Volume surge confirmation
Marks bars whose volume spikes above its recent average, regardless of which way price moved.
For each one-minute bar, the indicator averages the volume of the last window bars, counting the current bar itself. It marks the bar when its volume is more than the surge threshold times that average, which is 2 times at default settings. Price direction and the size of the price move play no part, even though the name and the header say the indicator confirms momentum. No marker appears until a full window of bars has built up.
How to read it
- Markers sit on the candles themselves. There is no line or pane below the chart.
- A marker means one minute of unusually heavy trading. It does not say whether buyers or sellers were in control.
- At defaults on SPY one-minute bars, markers show on about 12% of bars, around 80 a day, so the chart will look busy.
- Clusters of markers mean heavy trading over several minutes. A lone marker is one busy minute.
What it outputs
- Volume surge
- A marker on each bar whose volume is above the surge threshold times the average volume of the window, including that bar. Nothing is drawn on other bars.
When it fires
On a bar whose volume is above the surge threshold times the window average, that bar included. The moment means one minute of unusually heavy trading. It says nothing about whether price rose or fell, or which side was in control.
Settings
- window
- How many recent bars form the volume average. Raising it gives a steadier baseline that reacts slowly and needs more bars before the first marker. Lowering it tracks recent activity closely, so one big bar shifts the average fast.
- surge_threshold
- How many times the average a bar's volume must exceed to get a marker. Raising it leaves only the biggest spikes. Lowering it marks more bars. At 1 or below, ordinary bars qualify, and zero or negative values mark every bar.
Pitfalls
- The name and header say it confirms momentum, but the code never reads price. A surge on a falling bar and a surge on a rising bar mark the same way.
- The average includes the bar being tested. At defaults a bar must be about 2.1 times the mean of the 19 bars before it, not 2 times.
- Thresholds at zero or below mark every bar, and the upper limit of 201 is far above any threshold that would fire often.