Concept
Up/down Volume Ratio
Up/down Volume Ratio is a Volume & Order Flow concept. The Library holds 3 implementations, each one a working definition you can pull into Quant.
Top Up/down Volume Ratio indicators
3 total
What is the Up/down Volume Ratio?
The up/down volume ratio compares volume transacted on strength against volume transacted on weakness. The best-known form comes from the growth-stock screening tradition associated with William O'Neil: sum the volume of all up days over a lookback (50 trading days in the classic construction), divide by the summed volume of all down days, and read values above 1.0 as net accumulation and values below 1.0 as net distribution.
The same name is also used intraday for a different construction: each bar's volume is split into up and down portions, by uptick versus downtick or by close direction, then expressed as a ratio or a buy/sell percentage. That version sits close to volume delta territory. Because the two constructions answer different questions on different horizons, check which one a given tool implements before reading its output.
How traders use it
- For screening: position traders shortlist stocks whose ratio sits above 1.0 and is improving, treating persistent heavy up-day volume as evidence of accumulation while a base forms.
- For base and breakout quality: a ratio that strengthens as a base develops is constructive, while clusters of heavy down-day volume inside a base are a red flag for the eventual breakout.
- Intraday: the buy/sell split version serves as a session bias gauge, read alongside delta and price structure rather than in isolation.
Related concepts · Volume behavior
Concept family
Volume & Order Flow
87 concepts mapped · 62 in the Library
Up/down Volume Ratio FAQ
What is a good up/down volume ratio?
In the screening tradition, above 1.0 means volume has favored up days over the lookback, and growth methodologies generally prefer clearly higher readings on breakout candidates. No level guarantees anything: a high ratio late in a long run can reflect crowd enthusiasm rather than early accumulation, so the trend of the ratio and the price context matter as much as the number.
Is the up/down volume ratio the same as volume delta?
No. The classic ratio buckets entire days by close direction, so one number summarizes weeks of daily behavior. Volume delta classifies each trade by whether it hit the bid or lifted the offer, measuring aggressor flow bar by bar. Intraday up/down volume splits sit between the two, approximating delta from ticks or closes rather than true aggressor data.
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