How-to How to VWAP Kite charts Zerodha technical indicators intraday

How to use VWAP on Kite

From WebNotes, a public knowledge base. Last updated 17 May 2026. Reading time ~7 min. Level: Beginner.

Key facts

Indicator	Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP), the running cumulative price weighted by traded volume
Variants on Kite	Session VWAP (resets every trading session, the most-used variant) and Anchored VWAP (resets from a user-selected candle, available on TradingView engine)
Best timeframe	Intraday (1-minute through 30-minute) for session VWAP; daily or weekly for anchored VWAP swing analysis
Engines	Session VWAP on both ChartIQ and TradingView. Anchored VWAP is primarily on TradingView engine.

Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) is the cumulative volume-weighted average price over a defined period, plotted as a single line on the chart. Unlike a moving average that weights each candle equally regardless of how much trading occurred, VWAP weights each price by the volume traded at that price. This makes VWAP a closer proxy for “what the average institutional participant has paid today” than any simple moving average.

VWAP is the indicator most-watched by institutional execution desks during the trading day. Block orders are often executed in slices around VWAP to match a benchmark; algorithms have explicit VWAP-tracking modes; and intraday retail traders use VWAP as a dynamic reference for whether the day’s buyers are collectively in profit or loss. On Kite, session VWAP (which resets at the start of every trading session) is available on both ChartIQ and TradingView. Anchored VWAP, which lets you pick a custom starting candle, is available primarily on the TradingView engine and is useful for swing analysis from significant chart points (earnings, news, or major swing lows).

The walk-through

1. Open a chart on Kite

Log into Kite at kite.zerodha.com or on the Kite mobile app. From your marketwatch, tap or click the scrip you want to chart. Select Chart and pick an intraday timeframe (5-minute is the most common starting point for VWAP).

2. Open the indicator panel

On Kite web, click the Indicators button in the chart toolbar. On Kite mobile, tap the fx or indicator icon.

In the search box, type VWAP or Volume Weighted Average Price. The indicator appears in the volume-based or moving-average category depending on the engine.

3. Add VWAP

Tap or click VWAP to apply the session VWAP. The indicator plots as a single line overlaid on the price chart. The line starts fresh at the beginning of each trading session (9:15 AM on equity segments, segment-specific times for currency and commodity) and accumulates the volume-weighted price through the day.

The default colour is typically yellow or amber to distinguish VWAP from price candles and other indicator lines. The colour is customisable in the indicator settings.

4. Anchored VWAP (TradingView engine)

The anchored VWAP variant lets you select the starting candle from which VWAP accumulates, instead of resetting at session start. This is powerful for swing analysis: you can anchor VWAP at a major earnings announcement, a news event, a swing high or low, or any other chart-meaningful point and watch how price interacts with the running VWAP from that anchor.

Anchored VWAP is primarily on the TradingView engine. To use it:

Switch to TradingView engine if you are on ChartIQ (see Kite charts for the engine toggle).
Open the indicator panel and search for Anchored VWAP (typically tagged with the “Anchored” prefix in the indicator list).
Apply the indicator; you are prompted to click on a starting candle.
The VWAP line plots from that anchor candle forward, weighted cumulative volume from that point.

Multiple anchored VWAPs can be plotted simultaneously (from different anchors) to compare how price interacts with different reference levels.

5. Read VWAP as the volume-weighted reference price

The simplest interpretation of session VWAP:

Price above VWAP: the running volume-weighted average price for the session is below the current price. Translation: the average intraday participant who has traded today is in profit on a buy.
Price below VWAP: the running volume-weighted average price is above the current price. The average intraday participant who bought today is in loss.

The institutional read is: where are the average prints accumulating, and is the current price above or below that average. Block-desk algorithms try to fill at or near VWAP to match the benchmark, so any sustained price move away from VWAP often attracts the opposite-side flow back.

6. Use as intraday mean-reversion or trend confirmation

Two main retail uses on Kite:

Mean-reversion: when price has moved materially away from VWAP (typically more than 0.5 to 1 standard deviation, often visualised as bands around the VWAP line on some engine variants), some traders fade the extension and trade the return-to-VWAP move. This works best on range-bound days and breaks down on strong directional trend days.

Trend confirmation / dynamic support and resistance: in an intraday uptrend, VWAP often acts as dynamic support: dips to VWAP find buyers. In an intraday downtrend, VWAP acts as dynamic resistance: rallies to VWAP find sellers. Trend traders use VWAP touches as entry points in the direction of the underlying trend.

The choice between mean-reversion and trend-confirmation depends on whether the day’s overall character is range-bound or trending. The same VWAP line carries opposite tactical readings in these two regimes.

7. Combine with volume or order flow

VWAP signal strength scales with volume context:

Volume confirmation: a price move away from VWAP on materially above-average volume is more durable than the same move on thin volume.
Volume profile: VWAP combined with a volume profile (where available) shows both the volume-weighted average and the volume distribution by price level.
Order flow on F&O: for actively-traded Nifty or Bank Nifty futures, VWAP combined with intraday OI changes (visible on Kite F&O Insights ) often filters signals more effectively than VWAP alone.

What trips people up

Using session VWAP on daily charts: meaningless. Session VWAP resets every trading day. On daily and higher timeframes, use anchored VWAP from a meaningful date instead.
Treating VWAP as a hard buy/sell signal: VWAP is a reference, not a trigger. A price cross of VWAP is not an automatic trade signal.
Ignoring the day’s character: VWAP-mean-reversion strategies fail on strong trend days; VWAP-trend strategies fail on range-bound days. Read the day’s character first.
Misinterpreting anchored VWAP starting point: anchoring from a low-volume mid-trend candle produces a misleading VWAP. Anchor only from a meaningful event or swing extreme.
Confusing session VWAP with moving average VWAP: a few platforms compute a “moving VWAP” over a rolling fixed window. Kite’s standard VWAP is session-based, not rolling.
Comparing VWAP values across instruments: VWAP magnitude depends on the instrument’s price level. The metric is not directly comparable.
Ignoring widening volatility: on very volatile days, price can move far from VWAP without mean-reverting. The “extended from VWAP” reading needs to be normalised to recent ATR or implied volatility.
Anchored VWAP on the ChartIQ engine: the variant is primarily on TradingView. If you need anchored VWAP, switch engines.

Kite charts for the broader charting subsystem.
How to use Supertrend on Kite , how to use RSI on Kite , how to use MACD on Kite for indicator pairings.
How to add indicators on Kite charts for the general indicator-management flow.
Streak for systematic VWAP strategy backtesting.
Kite Connect API for programmatic access to OHLCV data underlying VWAP.

External references

References

Berkowitz, S. A.; Logue, D. E.; Noser, E. A. (1988), “The total cost of transactions on the NYSE,” Journal of Finance 43:97-112: foundational paper on VWAP as an execution benchmark.
Zerodha Varsity Module 2: Technical Analysis, zerodha.com/varsity, accessed May 2026.
Zerodha Kite chart documentation, support.zerodha.com, accessed May 2026.
Kite Connect historical data API documentation, kite.trade/docs, accessed May 2026.
TradingView Charting Library indicator documentation (Anchored VWAP), tradingview.com/charting-library, accessed May 2026.
ChartIQ indicator library reference, chartiq.com, accessed May 2026.

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Last reviewed: 17 May 2026
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