← All articles
Charting
Anchored VWAP From the Prior-Day High: Reading Overhead Supply
Where a prior rally topped out leaves trapped buyers. Anchoring VWAP to the prior-day high maps their cost basis — and the resistance it creates.
NoVo Options Trading · 2026
Anchor VWAP to the prior-day high and it plots the volume-weighted average price of everyone who bought near the top of that prior move. Many of them are underwater and waiting to get out at breakeven — which is why that line acts as overhead supply, a resistance zone until price decisively reclaims it.
The mechanism
Buyers stuck near a prior high tend to sell into any rally back to their cost basis (“get me out at even”). That trapped supply clusters around the anchored VWAP from the high, so approaches to the line meet selling. Reclaiming it — price accepting territory above — means that overhead supply has been absorbed, often clearing the way higher.
How to use it
Treat it as a resistance level and a fade zone on approaches from below: a rejection at the prior-day-high anchored VWAP is a short/put scalp back down, targeting a lower level. A decisive reclaim flips it to support (a retest-of-breakout setup). It's most powerful when it stacks with a call wall or the prior-day high itself — overhead supply and a gamma ceiling at one price.
The prior-day-high anchored VWAP is where trapped buyers wait to break even. Price has to absorb that supply to go higher — the line tells you where.
The caveat
Like any anchored line, it's context, not a signal. It matters most when it confirms a dealer level and least as a lone line. Use it to know where overhead supply sits, then let price show acceptance or rejection. Combined with a day-low anchor for support, you have a dynamic supply-and-demand frame for the session.
More on this: Anchored VWAP From the Yearly Open: The Big-Picture Line · Anchored VWAP From a CPI or FOMC Print: Where the Real Cost Basis Sits · Session VWAP vs. Anchored VWAP: Which to Trust Intraday · VWAP Bands (1σ/2σ): Reading Stretch and Reversion on SPY
Ready to put it to work?
NoVo reads the full tape and maps every dealer level live — the market intelligence no human can track by hand — then executes any trade in one click. Trade beside it, or just take the daily read.
NoVo Trader · $169/mo
Trade it in one click.
The cockpit maps every dealer level on your chart and executes your Buy Calls / Buy Puts in one click — it picks the strike, sizes it, and manages the stop and the exit ladder. You decide every entry. Non-custodial, in your own broker.
Start NoVo Trader →
NoVo Analyst · $79/mo
Just want the read?
The live dealer map — dealer positioning, options flow, and in-house sweeps & block prints — plus a written market read every session, to your inbox, the dashboard, and the private Analyst Discord. Structure, levels, and the order-flow footprint.
Get NoVo Analyst — free trial →
NoVo is a software tool for market analysis and for executing trades you initiate, not financial advice. This article is general education, not investment advice. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss, up to and including your entire capital. NoVo makes no guarantee of profit, win rate, or performance, and past results do not predict future outcomes. You are responsible for your own broker account, configuration, and trading decisions.