Klinger Volume Oscillator

What is the Klinger Volume Oscillator?

The Klinger Volume Oscillator (KVO) is a volume-flow oscillator developed by Stephen Klinger in the 1990s. Each bar contributes a quantity called volume force: the bar's full volume, signed positive or negative by trend (whether the sum of high, low, and close rose or fell versus the prior bar) and scaled by a temper factor that compares the bar's range with the cumulative range of the current move, so volume counts for more when range behavior suggests conviction. The oscillator is the difference between a fast and a slow EMA of volume force, most commonly 34 and 55 periods, plotted with a 13-period signal line.

Klinger's stated aim was an indicator sensitive enough to register short-term shifts in money flow while still tracking the longer arc of accumulation and distribution. Readings above zero and rising suggest volume is behind the advance; an oscillator that sags while price presses higher is the classic warning that the move is losing volume support.

How traders use it

• As a money-flow trigger: crosses above the signal line or the zero line are read as flow turning positive, and crosses below as flow turning negative; in choppy ranges these crossings whipsaw, so most users demand trend context first.
• As a divergence tool: price printing a new high while the oscillator prints a lower high flags fading participation, the same logic as other forms of volume divergence.
• As confirmation rather than a standalone system: pairing KVO direction with price structure or a trend filter, since volume-based oscillators are noisy on their own.