What Is Cumulative Volume Delta?
Cumulative volume delta (CVD) adds up volume delta over time. Delta for a bar or a window is usually marketable buy volume minus marketable sell volume (trades that lifted the ask versus trades that hit the bid). CVD is that delta with a memory: it rises when aggressive buyers dominate and falls when aggressive sellers do.
How CVD Is Built and Read
Exchanges print trades with a side, or the side is inferred from whether the trade occurred at the ask or the bid. CVD starts from a chosen reset (session, day, or a swing) and accumulates. Traders look for agreement with price (both rising or both falling) or a divergence (price makes a new high while CVD does not, or the reverse).
CVD is not the same as volume or volume profile. It tries to capture aggression, not just how many units traded.
Why It Matters for Traders
A rally on weakening CVD can mean passive sellers are absorbing aggressive buys, which is useful context for fade or tight-risk continuation decisions. It is still just one tape study. It does not include hidden liquidity, and inferred side can be wrong on some venues.
How Perps Traders Use This
Read CVD next to funding, open interest, and liquidations. A CVD divergence into a known liquidation cluster is stronger context than a divergence on a quiet, thin book. Reset the window so you are not mixing two different sessions into one line.
Common Mistakes
- Treating CVD as a buy or sell signal without a level, a plan, and a stop.
- Comparing CVD across venues that classify trade side differently.
- Leaving the cumulative window so long that old sessions bury the current tape.
