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Indicators

What Is VWAP

VWAP is the volume-weighted average price: the average of every bar's price so far today, with each bar counted as many times as it was busy, reset at the start of each day. This paper shows you the euro's 10 October 2025 drawn from real quarter-hour bars with the line growing through the day, the idea as a market stall's chalkboard showing the average price actually paid, the line on the intraday chart, the two running sums and one division at 16:30, and where the indicator comes from on your platform, which does not ship it.

Difficulty
Intermediate
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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The day's average, as it grows

VWAP is the volume-weighted average price. Take every bar since the day began, count each bar's price as many times as that bar was busy, and average: that is the line. It starts at the first bar's price and settles as the day fills in, because each new bar is one more weight on a scale that already holds many. On 10 October 2025 the euro opened at 1.15531 and closed at 1.16175, and its volume-weighted average for the day was 1.15870. At midnight the count starts again.

A market stall's chalkboard

The picture is a market stall with a chalkboard. On the board is the average price paid today, counting every sale: a busy hour with many sales at 1.157 weighs more than a quiet hour with a few at 1.162, so the average sits closer to the busy price. That is what volume-weighted means. The board is rubbed out at the end of the day and starts again with the first sale tomorrow. VWAP is the chalkboard: not the average of the prices the stall showed, but the average of what was actually paid.

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