CVD and OI Delta

Farm Score™ gives you a single-number summary of market conditions. CVD and OI Delta give you the raw structural evidence behind that number. Use them to confirm a signal, fade a weak one, or catch an early reversal.

CVD Cumulative Volume Delta

CVD is the running total of aggressive buy volume minus aggressive sell volume. "Aggressive" means market orders. The participants who are willing to cross the spread and take the price on offer.

• Positive CVD = buyers have been more aggressive than sellers over the measurement period

• Negative CVD = sellers have been more aggressive

Why it matters for funding rate trading

Funding rates rise when longs are crowded. Longs become crowded when buyers press the market aggressively. CVD captures exactly this: it shows you the buying pressure that creates the imbalanced positioning that drives positive funding.

When Farm Score is high and CVD is positive and rising, you have two independent signals pointing the same direction. The long crowd is actively building. The funding they are paying is real and backed by fresh positioning.

When Farm Score is high but CVD is flat or turning negative, exercise caution. The high score may be a lagging reflection of yesterday's positioning. New buyers are not pressing. The crowd may be starting to unwind.

How to read the CVD chart

The CVD chart in the terminal shows the trailing 90-day history in the standard modes (Daily, APR, 1h) and the last N data points in Realtime mode.

Look for:

• Divergence: Price rising but CVD falling → buyers are losing conviction even as price moves. Funding may reverse.

• Trend continuation: Both price and CVD rising together → the long crowd is growing. High Farm Score signal is likely to persist.

• Exhaustion: Extremely positive CVD that suddenly flattens → the buying wave has peaked. Watch for a funding rate peak shortly after.

OI Open Interest

OI is the total notional value of all open perpetual contracts across all traders. Every long position has a matching short OI counts both sides (or equivalently, either side).

OI is different from volume. Volume measures how much has traded. OI measures how much is still open. A market can have huge volume with declining OI (lots of churn, positions closing) or low volume with rising OI (new positions quietly building).

OI Delta

OI Delta is the rate of change of OI. It is displayed as a bar chart showing OI increase or decrease per period.

• Positive OI Delta (OI growing): New positions are entering. The market is adding leverage.

• Negative OI Delta (OI shrinking): Positions are closing. The market is deleveraging.

How OI Delta interacts with Farm Score

OI Delta	Farm Score	Interpretation
Rising	High (>70)	New longs entering, paying more funding. Strong short farming signal.
Rising	Low (<30)	New shorts entering, paying more funding to longs. Strong long farming signal.
Falling	Any	Deleveraging. The crowded side is unwinding. Funding signal may weaken.
Flat	High (>70)	Existing long crowd is stable, not growing. Signal can persist but lower conviction.

Absolute OI level

Beyond the delta, absolute OI level matters. When OI is at historical highs relative to a market's typical range, it means the market is more leveraged than usual. High absolute OI with high Farm Score is a strong condition. More longs are paying, more consistently. It also means a sharper reversal if sentiment shifts.

Using both together

A high-conviction trade entry has all three signals aligned:

1. Farm Score above 70 (or below 30 for longs earning)

2. CVD positive and trending in the direction of the crowded side

3. OI Delta positive. New positions building, not positions closing

If any one of these signals is missing or contradicts the others, reduce position size or wait for alignment. The value of Zirodelta's analytics is not in any single indicator. It is in the convergence of independent signals pointing the same direction.

See also: Farm Score™ for how CVD and OI Delta feed into the 9-factor model score.