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The idea and calculations for the Volume Positive Negative (VPN) indicator were created by Markos Katsanos. Markos wrote about the indicator in the article Detecting High-Volume Breakouts, published in Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities April, 2021 (Vol. 39, Issue 5).

The goal of the VPN indicator is to detect breakouts using only volume. The basic idea is to compare volume on up days versus volume on down days. The oscillator can move between the range of -100 and 100. Values between 0 and 20 are generally considered bullish, negative are bearish.

When the plotted VPN crosses over what Markos refers to as the critical value, that may indicate a high volume breakout. The critical value can be adjusted between 0 to 20, 10 is the default,

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Here’s where you can find the latest release of the Volume Positive Negative (VPN) indicator.

This TradingView indicator displays volume based on the current timeframe. For example, on a daily chart the volume represents the volume for the day. On a weekly chart, the volume is cumulative for the week.

There is also an option to configure the volume moving average lengths. The default for a daily chart is to calculate the 50-day moving average. On a weekly chart, the default is the 10-week moving average.

The “Track Price” information available in MarketSmith (aka the yellow box) is quite helpful to get specifics on price and volume action. I wrote a similar indicator for TradingView that you can use to keep tabs on the same information.

Here’s how the track price information is shown on MarketSmith: