How to calculate rolling VWAP

Hi guys,

excuse my noobness but could someone please explain how to calculate rolling VWAP, i.e. 30/60/90 day, and its significance? I understand the point of VWAP but the rolling day calculation escapes me. I would have thought that we would just use the daily VWAP across a period.

Please help.

Thank you.

What is VWAP?

VWAP stands for Volume Weighted Average Price. It is calculated as the total dollar amount of trades in a particular security during a particular period divided by the total number of shares traded for that period. Typically, it is calculated for one day, but some traders will use different time periods. VWAP smooths out any “noise” – or big spikes or drops – in a share price throughout the measurement period. Some traders use rolling or moving VWAP (ex: 30/60/90 days) to provide additional indication on the trend of the prices, momentum, etc. Rolling or moving VWAP is a moving average trend line, an average of the averages. It’s easy to get this data in Bloomberg: TICKER -> VWAP -> GO.

How is VWAP Used?

• Helps traders determine good price to buy and sell the stock
• Helps traders determine where momentum is with a stock
• Used by mutual funds to determine when to buy/sell stock so that they don’t disrupt the market with a large order
• Used in algorithmic trading strategies
• Used to determine if a stock was bought or sold at a good price
• Used by institutional investors as a benchmark to evaluate to determine the total cost of a trade

Recommended Reading

• Order Splitting with VWAP Benchmarks
• CME Group: Settlement Price Fact Sheet
• Sales & Trading Analyst Interview
• VWAP Flawed in Measuring Total Cost of Trade

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