← Glossary · Liquid State

Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD)

Volume delta for a given interval is the difference between taker buy volume and taker sell volume. A positive delta means more volume hit the ask — buyers were the aggressive side. A negative delta means more volume hit the bid — sellers were aggressive. Cumulative Volume Delta sums those deltas over time, starting from a chosen reference point such as the session open, to produce a single line that tracks the net balance of aggressive buyers versus aggressive sellers across the entire period.

CVD is most commonly read for divergences against price. When price reaches a new high but CVD remains flat or has declined over the same move, the advance has absorbed substantial selling rather than being driven by persistent buying pressure. When price consolidates while CVD continues to rise, buyers are consistently aggressing the ask even without an immediate price response. These relationships describe the character of current order flow; they describe what has happened, not what must happen next.

Unlike volume profile, which shows the cumulative distribution of volume at price levels over a historical window, CVD is a time-based flow metric. It tracks how buyers and sellers are interacting sequentially — an activity measure — rather than where volume has concentrated historically. Both tools examine volume, but volume profile asks "where?" and CVD asks "who is more aggressive right now?"