Extra indicators
VWAP: Volume-Weighted Average Price
The average price of the day weighted by volume, a fair-value line many professional traders watch.
The idea in plain words
If you bought evenly throughout the day, what would your average price be? VWAP answers that, giving more weight to prices where more trading happened. Prices above VWAP mean today's buyers are on average in profit.
How it is calculated
Running total of typical price times volume, divided by running total of volume, reset at the start of each day (each month on daily charts, each year on weekly and monthly charts).
VWAP = Σ (typical price × volume) ÷ Σ volume, typical price = (high + low + close) ÷ 3How to use it
- Above VWAP: buyers in control today; below: sellers.
- Pullbacks to VWAP in a trend are common entry points.
- Large orders are often judged against VWAP, which is why it can act as a magnet.
Drawing conclusions
- VWAP is most meaningful on intraday charts.
Example
A stock opens weak, rallies above VWAP by midday and stays there: buyers took control after the open.
Prices in examples are illustrative.
Watch out for
- On currencies, metals and CFDs there is no central exchange volume. The chart uses "tick volume", the number of price changes in each candle, which follows real activity closely but is not the number of contracts traded.
A little history
Became a standard benchmark for large institutional orders in the 1980s and 1990s.
Educational content only. No indicator or pattern predicts the future, and nothing here is investment advice.