What is Volume Spread Analysis (VSA)?

Reading each candle's volume against its range to detect what professional money is doing behind the price.

Volume Spread Analysis (VSA) is a methodology that reads the relationship between three things on every candle: the volume, the spread (the candle's high-to-low range), and where the close sits within that range. The premise, descended from Richard Wyckoff's work, is that professional activity leaves fingerprints in this relationship. Harmony between volume and spread is normal; anomalies are information. Huge volume arriving on a narrow-range candle means someone absorbed all that activity without letting price travel — hidden buying or selling.

Classic VSA reads include stopping volume (massive volume as a downtrend hits a low, with the close pulled off the bottom — professionals absorbing the selling), no-demand (a narrow up-candle on feeble volume in a weak market — no professional interest in higher prices), and upthrusts (a wide push above resistance that closes back low on high volume — supply hitting the breakout). VSA pairs naturally with the Smart Money Concepts we teach: SMC shows where institutions should act, and VSA offers evidence in the volume that they actually did.