Bar Spread
Volume Spread Analysis glossary · Effort vs Result & Spread/Close Analysis
Definition
The vertical range of a single price bar, calculated as Spread = High - Low, and one of the three primary VSA inputs (alongside volume and close position). A wide spread indicates strong activity and willingness to move price; a narrow spread indicates compression and reluctance. VSA classifies the spread relative to the recent average into very narrow (<0.50), narrow (0.50–0.80), average (0.80–1.20), wide (1.20–1.60), and ultra-wide (>1.60). The meaning of any bar emerges only when spread, volume, and close position are read together.
Bar Spread in plain English
A price bar records everything that happened in one slice of time, and its 'spread' is simply how tall it is — the highest price minus the lowest price, Spread = High - Low. Think of it like the temperature reading of the market's energy: a tall (wide) bar means lots of action and eagerness to push the price, while a short (narrow) bar means the market is cramped up and hesitant, like a car idling instead of flooring it. VSA doesn't judge a bar's height in a vacuum; it compares it to the recent average and sorts it into buckets from very narrow to ultra-wide. But height alone tells you nothing — you only learn what a bar truly means when you read its spread together with its volume and where it closed.
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