techniques in a structured environment.
For traders who want to move beyond basic strategy rules, this episode demonstrates how custom calculations can become an important part of automated trading development.
