Volume Price Trend

What is Volume Price Trend?

Volume price trend (VPT, also called price volume trend or PVT) is a cumulative volume line: each bar adds the bar's volume multiplied by the percentage change in close, so the running total rises on up closes and falls on down closes in proportion to how far price moved. That proportionality is the difference from OBV, which adds or subtracts the entire bar's volume whether the close moved 0.1% or 5%.

Like all cumulative flow lines, VPT's absolute level is arbitrary, since it depends on where the calculation started; the information is in its slope, its behavior relative to price, and divergences. Rising VPT alongside rising price reads as volume confirming the advance, while price pushing higher as VPT flattens or falls warns that the move is running on weak participation.

How traders use it

• Trend confirmation: an advance accompanied by a rising VPT has volume behind it, while an advance the line refuses to follow is treated with more suspicion.
• Divergence: new price highs with a lower VPT high, or new price lows with a higher VPT low, flag fading participation, the standard cumulative-line divergence read.
• Cross-checking flow measures: some traders compare VPT with the accumulation/distribution line, which weights volume by where the close sits inside the bar's range rather than by close-to-close change; agreement between the two strengthens the read.