It measures who won the candle: the buyer or the seller.
The short answer
- What is Balance of Power (BOP)?
- Balance of Power: (close−open) ÷ (high−low).
- When does BOP get it wrong?
- Very noisy on a single candle · needs smoothing. Its current reading on platform symbols, at the last daily close, is in the "Reading now" table on this page. Reading now →
Reading now
| Ticker | Value | Five sessions ago | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPY | 0.06 | −0.01 | Above 0 |
| QQQ | 0.02 | 0.15 | Above 0 |
| IWM | −0.16 | −0.32 | Below 0 |
| DIA | 0.07 | −0.19 | Above 0 |
A description of where the number sits against its thresholds. It is not an entry or exit signal.
Indicator limit
Very noisy on a single candle · needs smoothing.
Read it with
Accumulation / Distribution line: the candle's balance builds up in the Accumulation / Distribution line, which is its smoother reading.
Answers: is momentum changing?
What it actually does
Balance of Power measures who actually decided the session: the difference between close and open, divided by the full session range. A close near the high after an open near the low gives a high positive reading, because buyers took the session from start to finish. The reverse holds for sellers.
What sets it apart
That it reads the candle from the inside, not its place among other candles. Two candles with the same close can carry opposite readings if one was settled early and the other bounced from a deep low. It is a measure of control within the session that closes alone hide.
How it is read in practice
It is smoothed with an average (14 by convention) because the raw daily reading is very noisy. Read the smoothed line around zero: staying positive means buyers keep winning sessions even if price zigzags, and a cross of zero is a shift in daily control that may come before a change in trend.
Hypothetical example
A stock rises for two weeks while its smoothed Balance of Power falls toward zero. The climb comes from sessions that open high and close flat. Buyers push at the open and give up by the end of the day. It is a weak internal structure that the closing line doesn't show.
Where it errs and why
Large opening gaps distort it, since it measures from the open rather than yesterday's close. It also ignores volume entirely, so a decisive session on thin volume weighs the same as one on huge volume.
Read it with
It is not read alone. First classify the environment with the trend strength indicator. Then confirm with volume, which separates a backed move from an empty one. Then place it on the structural levels from the gamma map, since a signal at a dense wall carries more weight than one in open space.
Where to see it on the platform
The technical chart in the members area shows it on any ticker and timeframe, within its full family in the indicator list.
