Accumulation/Distribution Line (ADL)
Calculate the Accumulation/Distribution Line for a given price series.
The Accumulation/Distribution Line is a technical indicator that evaluates the flow of money into or out of an asset. It takes into account both price and volume information to identify whether an asset is being accumulated (bought) or distributed (sold) by investors.
The formula is as follows:
\[\text{ADL} = \text{Previous ADL} + \text{Current ADL}\]Also known as: ADL, Chaikin ADL, volume-price trend.
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Calculate the Accumulation/Distribution Line (ADL) in Python
The Accumulation/Distribution Line (ADL) is available in the Technicals module of the open-source Finance Toolkit. Install it with:
pip install financetoolkit -U
Then call get_accumulation_distribution_line as shown below.
from financetoolkit import Toolkit
toolkit = Toolkit(tickers=["AAPL", "MSFT"])
toolkit.technicals.get_accumulation_distribution_line()
Which returns:
| Date | AAPL | MSFT | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-18 | 4.92368e+09 | 1.8149e+09 | 9.17282e+09 |
| 2026-06-22 | 4.88276e+09 | 1.77141e+09 | 9.14286e+09 |
| 2026-06-23 | 4.83242e+09 | 1.77134e+09 | 9.09936e+09 |
| 2026-06-24 | 4.78154e+09 | 1.73113e+09 | 9.07218e+09 |
| 2026-06-25 | 4.69424e+09 | 1.69682e+09 | 9.07013e+09 |
| 2026-06-26 | 4.85924e+09 | 1.81902e+09 | 9.08747e+09 |
| 2026-06-29 | 4.82229e+09 | 1.81091e+09 | 9.13864e+09 |
| 2026-06-30 | 4.87922e+09 | 1.8407e+09 | 9.17476e+09 |
| 2026-07-01 | 4.89938e+09 | 1.85739e+09 | 9.17276e+09 |
| 2026-07-02 | 4.96721e+09 | 1.8826e+09 | 9.16369e+09 |
Parameters
get_accumulation_distribution_line accepts the following parameters:
- period (str, optional): The time period to consider for historical data. Can be “daily”, “weekly”, “quarterly”, or “yearly”. Defaults to “daily”.
- close_column (str, optional): The column name for closing prices in the historical data. Defaults to “Adj Close”.
- rounding (int | None, optional): The number of decimals to round the results to. Defaults to 4.
- growth (bool, optional): Whether to calculate the growth of the Accumulation/Distribution Line. Defaults to False.
- lag (int | list[int], optional): The lag to use for the growth calculation.
- standardize (bool, optional): Whether to standardize (Z-Score) the result. When combined with growth=True, standardizes the growth values instead of the raw values. Defaults to False. Defaults to 1.
Related Breadth Indicators
The Technicals module page introduces the module, and the sidebar lists all of its functions.