Anchored VWAP Indicator: Your Guide to Volume-Weighted Price Analysis in TradingView

You know that feeling when a stock makes a huge move after earnings, and you wonder, "Okay, but what's the real price people have been paying since that announcement?" That's where Anchored VWAP comes in handy.

Regular VWAP resets every day at market open. Anchored VWAP? You pick the starting point—could be an earnings release, a breakout level, Monday morning, whatever matters to your trading. From that moment forward, it calculates the volume-weighted average price, basically showing you the "fair value" since that event happened.

Why do traders care? Because when price sits above your Anchored VWAP line, buyers have been winning since your anchor point. When it's below, sellers have had control. It's like having a reference line that says, "Here's what the crowd has actually paid on average since the thing you care about happened."

What is Anchored VWAP Indicator?

Think of Anchored VWAP as a reference line you can pin to any moment in time that matters to you. It calculates the average price weighted by volume from that specific anchor point forward—not from the daily market open like regular VWAP does.

The math is straightforward: it takes (price × volume) for every bar since your anchor, adds them all up, then divides by the total volume. What you get is a line showing the average price traders have actually paid, with bigger volume bars having more influence on that average.

Here's why that matters: if you anchor to, say, last week's earnings announcement, the line tells you whether buyers or sellers have controlled the action since then. Price chilling above the line? Buyers have been winning. Below it? Sellers have had the edge. It's especially helpful because unlike regular VWAP that resets every day, this one keeps going from your anchor point for as long as you want—days, weeks, even months.

For traders who track institutional money or analyze how price behaves after major events, this indicator gives you context that regular VWAP just can't provide. Similar to how the Volume Accumulation Percentage Indicator helps you spot smart money flow, Anchored VWAP shows you the weighted average those big players are working with from specific moments in time.

What is Pineify?

Pineify is a visual platform where you can build TradingView indicators and strategies without typing Pine Script by hand. You use a drag-and-drop editor, click together your logic, and it spits out the code you need.

The idea is simple: instead of Googling "how to code VWAP in Pine Script" and debugging syntax errors for two hours, you visually build what you want—Anchored VWAP, custom oscillators, whatever—and Pineify writes the code for you. Then you copy-paste it into TradingView and you're done.

It's helpful whether you've never written code before or you just want to skip the tedious parts. The platform has templates and pre-built components so you're not starting from scratch every time. And if you're the type who likes to tinker, you can still edit the generated code afterward—it's clean Pine Script, not some weird proprietary mess.

How to add Anchored VWAP Indicator to TradingView?

Getting Anchored VWAP onto your TradingView chart through Pineify is pretty straightforward:

1. Open Pineify: Head to the platform and fire up the indicator builder
2. Find Anchored VWAP: Search for it in the indicator library and select it
3. Set Your Anchor: Pick the date and time you want to anchor from, and tweak the colors if you care about aesthetics
4. Generate the Code: Pineify writes the Pine Script for you automatically
5. Copy to TradingView: Paste the code into TradingView's Pine Script editor (it's under the Pine Editor tab at the bottom of your chart)
6. Add to Chart: Save it, then click "Add to Chart"

The nice thing is you can create multiple versions with different anchor points—one for the weekly open, one for last earnings, one for that big gap-up three weeks ago—and swap between them to see which reference point gives you the most useful context. No need to mess with code every time you want to try a different anchor date.

How to use Anchored VWAP Indicator?

Once you've got Anchored VWAP on your chart, here's how to actually read what it's telling you:

Reading Trend Direction: If price keeps hanging out above the line, buyers have been in control since your anchor point. Below the line? Sellers have had the upper hand. It's a quick visual check: "Who's been winning this battle since the event I care about?"

Support and Resistance: The line itself often acts like a magnet. In uptrends, price tends to bounce when it comes back down to touch the Anchored VWAP—it's acting as support. In downtrends, it acts as resistance—price bumps into it and gets rejected. Not every time, but often enough that it's worth watching.

Fair Value Check: Think of the line as showing what's "fair" based on what everyone's actually paid since your anchor. If current price is way above the line, you might be in overextended territory. Way below? Could be oversold. It's not a crystal ball, but it gives you perspective.

Volume Matters: Here's the thing—VWAP is weighted by volume, so when price breaks above or below the line with heavy volume, that move carries more weight than a low-volume drift. Big volume + break = people are serious about this move.

If you're also looking at how volume behaves more broadly, combining Anchored VWAP with something like the On-Balance Volume Oscillator can give you a fuller picture of buying and selling pressure over time.

Best Anchored VWAP Indicator Settings

The settings that work best really depend on what you're trading and your timeframe. Here's what tends to work:

Picking Your Anchor Point: This is the most important part. Anchor to events that actually matter—earnings releases, big news, breakout levels, session opens, whatever changed the game. If nothing significant happened at your anchor point, the line won't tell you much useful. Think: "When did the market's attitude shift?" That's your anchor.

Timeframe Matters: Day traders usually anchor to market open or major intraday moves. Swing traders? Try weekly opens, earnings dates, or big support/resistance breaks. If you're holding positions longer, monthly starts or major economic events work better. Match your anchor to how long you plan to hold.

Visual Tweaks: Use a color that pops against your chart background. Line width around 2-3 pixels is readable without being obnoxious. Some people like 80-90% opacity so you can see price bars underneath—personal preference, really.

Using Multiple Lines: Here's a trick: add 2-3 Anchored VWAP lines with different anchors. Maybe one from daily open, one from weekly, one from last earnings. Now you can see fair value across different time horizons at once. Where they cluster together? That's often strong support or resistance.

Bottom line: your anchor should match what matters for your trading style. A scalper anchoring to quarterly events? Not helpful. A swing trader anchoring every hour? Also not helpful. Be intentional about it.

How to backtest Anchored VWAP Indicator?

Backtesting matters because what looks good on a chart in hindsight might fall apart in real trading. With Pineify, you can build a complete strategy around Anchored VWAP—entries, exits, stop losses, take profits—and see how it would've actually performed over historical data.

The process is pretty straightforward. You set up rules like "enter long when price breaks above Anchored VWAP with volume spike" or "exit when price closes below the line by 1%." Then you run it through historical data and see what happens. Pineify handles the strategy logic and order execution in the backtest, so you get realistic results.

Here's what to test: try different anchor points. Does anchoring to daily open work better than weekly? What about earnings vs. major support breaks? Test them all. Your job is to figure out which anchor choices give reliable signals for how you trade.

Pay attention to win rate, average profit per trade, and max drawdown. But also look at when it works. Does your strategy crush it in trending markets but bleed in choppy conditions? That's useful info—means you might turn it off when markets go sideways.

For a deeper dive into backtesting strategies in general, check out how to test trading strategies using TradingView for more context on the backtesting process and avoiding common pitfalls.

Common Questions About Anchored VWAP

How often should I reset my Anchored VWAP?

Whenever something significant changes in the market. Did earnings just drop? Reset it. Major news move the stock 10%? New anchor point. The idea is to keep it relevant—if the market context has shifted, your old anchor isn't as useful anymore. Some traders reset daily, others hold anchors for weeks. It depends on what events matter for your trading.

Can I use multiple Anchored VWAP lines at once?

Absolutely. A lot of traders run 2-4 lines with different anchors—one from daily open, one from weekly, maybe one from recent earnings. You get different perspectives on fair value across time horizons. When they line up, those levels tend to be pretty significant for support or resistance.

What's the actual difference between Anchored VWAP and regular VWAP?

Regular VWAP resets every day at market open automatically. Anchored VWAP? You pick when it starts, and it keeps calculating from that point forward until you change it. Makes Anchored VWAP way more flexible for longer-term analysis or tracking price from specific events.

Does it work better on certain timeframes?

Not really—it works on any timeframe. But your anchor choice needs to match your trading style. Day trading on a 5-minute chart? Anchor to market open or major morning moves. Swing trading daily charts? Weekly opens or earnings dates make more sense. The timeframe itself doesn't matter; it's about matching anchor to strategy.

How do I know if my anchor point is actually useful?

Watch how price reacts to the line. If it keeps bouncing off it or getting rejected at it, you've got a good anchor. If price just blows through it like it's not there, your anchor probably isn't meaningful to current market dynamics. Try a different event that better represents when the market's character changed.

Can I combine Anchored VWAP with other indicators?

Yeah, and honestly it works better that way. Anchored VWAP gives you fair value context, but adding something like RVOL (Relative Volume) helps confirm whether moves away from the line are backed by unusual activity or just noise. Or pair it with momentum oscillators to catch divergences—lots of ways to stack the odds.

Wrapping It Up

Anchored VWAP gives you something most indicators don't: a reference point tied to specific events that matter in your market. Instead of just looking at price in isolation, you're seeing it relative to what everyone's actually paid on average since a moment you choose—earnings, a breakout, market open, whatever.

The trick is picking meaningful anchor points. Random dates won't tell you much. But anchor to moments when market dynamics actually shifted, and suddenly the line becomes a useful gauge of fair value, support, and resistance.

What makes this more accessible now is that tools like Pineify let you build and test different Anchored VWAP setups without wrestling with code syntax. You can try multiple anchor points, combine them with other volume indicators, and backtest the whole thing to see what actually works for your trading style. No need to be a programmer to use institutional-grade tools anymore.

If you're serious about understanding where price stands relative to volume-weighted averages from events that matter, Anchored VWAP is worth adding to your chart. Just remember: the anchor you pick matters more than the indicator itself.