TD Pressure

DeMark's volume-weighted buying / selling pressure oscillator. Weights each bar's (close − open) / (high − low) ratio by its volume, then takes a ratio of rolling sums normalised to [-100, +100]. Bars whose range is zero contribute zero pressure (the ratio is undefined; DeMark's convention is to treat such bars as neutral).

Quick reference

Item	Value
Family	DeMark
Input type	Candle (uses open, high, low, close, volume)
Output type	f64
Output range	[-100, +100]
Default parameters	period = 5 (DeMark's published default)
Warmup period	period
Interpretation	Positive = net buying pressure; negative = net selling pressure

Formula

For each bar i with strictly positive range:

bar_pressure_i = ((close_i - open_i) / (high_i - low_i)) · volume_i

Bars with high == low contribute zero pressure. The output is the SMA of bar pressure normalised by the SMA of volume over a configurable period, scaled by 100:

TD_Pressure = 100 · SMA(bar_pressure, period) / SMA(volume, period)

When the windowed volume is zero (a flat zero-volume window) the indicator emits 0. The numerator is bounded by ± volume_per_bar, so the result is bounded by ±100. See crates/wickra-core/src/indicators/td_pressure.rs.

Parameters

Name	Type	Default	Constraint	Description
period	usize	none	> 0	Averaging window. DeMark's published default is 5.

TdPressure::new returns Error::PeriodZero for period == 0.

Inputs / Outputs

Indicator<Input = Candle, Output = f64>. Python: TdPressure(period).batch(open, high, low, close, volume) returns a 1-D np.ndarray with NaN in the warmup prefix. Node: same shape; update(candle) returns number | null.

Warmup

warmup_period() == period. The two rolling sums fill at the period.

Edge cases

• Zero-range bar. Zero contribution to the numerator; doesn't break the indicator.
• Zero-volume window. Returns 0.0 rather than dividing by zero.
• Pure up-bar (close == high). (close - open) / (high - low) approaches 1; bar pressure equals the bar's volume.
• Reset. Clears both rolling buffers.

Examples

Rust

use wickra::{BatchExt, Candle, Indicator, TdPressure};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let candles: Vec<Candle> = (0..30).map(|i| {
        let b = 100.0 + f64::from(i);
        Candle::new(b - 0.5, b + 1.0, b - 1.0, b + 0.5, 100.0, i as i64).unwrap()
    }).collect();
    let mut p = TdPressure::new(5)?;
    println!("row 20 = {:?}", p.batch(&candles)[20]);
    Ok(())
}

Python

import numpy as np
import wickra as ta

n = 30
base = 100 + np.arange(n, dtype=float)
o = base - 0.5
h = base + 1
l = base - 1
c = base + 0.5
v = np.full(n, 100.0)

p = ta.TdPressure(5)
print('row 20:', p.batch(o, h, l, c, v)[20])

Node

const wickra = require('wickra');
const p = new wickra.TdPressure(5);
const n = 30;
const base = Array.from({ length: n }, (_, i) => 100 + i);
const open  = base.map(b => b - 0.5);
const high  = base.map(b => b + 1);
const low   = base.map(b => b - 1);
const close = base.map(b => b + 0.5);
const vol   = base.map(_ => 100);
console.log('row 20:', p.batch(open, high, low, close, vol)[20]);

Streaming

use wickra::{Candle, Indicator, TdPressure};

let mut p = TdPressure::new(5).unwrap();
let candle_stream: Vec<wickra::Candle> = Vec::new(); // your live OHLCV candle feed
for bar in candle_stream {
    if let Some(v) = p.update(bar) {
        if v > 50.0 { /* strong buying pressure */ }
        if v < -50.0 { /* strong selling pressure */ }
    }
}

Interpretation

• Volume-weighted momentum. TD Pressure differs from RSI / CCI by giving weight to volume — a wide-range bar on low volume contributes less than a similar bar on high volume.
• Divergence detection. Pair TD Pressure with price: if price makes a new high but TD Pressure does not, the move is unconfirmed by volume-weighted momentum.
• Vs Obv / Adl. OBV and ADL are cumulative; TD Pressure is rolling and bounded — easier to read as an oscillator. Use cumulative tools for long-trend structural breaks; TD Pressure for short-term momentum.

Common pitfalls

• Zero-range bar masking. A series of zero-range bars (rare on liquid instruments) drags the indicator toward zero — occasionally produces misleadingly weak readings.
• Period choice. 5 is the DeMark default; lengthen to 14 for smoother readings on volatile instruments.
• Volume normalisation. If your volume data is in odd units (e.g. dollar-volume rather than share-volume), the normalisation still holds — what matters is consistency, not absolute scale.

References

• Tom DeMark, The New Science of Technical Analysis (1994), ch. 5 — original TD Pressure formulation.

See also

• TdRei — non-volume-weighted DeMark momentum oscillator.
• TdDeMarker — high/low-based DeMark oscillator.
• Obv — cumulative volume-direction indicator.
• Mfi — money-flow alternative oscillator.
• Indicators-Overview — full taxonomy.