Studieshotkey WOne click — the anchor bar; the line runs forward from it

Volume-weighted average price from a bar you choose — the average holder's cost basis since that event. Anchor it to an earnings gap or a swing low and the line tells you who is above water.

VWAP — the volume-weighted average of typical prices — computed cumulatively from an anchor bar you pick, instead of from the start of a session or year. Anchored to a meaningful event (an earnings gap, a capitulation low, a breakout), the line approximates the average cost basis of every share traded since that event.

Arm it (W), click the anchor bar. The line runs from there to the newest bar, its current value labelled at the right edge. Different anchors answer different questions — an earnings-day anchor asks about everyone who reacted to the print; a swing-low anchor about everyone who bought the bottom.

Universal mechanics: every tool is single-shot (it disarms after each drawing — the pin beside ✏ Draw re-arms it in one click), Esc cancels mid-drawing, clicking a finished drawing selects it for the ✕ Remove chip, and drawings persist per symbol, anchored to their candles.

Price above a rising anchored VWAP means the average buyer since the anchor is in profit — a population inclined to defend its basis, which is why the line so often behaves like support. Price below it means the average holder is underwater, and rallies back to the line meet people who are finally even and want out — resistance with a mechanism behind it.

An anchored VWAP off the last major low is a moving, volume-weighted version of the level a put strike wants to be behind: below it sit prices where the average post-low buyer would be at a loss, which is where defense has tended to appear. Sellers anchor off the most recent earnings print for the same read on the post-earnings crowd.

On an assigned position, anchoring at the assignment date draws the market's average basis since you took shares — watching your own cost basis against it shows whether you are ahead of or behind the crowd that bought alongside you.

Like everything in this guide, these are descriptions of conditions and reference levels — context for your own decisions, not instructions to trade.