Knowledge · Terms · CMF

CMF

Indicator indicator
Chaikin Money Flow (Pifagor „Money Waterfall“)
Measures capital in-/outflow via the position of the close within the bar range, weighted by volume. Positive = accumulation, negative = distribution.

What is the CMF?

By Marc Chaikin. The Chaikin Money Flow looks at where the close sits within the bar's range — near the high = buyers dominate, near the low = sellers — and weights that by volume:

Money Flow Multiplier = ((close − low) − (high − close)) / (high − low)
Money Flow Volume = Multiplier · volume
CMF = Σ(MFV, N) / Σ(volume, N)

CMF ∈ [−1, +1]. > 0 = accumulation (money flowing in), < 0 = distribution (money flowing out).

How Botty uses the CMF

  • Filter money_waterfall_filter (strategies/conditions/filters.py, Pifagor): a smoothed CMF as a capital-flow filter — and specifically contrarian: a negative waterfall (money flowing out) = buy zone; positive = distribution. A long passes when money_waterfall < mw_long_max (default 0.0, i.e. the CMF must be negative).

CMF vs. related

  • vs. OBV: OBV takes the whole bar volume depending on the day's direction; CMF weights more finely via the intra-bar position of the close.
  • vs. MFI: MFI is a 0–100 oscillator over Typical Price; CMF is a [−1,+1] flow measure.

Limits

❌ The multiplier ignores gaps between bars (close vs. prev-close). ❌ Unstable when ranges are very small (high≈low).