StoxVWAP and volume at price, the two intraday references
What VWAP and the volume-at-price profile show, how Live Flow estimates buying and selling from candles, and how to use these references to judge whether a move is strong or stretched.
Price alone tells you where a stock is. VWAP and volume at price tell you where the day's money actually traded, which is often more useful. Both feed the Live Flow score and its support and target levels.
VWAP: the day's average price
VWAP (volume-weighted average price) is the average price of every share traded today, weighted by volume. Live Flow works it out from 5-minute candles: for each candle it takes the typical price (high + low + close ÷ 3), weights it by the candle's volume, and averages from the open.
Why traders care:
- Above VWAP: buyers today have been willing to pay more than the average; the day's buyers are in profit.
- Below VWAP: sellers are in control; most of today's buyers are sitting on losses.
- Back at VWAP after a move: a common area where the trend either resumes or fails.
Live Flow uses VWAP twice in its score: how far price is from VWAP now, and how much of the day price has spent on the right side of it. A stock that has stayed above VWAP since the morning is showing steadier demand than one that just popped above it.
Volume at price: where the trading happened
The small histogram on each board tile is a volume-at-price profile: today's range split into 32 price bands, with the bar length showing how much volume traded in each band. The band with the most volume is the point of control (POC), the price the market accepted most today.
- A stock trading above a heavy volume area has that area as potential support below.
- A stock trading below it has potential resistance overhead.
- Thin bands with little volume tend to be crossed quickly; prices often move fast through them.
The POC is one of the levels Live Flow considers for Support 1 and Target 1 (how the levels are chosen).
Estimating buying and selling
Live Flow does not see the exchange order book. It estimates buying and selling from each candle: where the candle closed within its own high-to-low range. A close at the very top counts the candle's volume as all buying, a close at the bottom as all selling, a close in the middle as half and half. Adding this up across the day gives the buy % and sell % shown on tiles and cards, and the colour mix of each volume band.
It is an approximation, and a useful one: sustained closes near the highs on heavy volume are what buying pressure looks like on a chart. But it cannot separate a large buyer from many small ones, and it can be thrown off by a single huge candle.
Strong or stretched?
| What you see | Likely meaning |
|---|---|
| Price above VWAP, near the POC or just above it, buy % above 55 | Healthy strength with support nearby |
| Price far above VWAP, little volume traded at current prices | Stretched: a pullback toward VWAP is common |
| Price below VWAP after being above it all morning | Momentum fading; recheck the setup |
| Price holding at VWAP on rising buy % | Buyers defending the average: a common retest area |
Distance from VWAP raises the score, but it also raises the risk of a pullback. That is why the score and the R:R on the card should be read together.
VWAP and volume at price do not predict; they show where today's buyers and sellers committed money. Use them to judge whether a move is supported, and leave the forecasting out.
This article is for education only. It is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Check figures against the company's filings and consult a SEBI-registered adviser before investing.
