Reading 3: Deep Delta and the CVD

A bar's delta is the balance of aggressive buys minus aggressive sells. The CVD, the cumulative delta, adds it up over the session to draw a pressure curve. As with MM Pressure on the gamma map, you never read its value, which only makes sense within one session and one instrument, only three things: its slope, its divergences from price, and what it does at a level.

The three readings

1. The slope. A CVD rising with price says a rally carried by aggression. A flat CVD under a rising price says a rally carried by sellers pulling back: more fragile, because all it takes is for the sellers to come back.
2. The divergence. A new price high without a new CVD high: aggression is no longer following. It is the most reliable warning before a reversal, provided you read it at a level. The opposite pattern, a new price low with a CVD making a higher low, says that sellers are running out.