Label

Element

Value

Prospectus [Line Items]

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Document Type

dei_DocumentType

485BPOS

Document Period End Date

dei_DocumentPeriodEndDate

May 01, 2014

Registrant Name

dei_EntityRegistrantName

Northern Lights Variable Trust

Central Index Key

dei_EntityCentralIndexKey

0001352621

Amendment Flag

dei_AmendmentFlag

false

Trading Symbol

dei_TradingSymbol

nlvt

Document Creation Date

dei_DocumentCreationDate

May 01, 2014

Document Effective Date

dei_DocumentEffectiveDate

May 01, 2014

Prospectus Date

rr_ProspectusDate

May 01, 2014

Probabilities VIT Fund

Prospectus [Line Items]

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Risk/Return [Heading]

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FUND SUMMARY

Objective [Heading]

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Investment Objective:

Objective, Primary [Text Block]

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The Probabilities VIT Fund (the “Portfolio”) seeks capital appreciation.

Expense [Heading]

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Fees and Expenses of the Portfolio:

Expense Narrative [Text Block]

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This table describes the annual operating expenses that you may indirectly pay if you invest in the Portfolio through your retirement plan or if you allocate your insurance contract premiums or payments to the Portfolio. However, each insurance contract and separate account involves fees and expenses that are not described in this Prospectus. If the fees and expenses of your insurance contract or separate account were included in this table, your overall expenses would be higher. You should review the insurance contract prospectus for a complete description of fees and expenses.

Operating Expenses Caption [Text]

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Annual Fund Operating Expenses

(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

Portfolio Turnover [Heading]

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Portfolio Turnover:

Portfolio Turnover [Text Block]

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The Portfolio pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio's performance. During the most recent fiscal period, the Portfolio's portfolio turnover rate was 700% of the average value of its portfolio.

Portfolio Turnover, Rate

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700.00%

Expenses Not Correlated to Ratio Due to Acquired Fund Fees [Text]

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The operating expenses in this fee table will not correlate to the expense ratio in the Portfolio's financial highlights because the financial statements include only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Portfolio, not the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies.

Expense Example [Heading]

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Example:

Expense Example Narrative [Text Block]

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This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds.

Expense Example by, Year, Caption [Text]

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The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. However, each insurance contract and separate account involves fees and expenses that are not included in the Example. If these fees and expenses were included in the Example, your overall expenses would be higher. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio's operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based upon these assumptions your costs would be:

Strategy [Heading]

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Principal Investment Strategies:

Strategy Narrative [Text Block]

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The Portfolio utilizes a "fund of funds" structure to invest primarily in exchange-traded funds (“ETFs’’) , including inverse ETFs and leveraged ETFs. ETFs that seek to track the performance of broad-based U.S. equity indices, principally the Standard & Poor’s 500 (“S&P 500”) are referred to as “Index ETFs” . The Portfolio may also invest in ETFs that employ leverage in an effort to deliver , on a daily basis, up to twice the performance of the S&P 500 (“Leveraged Index ETFs”). In addition, the Portfolio may hold cash, money market instruments, or other cash equivalents (collectively, “Cash Instruments”).

The Portfolio’s co-adviser uses an active trading strategy based on a proprietary rules-based trend-following methodology to determine the Portfolio’s allocation among Index ETFs, Leveraged Index ETFs, Inverse Index ETFs and Cash Instruments. The Portfolio typically invests in either ETFs or Cash Instruments depending on the co-adviser's assessment of the market. When the co-adviser's believe that conditions are favorable for investment in equities, the Portfolio will invest in ETFs. During periods that the co-adviser's believe will offer the highest probability of capital appreciation, the Portfolio will invest primarily in Leveraged ETFs; otherwise, the Portfolio will invest primarily in Index ETFs. When the co-adviser's believe that market conditions are unfavorable for equities, the Portfolio will invest in Inverse Index ETFs or Cash Instruments.

The Portfolio’s investment program will emphasize active management of the Portfolio’s investments, with an emphasis on capturing profits on short-term movements. This policy will result in the Portfolio taking frequent trading positions. Consequently, the Portfolio’s portfolio turnover and brokerage commission expenses may exceed those of most investment entities of comparable size.

Risk [Heading]

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Principal Investment Risks:

Risk Narrative [Text Block]

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Remember that in addition to possibly not achieving your investment goals, you could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. The Portfolio is not intended to be a complete investment program. The principal risks of investing in the Portfolio are:

• ETF Risk. ETFs are subject to investment advisory fees and other expenses, which will be indirectly paid by the Portfolio. As a result, your cost of investing in the Portfolio will be higher than the cost of investing directly in the ETFs and may be higher than other mutual funds that invest directly in stocks and bonds. Each ETF is subject to specific risks, depending on its investments.

○ Leveraged ETFs employ leverage, which magnifies the changes in the value of the Leveraged ETFs, which could result in significant losses to the Fund. The Portfolio invests in Leveraged ETFs in an effort to deliver daily performance at twice the rate of the underlying index and if held over long periods of time, particularly in volatile markets, the ETFs may not achieve their objective and may, in fact, perform contrary to expectations.

○ Inverse ETFs are designed to rise in price when stock prices are falling. Inverse ETFs tend to limit the Portfolio’s participation in overall market-wide gains. Accordingly, their performance over longer terms can perform very differently than underlying assets and benchmarks, and volatile markets can amplify this effect.

• Limited History of Operations Risk. The Portfolio is a relatively new mutual fund and has a limited history of operations for investors to evaluate.

• Management Risk. The co-advisers’ judgments about the attractiveness, value and potential appreciation of particular security or derivative in which the Portfolio invests or sells short may prove to be incorrect and may not produce the desired results.

• Stock Market Risk. Equity prices can fall rapidly in response to developments affecting a specific company or industry, or to changing economic, political or market conditions.

• Turnover Risk. A higher portfolio turnover may result in higher transactional and brokerage costs.

Risk Lose Money [Text]

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Remember that in addition to possibly not achieving your investment goals, you could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.

Bar Chart and Performance Table [Heading]

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Performance:

Performance Narrative [Text Block]

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Because the Portfolio has less than a full calendar year of investment operations, no performance information is presented for the Portfolio at this time. However, prior performance of the adviser’s similarly managed fund is presented under “Management of the Portfolio” below. In the future, Portfolio performance information will be presented in this section of the Prospectus. Also, shareholder reports containing financial and performance information will be mailed to shareholders semi-annually. Updated performance information will be available at no cost by visiting www.probabilitiesvitfund.com or by calling 1-855-224-7204.

Performance Information Illustrates Variability of Returns [Text]

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Because the Portfolio has less than a full calendar year of investment operations, no performance information is presented for the Portfolio at this time.

Performance Availability Phone [Text]

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1-855-224-7204

Performance Availability Website Address [Text]

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www.probabilitiesvitfund.com

Probabilities VIT Fund | Class 1 Shares

Prospectus [Line Items]

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Management Fees (as a percentage of Assets)

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1.35%

Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees

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0.35%

Other Expenses (as a percentage of Assets):

rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets

0.51%

Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses

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0.20%

^[1]

Expenses (as a percentage of Assets)

rr_ExpensesOverAssets

2.41%

Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year

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244

Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years

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751

Expense Example, with Redemption, 5 Years

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1,285

Expense Example, with Redemption, 10 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear10

2,746

Probabilities VIT Fund | Class 2 Shares

Prospectus [Line Items]

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Management Fees (as a percentage of Assets)

rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets

1.35%

Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees

rr_DistributionAndService12b1FeesOverAssets

0.50%

Other Expenses (as a percentage of Assets):

rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets

0.51%

Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses

rr_AcquiredFundFeesAndExpensesOverAssets

0.20%

^[1]

Expenses (as a percentage of Assets)

rr_ExpensesOverAssets

2.56%

Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year

rr_ExpenseExampleYear01

259

Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years

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796

Expense Example, with Redemption, 5 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear05

1,360

Expense Example, with Redemption, 10 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear10

2,895

[1] Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies. The operating expenses in this fee table will not correlate to the expense ratio in the Portfolio's financial highlights because the financial statements include only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Portfolio, not the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies.