Label

Element

Value

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

Document Type

dei_DocumentType

Other

Document Period End Date

dei_DocumentPeriodEndDate

May 15, 2015

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 15, 2015

Document Effective Date

dei_DocumentEffectiveDate

May 15, 2015

Prospectus Date

rr_ProspectusDate

May 01, 2015

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 1 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

Risk/Return [Heading]

rr_RiskReturnHeading

FUND SUMMARY

Objective [Heading]

rr_ObjectiveHeading

Investment Objective:

Objective, Primary [Text Block]

rr_ObjectivePrimaryTextBlock

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

Expense [Heading]

rr_ExpenseHeading

Fees and Expenses of the Portfolio:

Expense Narrative [Text Block]

rr_ExpenseNarrativeTextBlock

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]

rr_OperatingExpensesCaption

Annual Fund Operating Expenses

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

Portfolio Turnover [Heading]

rr_PortfolioTurnoverHeading

Portfolio Turnover:

Portfolio Turnover [Text Block]

rr_PortfolioTurnoverTextBlock

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 2052% of the average value of its portfolio.

Portfolio Turnover, Rate

rr_PortfolioTurnoverRate

2052.00%

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

rr_ExpensesNotCorrelatedToRatioDueToAcquiredFundFees

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]

rr_ExpenseExampleHeading

Example:

Expense Example Narrative [Text Block]

rr_ExpenseExampleNarrativeTextBlock

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]

rr_ExpenseExampleByYearCaption

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]

rr_StrategyHeading

Principal Investment Strategies:

Strategy Narrative [Text Block]

rr_StrategyNarrativeTextBlock

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”) or ETFs which seek returns which are the inverse of a U.S. equity index, (“Inverse Index ETFs”). In addition, the Portfolio may hold cash, money market instruments, or other cash equivalents (collectively, “Cash Instruments”).

The Portfolio’s co-adviser, Probabilities Fund Management, LLC (“Probabilities”), 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 that seeks to take advantage of long-term trends in the market. The Portfolio typically invests in either ETFs or Cash Instruments depending on the co-advisers’ assessment of the market. When the co-advisers believe that conditions are favorable for investment in equities, the Portfolio will invest in ETFs. During periods that Probabilities believes 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 Probabilities believes 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]

rr_RiskHeading

Principal Investment Risks:

Risk Narrative [Text Block]

rr_RiskNarrativeTextBlock

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 Portfolio. 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.

• Management Risk. Probabilities’ judgment about the attractiveness, value and potential appreciation of a 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]

rr_RiskLoseMoney

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]

rr_BarChartAndPerformanceTableHeading

Performance:

Performance Narrative [Text Block]

rr_PerformanceNarrativeTextBlock

The bar chart and performance table set out below help show the returns and risks of investing in the Portfolio. The bar chart shows performance of the Portfolio for each full calendar year since the Portfolio’s inception for Class 1 shares. The performance table compares the performance of the Portfolio over time to the performance of a broad-based securities market index. You should be aware that the Portfolio’s past performance may not be an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. Updated performance information will be available at no cost by calling 1-855-224-7204.

Performance Information Illustrates Variability of Returns [Text]

rr_PerformanceInformationIllustratesVariabilityOfReturns

The bar chart and performance table set out below help show the returns and risks of investing in the Portfolio. The bar chart shows performance of the Portfolio for each full calendar year since the Portfolio's inception for Class 1 shares.

Performance Availability Phone [Text]

rr_PerformanceAvailabilityPhone

1-855-224-7204

Performance Past Does Not Indicate Future [Text]

rr_PerformancePastDoesNotIndicateFuture

You should be aware that the Portfolio’s past performance may not be an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.

Bar Chart [Heading]

rr_BarChartHeading

Performance Bar Chart for Calendar Year Ended December 31.

Bar Chart Closing [Text Block]

rr_BarChartClosingTextBlock

Best Quarter:	4th Quarter 2014	4.78%
Worst Quarter:	1st Quarter 2014	(0.48)%

Highest Quarterly Return, Label

rr_HighestQuarterlyReturnLabel

Best Quarter:

Highest Quarterly Return, Date

rr_BarChartHighestQuarterlyReturnDate

Dec. 31, 2014

Highest Quarterly Return

rr_BarChartHighestQuarterlyReturn

4.78%

Lowest Quarterly Return, Label

rr_LowestQuarterlyReturnLabel

Worst Quarter:

Lowest Quarterly Return, Date

rr_BarChartLowestQuarterlyReturnDate

Mar. 31, 2014

Lowest Quarterly Return

rr_BarChartLowestQuarterlyReturn

(0.48%)

Performance Table Heading

rr_PerformanceTableHeading

Performance Table

Average Annual Total Returns

(For periods ended December 31, 2014)

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 1 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund | S&P 500 TR Index

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

1 Year

rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01

13.69%

^[1]

Since Inception

rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception

19.02%

^[1]

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 1 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund | Class 1 Shares

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

Management Fees (as a percentage of Assets)

rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets

1.35%

Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees

rr_DistributionAndService12b1FeesOverAssets

0.35%

Other Expenses (as a percentage of Assets):

rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets

0.42%

Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses

rr_AcquiredFundFeesAndExpensesOverAssets

0.25%

^[2]

Expenses (as a percentage of Assets)

rr_ExpensesOverAssets

2.37%

Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year

rr_ExpenseExampleYear01

240

Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear03

739

Expense Example, with Redemption, 5 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear05

1,265

Expense Example, with Redemption, 10 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear10

2,706

Annual Return 2014

rr_AnnualReturn2014

4.89%

Label

rr_AverageAnnualReturnLabel

Return Before Taxes

1 Year

rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01

4.89%

Since Inception

rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception

5.57%

^[3]

Inception Date

rr_AverageAnnualReturnInceptionDate

Apr. 29, 2013

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 1 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund | Class 1 Shares | Return After Taxes on Distributions

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

1 Year

rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01

4.88%

Since Inception

rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception

5.57%

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 1 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund | Class 1 Shares | Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

1 Year

rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01

2.76%

Since Inception

rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception

4.26%

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 2 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

Risk/Return [Heading]

rr_RiskReturnHeading

FUND SUMMARY

Objective [Heading]

rr_ObjectiveHeading

Investment Objective:

Objective, Primary [Text Block]

rr_ObjectivePrimaryTextBlock

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

Expense [Heading]

rr_ExpenseHeading

Fees and Expenses of the Portfolio:

Expense Narrative [Text Block]

rr_ExpenseNarrativeTextBlock

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]

rr_OperatingExpensesCaption

Annual Fund Operating Expenses

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

Portfolio Turnover [Heading]

rr_PortfolioTurnoverHeading

Portfolio Turnover:

Portfolio Turnover [Text Block]

rr_PortfolioTurnoverTextBlock

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 2052% of the average value of its portfolio.

Portfolio Turnover, Rate

rr_PortfolioTurnoverRate

2052.00%

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

rr_ExpensesNotCorrelatedToRatioDueToAcquiredFundFees

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]

rr_ExpenseExampleHeading

Example:

Expense Example Narrative [Text Block]

rr_ExpenseExampleNarrativeTextBlock

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]

rr_ExpenseExampleByYearCaption

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]

rr_StrategyHeading

Principal Investment Strategies:

Strategy Narrative [Text Block]

rr_StrategyNarrativeTextBlock

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”) or ETFs which seek returns which are the inverse of a U.S. equity index, (“Inverse Index ETFs”). In addition, the Portfolio may hold cash, money market instruments, or other cash equivalents (collectively, “Cash Instruments”).

The Portfolio’s co-adviser, Probabilities Fund Management, LLC (“Probabilities”), 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 that seeks to take advantage of long-term trends in the market. The Portfolio typically invests in either ETFs or Cash Instruments depending on the co-advisers’ assessment of the market. When the co-advisers believe that conditions are favorable for investment in equities, the Portfolio will invest in ETFs. During periods that Probabilities believes 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 Probabilities believes 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]

rr_RiskHeading

Principal Investment Risks:

Risk Narrative [Text Block]

rr_RiskNarrativeTextBlock

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 Portfolio. 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.

• Management Risk. Probabilities’ judgment about the attractiveness, value and potential appreciation of a 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]

rr_RiskLoseMoney

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]

rr_BarChartAndPerformanceTableHeading

Performance:

Performance Narrative [Text Block]

rr_PerformanceNarrativeTextBlock

The bar chart and performance table set out below help show the returns and risks of investing in the Portfolio. The bar chart shows performance of the Portfolio for each full calendar year since the Portfolio’s inception for Class 2 Shares. The performance table compares the performance of the Portfolio over time to the performance of a broad-based securities market index. You should be aware that the Portfolio’s past performance may not be an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. Updated performance information will be available at no cost by calling 1-855-224-7204.

Performance Information Illustrates Variability of Returns [Text]

rr_PerformanceInformationIllustratesVariabilityOfReturns

The bar chart and performance table set out below help show the returns and risks of investing in the Portfolio. The bar chart shows performance of the Portfolio for each full calendar year since the Portfolio's inception for Class 2 Shares.

Performance Availability Phone [Text]

rr_PerformanceAvailabilityPhone

1-855-224-7204

Performance Past Does Not Indicate Future [Text]

rr_PerformancePastDoesNotIndicateFuture

You should be aware that the Portfolio’s past performance may not be an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.

Bar Chart [Heading]

rr_BarChartHeading

Performance Bar Chart for Calendar Year Ended December 31.

Bar Chart Closing [Text Block]

rr_BarChartClosingTextBlock

Best Quarter:	4th Quarter 2014	4.79%
Worst Quarter:	1st Quarter 2014	(0.58)%

Highest Quarterly Return, Label

rr_HighestQuarterlyReturnLabel

Best Quarter:

Highest Quarterly Return, Date

rr_BarChartHighestQuarterlyReturnDate

Dec. 31, 2014

Highest Quarterly Return

rr_BarChartHighestQuarterlyReturn

4.79%

Lowest Quarterly Return, Label

rr_LowestQuarterlyReturnLabel

Worst Quarter:

Lowest Quarterly Return, Date

rr_BarChartLowestQuarterlyReturnDate

Mar. 31, 2014

Lowest Quarterly Return

rr_BarChartLowestQuarterlyReturn

(0.58%)

Performance Table Heading

rr_PerformanceTableHeading

Performance Table

Average Annual Total Returns

(For periods ended December 31, 2014)

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 2 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund | S&P 500 TR

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

1 Year

rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01

13.69%

^[1]

Since Inception

rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception

19.02%

^[1]

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 2 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund | Class 2 Shares

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

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

0.42%

Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses

rr_AcquiredFundFeesAndExpensesOverAssets

0.25%

^[2]

Expenses (as a percentage of Assets)

rr_ExpensesOverAssets

2.52%

Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year

rr_ExpenseExampleYear01

255

Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear03

785

Expense Example, with Redemption, 5 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear05

1,340

Expense Example, with Redemption, 10 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear10

2,856

Annual Return 2014

rr_AnnualReturn2014

4.79%

Label

rr_AverageAnnualReturnLabel

Return Before Taxes

1 Year

rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01

4.79%

Since Inception

rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception

5.46%

^[4]

Inception Date

rr_AverageAnnualReturnInceptionDate

Apr. 29, 2013

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 2 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund | Class 2 Shares | Return After Taxes on Distributions

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

1 Year

rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01

4.79%

Since Inception

rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception

5.46%

Probabilities VIT Fund Class 2 Shares | Probabilities VIT Fund | Class 2 Shares | Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares

Prospectus [Line Items]

rr_ProspectusLineItems

1 Year

rr_AverageAnnualReturnYear01

2.71%

Since Inception

rr_AverageAnnualReturnSinceInception

4.17%

[1] The inclusion of the S&P 500 Total Return Index results are for comparison purposes only. The S&P 500 Total Return Index is an unmanaged composite of 500 large capitalization companies and includes the reinvestment of dividends. This index is widely used by professional investors as a performance benchmark for large-cap stocks. Investors cannot invest directly in an index. The historical performance results of the S&P 500 Index (and all other indexes, are unmanaged; do not reflect the deduction of transaction and custodial charges, or the deduction of a management fee, the incurrence of which would have the effect of decreasing indicated historical performance results and cannot be invested indirectly).

[2] 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.

[3] The inception date of the class 1 shares of the Portfolio is April 29, 2013.

[4] The inception date of the Class 2 shares of the Portfolio is April 29, 2013.