Analysis
Reading Volume Profile & VWAP in TradingView
Price says "what happened"; volume says "how much money took part." Technical analysis without volume is a concert with the volume at zero.
Basic setup
- Add Volume and overlay its 20-period average — "high/low volume" needs a baseline; only versus your own average does it mean anything;
- Add VWAP (volume-weighted average price): the weighted cost line of the day's trades, a common benchmark for algo orders.
The price-volume quadrants
| Combination | Read |
|---|---|
| Price up, volume up | Healthy rally, broadening participation |
| Price up, volume down | Push weakening, watch for exhaustion |
| Price down, volume up | Active selling, don't rush to catch |
| Price down, volume down | Selling drying up, watch for a base |
Price-volume near key levels carries the most information: a breakout on rising volume is a notch more credible; on falling volume, beware the fake-out.
VWAP: intraday, only long above VWAP and short below — one of the cleanest disciplines; a pullback to VWAP is the most-used second entry. VWAP resets daily and is intraday only. Volume Profile comes with some paid plans; Volume + VWAP is plenty to start.