On this page
Session Volume Pace — Structure & sessions, in its own panel below the chart.
What Session Volume Pace measures
At each bar the indicator takes the session's cumulative volume and divides it by the average cumulative volume at exactly the same offset from the open across the N previous sessions in the loaded history, everything anchored to the 17:00 CT open. Because it works on cumulated volume, it traces a trajectory across the session instead of jumping bar to bar the way a per-bar relative volume does, so one quiet candle does not change what it says about the day. The baseline is strict: all N previous sessions must carry a bar at that exact offset, otherwise nothing is plotted — a holiday session, a data gap or history that begins mid-session yields no value rather than an average quietly built on fewer sessions than you asked for.
The formula, as implemented
This is not how the indicator is usually defined elsewhere — it is what the shipped code computes, documented next to the implementation:
Rythme du volume de séance (« pace ») : value = volume CUMULÉ de la séance à cet offset / moyenne des volumes CUMULÉS au MÊME offset sur les N séances précédentes Offset = `bucketTsNs − ouverture_de_séance` en ns (clé exacte : les buckets sont sur la grille du timeframe). « Séances précédentes » = les N tranches `splitSessions` immédiatement antérieures dans l'historique CHARGÉ. Ancrage CME 17:00 CT partout (canon). POURQUOI : 1,4 à midi veut dire « la séance a déjà fait 40 % de volume de plus qu'une séance normale à cette heure-ci » — l'indicateur que regardent les desks pour savoir si la journée est « une vraie » avant qu'elle soit finie. Le CUMULÉ est ce qui le distingue de `session-relative-volume` (flow2.ts), qui compare le volume d'UNE barre : celui-ci saute à chaque bougie, le pace est une trajectoire — une barre creuse ne le fait pas mentir sur la journée. BASELINE STRICTE, et c'est le cœur de la convention : les N séances précédentes doivent TOUTES porter une barre à cet offset exact. Séance précédente écourtée (jour férié, coupure de données, historique qui commence en milieu de séance), offset absent, ou moins de N séances chargées → null. Une baseline construite sur 3 séances quand l'utilisateur en a demandé 5 afficherait un chiffre qui n'est pas celui qu'il croit lire. Moyenne nulle → null (division par zéro = pas d'information). Défaut N=5 : une semaine de séances, la mémoire courte usuelle du RVOL.
How to read it
- A reading of 1.0 is the usual pace for that time of day; above it the session is carrying more participation than normal, below it less.
- Early in the session the reading is noisy, because a single large print is a big share of a small cumulative total; it settles as volume accumulates.
- A pace rising through the session while price holds a narrow range means volume is being taken inside that range — the footprint there shows on which side.
- A reading that stays below 1 all day describes a light session: the levels formed during it were tested by fewer contracts than usual.
- Because the baseline is matched by time of day, a release that always occurs at the same hour is already part of the norm; only an unscheduled one stands out.
Parameters and defaults
Sessions defaults to 5 — one trading week, the customary short memory for a relative-volume baseline — and accepts 1 to 20. A smaller number makes the baseline follow recent activity and react quickly; a larger one is steadier but raises the chance that at least one of the sessions is incomplete, which suppresses the reading entirely. The colour (#ff9800) is cosmetic.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions | number | 5 | 1 – 20 |
What it does not show
The indicator needs N complete previous sessions on the same timeframe grid, so it is often blank at the left edge of a chart, after a holiday and after any interruption in the data feed. It measures how much traded, never who was aggressing or at which prices. The volume is whatever the data source reports, and around a contract rollover the same activity is split between two symbols, which distorts both the current cumulation and the baseline. A pace above 1 at midday does not imply the rest of the session will continue at that rate.
Related indicators
- Prior Week High/Low — Structure & sessions
- Engulfing — Structure & sessions
- Pin Bar — Structure & sessions
- Inside Bar — Structure & sessions
- Outside Bar — Structure & sessions
- Doji — Structure & sessions
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Frequently asked questions
- What is session volume pace?
- It is the ratio between the volume a session has accumulated so far and the volume it normally has at the same point of the day, averaged over a set number of recent sessions. A value above 1 means the session is running ahead of that norm, below 1 that it is running behind.
- How is volume pace different from relative volume?
- Relative volume compares a single bar with the recent norm for that bar, so it changes sharply from candle to candle. Volume pace compares cumulated session volume against the cumulated norm at the same offset from the open, which produces a trajectory for the whole day rather than a per-bar reading.
- Why does volume pace show nothing after a holiday?
- The baseline requires every one of the reference sessions to have a bar at the exact same offset from the session open. A shortened holiday session has no bar at the later offsets, so the average cannot be built as specified and the indicator plots nothing rather than silently using fewer sessions.