What it does
Balance of Power (BOP) gauges the strength of buyers versus sellers within each bar by comparing where the close sits relative to the open against the bar's full range. It is computed as close minus open, divided by high minus low, yielding values between -1 and +1; most implementations smooth this with a moving average. Positive values mean buyers pushed price up through the bar, negative values mean sellers dominated.
How to add it
Click Indicators (ƒx) in the header.
Search “Balance of Power” and click the result.
Hover its legend row and click the gear to open settings.
How traders use it
- Sustained readings above zero indicate buyer control and support long bias; sustained readings below zero indicate seller control.
- Zero-line crossovers of the smoothed BOP can time entries in the direction of the prevailing trend.
- Divergence, such as price making lower lows while BOP makes higher lows, hints that selling pressure is drying up ahead of a reversal.
- Smooth with at least a 14-period moving average; the raw one-bar value is too erratic to interpret on its own.
Inputs
This indicator has no configurable inputs — it works out of the box.
Plots & styling
| Plot | Style | Default color |
|---|---|---|
| BOP | line | #FF5252 |
Every plot's color, line width and visibility can be changed on the Style tab. Precision (default 4 decimals), price-scale labels and status-line values are configurable at the bottom of the Style tab.
Reference levels
| Level | Value |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0 |
Level values, colors and line styles are editable in settings.
Tips
- Double-click the plot to open settings directly, skipping the legend hover.
- The pane keeps its height in saved layouts, so size it once and it survives reloads.
- Resize the pane by dragging its divider; collapse it from the legend row when you need the space back.
Watch out for
- On narrow-range or doji bars the denominator is tiny, so raw BOP produces extreme, meaningless spikes without smoothing.
- It uses only intrabar open-close positioning and ignores volume, so it can show strength on very thin participation.