A signed pressure reading between -1 and +1 that oscillates around 0. Above 0 means net buying pressure over the window; below 0 means net selling pressure; the further from 0, the stronger the bias.
CMF (Chaikin Money Flow) measures buying versus selling pressure using both price position within each bar and volume. It oscillates around zero between -1 and +1; readings above 0 suggest buyers are in control, below 0 sellers are.
How it works
For each bar it finds where the close sits inside the high–low range to get a 'money flow multiplier', multiplies it by volume, then sums that over the period (default 20 bars) and divides by total volume. Closes near the high on strong volume push CMF positive; closes near the low push it negative.
Configuration
periodscalar
How many bars of money-flow volume to sum. Larger = smoother and slower; smaller = jumpier and more reactive. 20 is the default.
Connects to
Feeds into
Examples
Filter: only allow long entries while CMF is above 0, confirming buyers hold the upper hand.
Treat a flip from below 0 to above 0 as a shift from selling to buying pressure.
Common mistakes
Reacting to tiny wobbles around 0 — values close to zero mean no clear pressure, not an edge.
Trusting it on instruments with unreliable volume, since the whole measure is volume-weighted.