Cumulative Delta

Cumulative Delta (CVD) is the running total of market orders executed at the ask (classified as aggressive buys) minus market orders executed at the bid (classified as aggressive sells). When CVD rises, aggressive buying dominates; when it falls, aggressive selling dominates. The tool reveals institutional commitment beneath price action, sometimes CVD rises sharply while price stagnates (absorption, often preceding breakout) or CVD falls while price rises (divergence, often preceding reversal).

Delta-based strategies typically trade one of three setups: divergences between CVD and price (mean-reversion thesis), confirmations where CVD and price move together (trend-continuation), or absorption patterns where CVD builds sharply at a specific level without price movement (signaling institutional accumulation). CVD requires tick-by-tick order flow data, not all retail platforms provide it. And works best on highly liquid instruments where bid/ask classification is meaningful.