The intraday average price weighted by traded volume. The institutional benchmark — a single number for what the session truly transacted at.
VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price) is the intraday average price weighted by the volume traded at each price level. For every bar, the typical price is multiplied by that bar's volume, and the running total is divided by the running total of volume.
VWAP grew up as an execution benchmark for institutional desks: "did you fill the buy order below VWAP by the close?" became a quiet test of how well the trader's broker did its job. Today it sits in front of nearly every day trader and dealing room as the most-watched intraday line.
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