Order FlowIntermediate
Delta & Cumulative Delta (CVD)
Net aggression per bar, the running total, and divergences.
Delta is aggressive buying minus aggressive selling in a bar. Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) is the running total of delta across bars — a session-long tug-of-war score.
Delta tells you who won a single bar; CVD tells you who's winning the day. The real signal, though, is when the two disagree with price:
Delta / CVD divergence
- Price up, CVD flat or down — the rally isn't backed by aggressive buying; it may be a weak, fadeable move.
- Price down, CVD flat or up — selling isn't following through; watch for a bounce.
- Price and CVD rising together — genuine buy-side strength.
Because CVD is a whole-session running total, it can't be reconstructed from a short window — it has to be carried forward continuously, which is why AlgoPloy stores it per candle rather than recomputing it.
CVD and delta are live and incremental in AlgoPloy. Signals like absorption and imbalance, however, are computed only on a closed candle — a deliberate product decision so an alert means the same thing every time.