VWAP
The volume-weighted average price — the institutional benchmark for 'fair' intraday value.
Core IndicatorsIntermediate 4 min read· Lesson 10 of 13 in Technical Analysis
Explanation & formula
VWAP = Σ(price × volume) / Σ(volume), accumulated through the session. Heavy-volume prices pull it hardest — it's where the average dollar actually transacted.
Interpretation
Above VWAP: average buyer is in profit; dips to VWAP often find algorithmic support in strong names. Below: the average long is trapped; rallies to VWAP meet their relieved selling. Institutions benchmark executions against it, which makes it self-fulfilling intraday support/resistance.
Common mistakes
Treating multi-month daily-chart VWAP like the intraday session tool — its native habitat is the trading day, and this scanner anchors it there: VWAP restarts every session. On a daily chart one bar IS one session, so VWAP is simply that bar's own typical price (H+L+C)/3, and ABOVE_VWAP reads as 'the stock closed in the upper part of its daily range' — a close-strength filter rather than the institutional benchmark described above. Switch to intraday bars to get that one.