RVOL calculation guide
Relative volume compares current activity with a stated baseline. On intraday charts, the main design choice is whether to compare with recent bars or with the same time of day across prior sessions.
Source review completed
Prompt brief
ThinkScript · one source file
Example request
Create a lower thinkorswim RVOL study that divides current five-minute bar volume by the mean volume for the same five-minute slot across the prior 20 regular sessions, with safe handling for missing history.
thinkorswim documents a RelativeVolumeStDev study and exposes bar volume to custom thinkScript. A custom RVOL ratio can divide current volume by an average baseline, but the denominator must be specified. A simple recent-bar average and a time-of-day seasonal average answer different questions.
Reference points
One script may compare the current bar with a 20-bar moving average. Another may compare cumulative volume since the open with average cumulative volume at the same time on prior days. Both can be called relative volume, but their numbers are not interchangeable.
Write the formula in the study name or description and expose the lookback, session, and threshold as inputs. This makes the reading auditable.
Check the first bars of a session, symbols with sparse volume, and any bar where the baseline could be zero. Decide whether extended-hours bars belong in both the numerator and baseline.
A high relative-volume value describes unusual activity under the selected formula. It does not specify price direction or the quality of a trade setup.
Suppose the current completed five-minute bar has 12,000 shares, the preceding 20 bars average 8,000, and the same time slot across earlier sessions averages 15,000. The recent-bar ratio is 1.5; the time-slot ratio is 0.8. These hypothetical values describe the same bar against different baselines.
RelativeVolumeStDev is a different built-in measure with length, num dev, and allow negative values inputs. Its deviation-based reading should not be relabeled as a simple multiple of average volume. For any live-bar comparison, account for the fact that volume is still accumulating.
Pineify thinkScript workflow
Give the Coding Agent the formula, inputs, plots, alerts, and edge cases. It returns one editable study or strategy file and keeps focused revisions in the same code artifact.
Choose a thinkorswim volume indicator from the question you need to answer. Use bar volume for activity by time, VolumeAvg for comparison with a recent baseline, RelativeVolumeStDev for standardized activity, VolumeProfile for activity by price, and cumulative indexes for a specified directional rule. No single volume indicator is best across all uses.
Read guideAdd VolumeProfile from the studies library, then set the profile period, price-per-row mode, row height, value-area percentage, expansion behavior, and plot visibility. The study distributes volume across price rows for the selected profile interval. It is different from volume by time bar and from bid-ask delta.
Read guideStandard thinkScript bar volume is not, by itself, a historical bid-ask aggressor split. A script that assigns all volume on an up bar to buying and all volume on a down bar to selling is a price-direction proxy, not true trade-classified CVD. Label such approximations plainly and do not compare them as equivalent to an order-flow data product.
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Pineify provides information and code-generation assistance, not investment advice. Generated scripts, strategy reports, simulations, and historical examples cannot predict prices or guarantee returns. Review every script and test it in its target platform before relying on its output.
It compares current volume with a defined historical baseline. The exact meaning depends on whether the baseline uses recent bars, prior sessions, or a standardized deviation method.
No. For a volume/average ratio, a value above 1 means activity exceeds that denominator. RelativeVolumeStDev uses a deviation-based scale, so its reading of 1 is not a 1× ratio. Neither reading establishes price direction.
Pineify can generate a single-file study when you define the sessions, lookback days, aggregation, cumulative or bar-level method, and missing-data behavior. Verify the result on several sessions in thinkorswim.
Generate one editable thinkScript study or strategy, inspect the source, request focused changes, and complete the final check in thinkorswim.
Pineify generates source code. Review its syntax and chart behavior in thinkorswim before use.
