Trend Following Reflectometry

🧭 Trend Following Reflectometry (TFR)

Author: Stef Jonker
Version: Pine Script® v6

The Trend Following Reflectometry (TFR) indicator translates market behavior into the language of impedance and signal reflection theory, providing a unique way to measure trend strength, stability, and purity.


🧩 Summary

Trend Following Reflectometry acts as a trend-quality meter, helping traders identify when a trend is strong, efficient, and worth following — or when the market is too noisy to trust.
It blends physics-inspired logic with practical trading insight, offering both a directional oscillator and a trend stability filter in one tool.


⚙️ Concept

Inspired by electrical impedance matching, this tool compares the market’s characteristic impedance (Z₀) — its natural volatility-to-price behavior — with the load impedance (Zₗ), representing current trend momentum.
The interaction between these two produces a reflection coefficient (Gamma) and a VSWR ratio, which reveal how efficiently market trends are transmitting energy (moving smoothly) versus reflecting noise (becoming unstable).


📊 Core Components

Z₀ (Characteristic Impedance): Market baseline, derived from ATR and SMA.
Zₗ (Load Impedance): Trend momentum based on fast and slow EMAs.
Γ (Gamma – Reflection Coefficient): Measures the mismatch between Z₀ and Zₗ.
VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio): Quantifies trend purity — lower = cleaner trend.
Impedance Oscillator: Combines momentum and reflection to produce directional bias.


⚡ Gamma & VSWR Interpretation

Gamma (Γ) represents the reflection coefficient — how much of the market’s trend energy is being reflected instead of transmitted.

When Gamma is low, the market trend is smooth and efficient, moving with little resistance.

When Gamma is high, the market becomes unstable or overextended, signaling potential turbulence, exhaustion, or reversal pressure.

VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio) measures trend purity — how clean or distorted the current trend is.

A low VSWR indicates a well-aligned, steady trend that’s likely to continue smoothly.

A high VSWR suggests an unbalanced or noisy market, where trends may struggle to sustain or could soon reverse.

Together, Gamma and VSWR help identify how well the market’s current momentum aligns with its natural behavior — whether the trend is stable and efficient or reflecting instability beneath the surface.