Anchored VWAP Pullback

Anchored VWAP Pullback is a pullback strategy that buys a shallow dip back toward the VWAP anchored at a significant low, while the institutional trend off that low is still intact — rather than chasing a fresh breakout. Anchored VWAP (AVWAP) is the average price paid by everyone who has bought since the anchor event, so it is the level institutions defend on the way up. A pullback to it in a strong, up-trending name is a common high-probability re-entry point; the trade exits when price loses the anchored VWAP.

It is a hard, pullback strategy for intraday timeframes (this test runs 15-minute candles) on liquid, institutionally-owned names. "Hard" because the edge depends on the anchor being a meaningful event — the classic difficulty of an anchored VWAP is choosing where to anchor it.

How it trades

Buy (pullback to anchored VWAP in an institutional uptrend):

Close > ANCHOREDVWAP() AND RSI(14) < 40

Sell (loses the anchored VWAP):

Close < ANCHOREDVWAP()

The two buy conditions together describe a specific setup: price is above the anchored VWAP (the average buyer since the significant low is still in profit — trend intact), and momentum has pulled back (RSI dipped under 40). Requiring both is what keeps it a "pullback-to-support" entry into a live trend rather than a breakout chase or a falling-knife catch below the line.

When it works best

Excellent institutional setup in trending sessions: when a liquid, institutionally-owned name is advancing off a clear significant low and pulls back toward the anchored VWAP, this buys those dips with momentum confirmation while the average buyer since the low is still in profit. It is weak when there is no meaningful anchor — a range-bound or newly-basing name whose "lowest low" is just recent chop — where the anchored VWAP is not a level anyone is defending and the pullback is only noise. This anchor-selection dependence is what makes the strategy hard.