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What is Delta and CVD (Deep Delta)?
Delta is the difference between volume executed as aggressive buying (at the ask) and aggressive selling (at the bid) over a period. Positive, buyers dominate; negative, sellers. CVD (cumulative delta) sums that balance over time into a pressure curve.
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What does delta (CVD) measure?
Delta is the difference between volume executed at market on the ask and on the bid over a period. Cumulated, it gives CVD. A divergence, price rising while CVD falls, signals the move is carried by passive orders, not by buy aggression.
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What DeepCharts does better
Deep Delta offers the measure in several forms within one tool, per-bar delta, cumulative delta, delta profiles per price level, CVD on the chart, and computes it on the true aggressive side of each trade via MBO data. Where an approximated delta can pick the wrong side, the MBO read stays correct, which makes divergences trustworthy.
Using it day to day
Day to day, keep CVD below price and watch for divergence: a new price high without a new CVD high = a fragile move. Price holding support while CVD ticks up betrays accumulation. Very clean intraday on NQ, ES and FDAX.
Example: the ES makes a third high of the morning, but CVD makes a higher low then stalls. Buy aggression no longer follows: minutes later price rolls over. The delta/price divergence had warned.
⚠ The trap to avoid
The trap: confusing delta with price. Positive delta doesn't mean 'up': if price fails to advance despite strong delta, it's absorption (the opposite signal). Delta is always read against the real price move.
Combine it with
Combine it with the footprint (where within price aggression concentrated) and Speed of Tape (at what intensity): delta tells the effort, the others tell the place and the speed.
FAQ
Delta vs CVD, what's the difference?+
Delta is the buy/sell balance of a single bar. CVD (cumulative delta) sums those balances over time to show the underlying trend of pressure: handy for spotting divergences with price.
What is a delta divergence?+
When price and CVD stop moving together (a new price high without a new CVD high, for example). Aggression no longer supports the move, often ahead of a reversal.
Is a strongly positive delta bullish?+
Not necessarily. With a real rise, yes. But massive positive delta with no price progress signals sell-side absorption, potentially bearish.
Delta vs volume: what's the difference?+
Volume measures the total quantity traded, with no direction. Delta adds the direction: how much of that volume hit the ask (aggressive buyers) versus the bid (aggressive sellers).
Does CVD reset each day?+
Usually yes, at the session open, to stay comparable within a day. Its absolute value only means something within one session and one instrument: what matters is its slope and its divergences.
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