Polarized Fractal Efficiency

Polarized Fractal Efficiency plots Hannula's signed efficiency ratio: the straight-line distance price covered over the window divided by the bar-by-bar path it actually traced, scaled to 100 and flipped negative when the net move is down. That makes polarized fractal efficiency a one-line regime gauge — direction and trend quality in the same bounded reading — drawn with a gradient fill against zero, dotted bounds at +/-100 and dashed trending levels at +/-50.

How to Trade the Polarized Fractal Efficiency?

• Reading beyond +50 or below -50: the move is graded an efficient trend; persistent readings out there favor pullback entries in the trend's direction, with alerts on the crossing.
• Efficiency decay: the line bending back inside the trending level says the trend is losing its straight-line quality — an early caution rather than a reversal call, with its own alert pair.
• Zero crosses: the net move over the window flipped sign; optional markers circle them and alerts fire either way.

A reading that churns near zero favors range tactics instead.

Polarized Fractal Efficiency Settings

• Source (default close): the series measured for path efficiency.
• Length (default 10): the efficiency window; longer makes the regime call steadier but later.
• Smoothing (default 5): EMA applied to the raw ratio so single bars can't whip the reading; 1 disables it.
• Scale-Adjusted Changes (default off): expresses each change in percent of the window's anchor close, reducing sensitivity to the instrument's price scale.
• Trending Level (default 50): the absolute reading treated as trending; anchors the regime and decay events.
• Trending Regime Background and Zero Cross Markers (both off), plus color controls.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does PFE compare to the Choppiness Index?

The Choppiness Index grades the same question — trend or congestion — but is unsigned, so it names the regime without the direction. PFE carries both in one line, at the cost of flipping through zero when direction changes mid-regime.

What does Scale-Adjusted Changes do?

The plain form mixes raw price units with bar counts inside its distance math, so instruments at very different price levels score equivalent moves differently. The adjusted form normalizes each change by the window's anchor close; readings differ from the plain version, so pick one and stay consistent.

Can PFE predict a trend before it starts?

No — it is computed from past closes, so it certifies efficiency that already happened. Its value is filtering: run trend logic only where the tape has been trending, and stand it down in chop.