Session Volume Pulse
A free TradingView volume indicator that answers one question: is this bar's volume unusual for this exact time of day? No divergence tints. No nine-row info table. Two visual signals, both readable in one glance.
The problem most volume indicators don't solve
Open TradingView's indicator library and search "volume." You'll get more than 5,000 results. Most fall into one of two failure modes: too little (raw bars and a 20-period moving average — the same display every free chart has had since 1995), or too much (divergence tints, z-score overlays, momentum oscillators, and a nine-row info table stacked on top of each other until the chart is unreadable).
The actually-interesting question — "is this volume unusual right now, or just normal for this time of day?" — almost never gets answered well. Intraday volume has a strong time-of-day pattern. The 9:30 cash open is always busy. Noon is always quiet. A 3× spike at the open isn't telling you anything new — that's what 9:30 looks like. A 3× spike at noon, on the other hand, is genuinely unusual. Session Volume Pulse makes that distinction obvious. More on time-of-day volume patterns in our day-trading content.
What the indicator actually shows you
Time-of-day baseline
A subtle blue line in the volume pane showing typical volume for the current minute of the trading day, averaged across the last 21 sessions. On a 15-minute NQ chart, the 9:45 AM baseline is the average of 9:45 AM volumes from the past 21 trading days. The line curves up at the open, dips through lunch, rises into the close — because that's what an average session looks like.
Spike detection labels
A vertical multiplier label drawn only when volume is at least 2.5× the recent 12-bar average. Reads as a stacked column (e.g., 2.7×). Most bars don't get a label. The ones that do are the rare conviction events worth your attention.
That's it. Two signals, both visible in one glance. The full indicator has 11 settings total, of which 6 are just colors. The entire settings panel fits on one screen.
The one setting most users need to configure
The default of 0 for "Bars per session" auto-detects assuming 24-hour trading. That's correct for crypto and forex, and close enough for NQ/ES futures at 15m. For other timeframes and US stocks during regular hours, set it manually using the table below.
| Market | Timeframe | Bars per session |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto, forex (24/7 or 24/5) | Any intraday | 0 (auto) |
| NQ, ES, MNQ, MES futures (~23h) | 1m | 1380 |
| NQ, ES, MNQ, MES futures (~23h) | 5m | 276 |
| NQ, ES, MNQ, MES futures (~23h) | 15m | 92 |
| NQ, ES, MNQ, MES futures (~23h) | 30m | 46 |
| NQ, ES, MNQ, MES futures (~23h) | 1h | 23 |
| US stocks RTH (6.5h) | 1m | 390 |
| US stocks RTH (6.5h) | 5m | 78 |
| US stocks RTH (6.5h) | 15m | 26 |
| US stocks RTH (6.5h) | 30m | 13 |
On 4h and higher timeframes: disable the time-of-day baseline. A futures session contains only ~6 four-hour bars, which means the baseline is averaging six samples per time-of-day slot — too coarse to be meaningful. Uncheck "Show time-of-day baseline" above 1h. The spike detection still works fine at any timeframe.
How to install
30 seconds, no signup, no email gate.
- Open the script on TradingView and click the star icon to add to favorites.
- Open any chart. Click Indicators in the top toolbar.
- Click Favorites. Click Session Volume Pulse to load it.
- Click the gear icon next to the indicator name in the chart to configure bars-per-session for your market (see table above).
Ready to try it?
Open source, free forever, no signup. Works on any TradingView chart with volume data.
Install on TradingView →Published by NicksNotNaked · Source code visible on the TradingView script page · Pine Script v5
Honest limitations
A few things worth acknowledging up front, because closed-source competitors usually hide their limitations and that practice is worse than disclosing them.
It doesn't predict direction. A volume spike with a green close is bullish confirmation; a volume spike with a red close is often capitulation or distribution. The indicator surfaces the conviction event; reading direction is on you. More on volume interpretation in our trading psychology content.
It doesn't work on symbols without volume. Most spot forex pairs on retail platforms don't report true volume — they report tick count. For real volume analysis on forex, use the equivalent futures contract (6E, 6J, 6B) instead.
The baseline needs history. If your chart has fewer than 21 sessions of historical bars, the baseline averages whatever's available and may be choppy for the first few sessions until it stabilizes.
