What Is Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD)?

True Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) is a running total of aggressive buy volume minus aggressive sell volume. It requires trade-side data: market buys lift the offer and market sells hit the bid. Ampeld does not receive that feed for most covered markets, so its CVD layer is an OHLCV-based model rather than observed order flow.

What CVD actually tells you

See it on a real chart: Bitcoin (BTCUSD) liquidation heatmap — the modeled clusters above and below the current price.

Observed CVD can describe aggressive buying and selling. Modeled CVD can only estimate how volume was distributed inside each candle. Treat divergence as something to test, not proof that buyers or sellers are in control.

Divergence and absorption

• Bearish divergence: price makes a higher high but CVD makes a lower high — usually read as buyers pushing with less conviction. Treat it as a hypothesis to test, not a reversal signal.
• Bullish divergence: price makes a lower low but CVD makes a higher low — usually read as selling pressure fading, with the same caution.
• Absorption: heavy aggressive volume (CVD moving hard) with little price movement is usually read as a large passive player soaking up the orders. With modeled CVD that is an inference from candles, not an observed fill, and it does not tell you a turn is coming.

Why CVD pairs well with a liquidation heatmap

A liquidation heatmap estimates where resting orders may concentrate; modeled CVD describes how price and volume were distributed across the candle. Viewing both can add context, but neither identifies a destination or guarantees a reversal setup.

Ampeld models CVD from OHLCV alongside its modeled stop clusters, so you can compare volume and estimated resting orders on the same chart. CVD markers appear in the web terminal for forex, crypto and equity markets once you create a free account — on a 24-hour delay, or live with the 7-day €1 trial or a paid plan.