VWAP & Moving VWAP

VWAP is an acronym for Volume-Weighted Average Price, the ratio of the value traded to total volume traded over a particular time horizon (usually one day). It is a measure of the average price a stock traded at over the trading horizon.

VWAP is often used as a trading benchmark by investors who aim to be as passive as possible in their execution. Many pension funds, and some mutual funds, fall into this category. The aim of using a VWAP trading target is to ensure that the trader executing the order does so in-line with volume on the market. It is sometimes argued that such execution reduces transaction costs by minimizing market impact (the adverse effect of a trader's activities on the price of a security).

VWAP starts its calculation over each market day so it is only visible on intraday time frames. Moving VWAP is an x-period volume-weighted moving average.  On this 15-minute chart of AAPL, you can see the spikes in VWAP (yellow) where it starts over each day whereas the Moving VWAP is a running 50-bar volume-weighted average.

Note: Click here for more on how to use VWAP on TC2000

There is a drawing tool called Anchored VWAP by Alphatrends that allows you to plot the actual VWAP over any period of time selected. It is the only way to see the unaveraged VWAP value on a daily chart or above. Select the Anchor icon in the drawing tools to plot Anchored VWAP.

Read more on VWAP/Moving VWAP at Investopedia.