I built A Plus v8 because I kept second-guessing entries. Price would look good, I would take the trade, and then I would realize I had ignored one of the conditions that actually matters. So I stacked everything I use into one model and made it tell me yes or no.
This guide walks through what the indicator checks, how to get it running on TradingView, how to reproduce the same logic manually in Sierra Chart, and how to plug it into a full plan. No fluff.
What the Indicator Shows and Why It Matters
A Plus v8 is a trend confluence model. It does not predict. It checks conditions. When enough conditions line up, you have a qualified setup. When they do not, you sit on your hands.
Here is what it checks:
- EMA stack. A short EMA, a mid EMA, and a long EMA must be in order (short above mid above long for longs, reversed for shorts). If the stack is broken, the trend is not clean enough to trade.
- VWAP reclaim. Price must be above VWAP for longs, below for shorts. VWAP is the line institutional flow tends to respect. A reclaim or rejection of VWAP is often the moment a move gets legs.
- ADX filter. ADX must clear a minimum threshold. This kills trades in choppy, sideways markets. Most of my early losses came from trading in low-ADX environments. This filter alone is worth the build.
- Volume confirmation. The bar triggering the entry must show above-average volume. Low-volume moves fake out constantly. I want participation behind the candle.
- ATR floor. The ATR of the session must meet a minimum. If the market is dead and not moving, there is no point entering. This prevents trades during lunch-hour drift or pre-event compression.
- Regime awareness. The model reads the broader trend context and adjusts. In a clearly trending regime it is more permissive. In a mixed regime it requires tighter confluence.
The profiles for NQ, ES, YM, and RTY matter because these instruments behave differently. NQ moves faster and needs wider ATR floors. RTY is choppier and needs a stricter ADX cutoff. Using a one-size-fits-all setting across all four will bleed you. The profiles handle this automatically when you select the instrument.
The Confluence Checklist
Before any entry I run through this mentally (or let the indicator run through it for me):
- EMA stack aligned in trend direction?
- Price on correct side of VWAP?
- ADX above threshold for this instrument?
- Entry bar volume above the moving average of volume?
- ATR meeting the minimum floor for current session?
- Regime reading consistent with the trade direction?
Six checks. If I cannot say yes to all six, I do not take the trade. That is the whole model. The indicator visualizes these checks so I do not have to hold them all in my head during a live move.
How to Use It on TradingView
Here are the concrete steps to get A Plus v8 running and tuned on TradingView.
Apply the indicator. Open a chart on your instrument (NQ, ES, YM, or RTY). Click the Indicators button at the top of the chart. Search for "WFF A Plus v8" under the Public Library or your Invite-Only scripts if you have access. Click it to add.
Select your instrument profile. Open the indicator settings (the gear icon next to the indicator name). The first input is the Instrument Profile. Set it to match your chart. NQ gets the NQ profile, ES gets ES, and so on. Do not leave it on a mismatched profile.
Check the EMA periods. The default periods are tuned per profile but you can adjust them. For NQ I typically leave the defaults alone. If you are running a faster scalp timeframe (1 or 3 minute) you may want to tighten the short EMA a few bars. Do not over-tune these to fit one specific week of data.
Set your VWAP type. The settings let you choose session VWAP, weekly VWAP, or anchored. For intraday futures I use session VWAP. If you are trading multi-day swings, weekly VWAP gives better context.
Adjust the ADX threshold. The default is calibrated to each profile. If you find the indicator is too quiet and missing obvious trends, you can lower the ADX threshold slightly. If you are getting too many low-quality signals in choppy tape, raise it. Move it in increments of two or three, not ten.
Volume lookback. The volume comparison uses a moving average of the last N bars. Default is 20. Leave this alone unless you have a specific reason to change it.
Read the output. The indicator paints a background color or a signal marker (depending on version settings) when all conditions are met. Green background or marker means long confluence is present. Red means short confluence. No color means conditions are not aligned. Wait for the color before looking for your entry trigger.
One important note on timeframes. A Plus v8 is most reliable on 5-minute through 15-minute charts for intraday NQ and ES. I run it on 5M as my primary trigger frame and check the 15M for regime context. Do not use it on a 1-minute chart and expect clean signals.
How to Use It in Sierra Chart
Sierra Chart does not have A Plus v8 as a native study yet. But you can reproduce every check manually using built-in studies. Here is how.
EMA stack. Add three Exponential Moving Average studies. Set the periods to match the TradingView indicator inputs (check your settings). Color them differently so you can see the stack visually. Add a Chart Condition or use a spreadsheet study to detect when short is above mid is above long.
VWAP. Add the VWAP study from the Sierra Chart built-in list. Use the Session VWAP setting for intraday. Pin a horizontal line at the current VWAP and note which side price is on. Sierra can also alert you when price crosses VWAP.
ADX. Add the Average Directional Index study. Set the period to 14 (or whatever period matches your TradingView profile). Add a horizontal reference line at your ADX threshold. When ADX is below the line, no trades.
Volume filter. Add the Volume study and then add a Simple Moving Average of Volume (use "Average Volume" or apply a moving average to the Volume subgraph). When the current bar's volume is above the average, volume is confirmed. Sierra lets you add a second subgraph line directly on the volume pane for this.
ATR floor. Add the Average True Range study. Add a reference line at your minimum ATR value. The exact value matters less than having the discipline to check it. When ATR is below your floor, do not trade.
Regime context. For regime awareness in Sierra I add a 50-period EMA and a 200-period EMA on the daily chart in a second chart window. If both are sloping the same direction as my trade, the regime is aligned. If they are conflicting, I tighten my confluence requirements.
Building a checklist bar. Sierra Chart's spreadsheet studies (Studies menu, Spreadsheet Study) let you combine boolean conditions from multiple studies into a single output. You can replicate the full six-check logic here and paint a bar color only when all six are true. This takes about thirty minutes to set up the first time and saves you a lot of mental overhead during live trading.
Alerts. Once your Sierra conditions are in place, use Chart Alerts (right-click the chart, set alert) tied to your spreadsheet study output. Sierra will pop an alert or play a sound when all conditions align. This means you can trade multiple instruments without staring at every chart continuously.
How to Combine It with the Rest of Your Plan
A Plus v8 tells you when conditions are aligned. It does not tell you where to enter, where to stop, or how big to size.
I use it as a gate. When confluence is present, I then look for a price action trigger: a reclaim of a key level, a rejection candle, or a sweep of a liquidity pool. The indicator gives me the permission slip. The price action gives me the timing.
Stops go at a logical structure level, not at an arbitrary ATR multiple. A Plus v8 does not set stops for you. You still need to know where you are wrong.
Position sizing is separate. I use a fixed fractional approach based on the distance to my stop. The indicator does not change my sizing. Confluence being strong does not mean I risk more.
The bigger picture matters too. Even with full confluence on a 5M chart, if the daily or weekly trend is against me, I am more selective or I pass entirely. The regime check in v8 helps with this but your own higher-timeframe read adds context the indicator cannot fully automate.
One last thing: confluence does not guarantee the trade works. Some of the cleanest setups fail. What confluence does is tilt the odds and keep you out of the obvious garbage. Over a large sample of trades, that matters a lot. In any single trade, anything can happen.
Run Your Confluence Rules Against Real Historical Data Before You Trade Them Live
Here is a concrete test case: take your six-condition checklist from this guide, load it into the WFF Backtest Lab, and run it against multiple years of NQ data across a trending regime and a choppy regime. See if the edge you think you have actually holds up before you put real money behind it.
Backtest Credits unlock the Qualified tier of the WFF Backtest Lab, giving you full access to multi-year historical runs and regime-segmented results.
Want more breakdowns like this? Check out the WFF blog for more setups and indicator walkthroughs.
This is educational content, not financial advice. Past results do not guarantee future results. Most short-term traders lose money. Trade with a plan and manage your risk.