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Three ways to locate pressure
A bar's total delta says who did more. Pressure measures add a second question: where. Aggressive buying far above the value of the bar means buyers were willing to pay away from the fairest price, which is a stronger statement than the same buying at the point of control. Each measure picks a pivot and compares the two sides around it.
| Measure | Pivot | Computation |
|---|---|---|
| Buy/Sell Pressure Ratio | Point of control (volume) | Σ ask volume above POC ÷ Σ bid volume below POC |
| Aggression Ratio | Midpoint of the range (geometry) | Σ ask volume above mid ÷ Σ bid volume below mid |
| Balance of Power | Open and close | (close − open) ÷ (high − low), averaged over N bars |
How to read the ratios
- Pressure ratio above one: buyers aggressed above the value area more than sellers aggressed below it. An accepted extension upward.
- Pressure ratio below one: the mirror. Sellers paid away from value.
- The POC level itself is excluded from both sums, since it is the pivot; including it would tilt the ratio by the heaviest level of the bar.
- When the POC sits on the low, the POC-pivoted and mid-pivoted ratios answer different questions, and comparing them is where the reading becomes informative.
- Balance of Power uses no aggressor data at all. It reads where the bar closed inside its range and needs a range: a bar with high equal to low contributes nothing.
In Senzoukria
Buy/Sell Pressure Ratio and Aggression Ratio are pane indicators in the Tape & flow group. Both use strict comparisons around their pivot, and both return no value when the denominator is empty: a bar with no aggressive selling below the pivot has no reference, and dividing by zero is not infinity. Balance of Power sits in the Momentum group with a default window of 14 bars and a simple moving average, following the original definition; bars with no range are dropped from the average rather than counted as zero.
The POC used by the pressure ratio is the level with the highest volume, and a tie goes to the lower price, the same rule as Sierra Chart's setting.
Misreadings to avoid
- Treating a ratio as a probability. It describes the geometry of one bar, not the odds of the next.
- Reading Balance of Power as an order flow measure. It is a price-based oscillator that works on plain OHLC.
- Ignoring volume. A ratio of two tiny sums looks the same as a ratio of two large ones.
- Expecting a value on every bar. A missing value means the measure had no reference, and that is information too.
Related
- Buy/Sell Pressure Ratio indicator
- Aggression Ratio indicator
- Balance of Power indicator
- Order flow trading guide
- Aggressor
In the same section
- CAGR
- Buy-side and sell-side liquidity
- Calendar spread
- Butterfly spread
- Calendar spread
- Bridge
- Call wall
- Breakeven win rate
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Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between buying pressure and positive delta?
- Positive delta means ask volume exceeded bid volume over the whole bar. Buying pressure measures usually add location: buying above the point of control or above the midpoint counts, buying at the low does not. A bar can have positive delta and a pressure ratio below one if the buying happened at the bottom of the range.
- Which pressure indicator should I use?
- It depends on the question. The POC-pivoted ratio asks who paid away from value; the mid-range ratio asks who paid in the upper or lower half of the bar; Balance of Power asks where the bar closed relative to its range. They are designed to be read together rather than to replace each other.