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:
\[\text{Money Flow Multiplier} = ((\text{Close} - \text{Low}) - (\text{High} - \text{Close})) / (\text{High} - \text{Low})\] \[\text{Money Flow Volume} = \text{Money Flow Multiplier} \cdot \text{Volume}\] \[\text{ADL} = \text{Previous ADL} + \text{Money Flow Volume}\]Also known as: ADL, Chaikin ADL, volume-price trend.
Accumulation/Distribution Line (ADL) in Python or via the MCP
Install the Finance Toolkit with:
pip install financetoolkit -U
Then call get_accumulation_distribution_line as shown below.
from financetoolkit import Toolkit
toolkit = Toolkit(
tickers=["GLD"],
api_key="FINANCIAL_MODELING_PREP_KEY",
start_date="2021-01-01",
end_date="2025-12-31",
)
toolkit.technicals.get_accumulation_distribution_line().tail(5)
Or, after setting up the Finance Toolkit MCP, ask:
How did the accumulation/distribution line of the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD), counted from the start of 2021, move from 24 to 31 December 2025?
Which returns:
| Date | GLD | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-24 | 7.95203e+08 | 8.01111e+09 |
| 2025-12-26 | 7.95996e+08 | 8.00572e+09 |
| 2025-12-29 | 7.9136e+08 | 8.01431e+09 |
| 2025-12-30 | 7.82463e+08 | 7.98763e+09 |
| 2025-12-31 | 7.75502e+08 | 7.919e+09 |
Parameters
get_accumulation_distribution_line accepts the following parameters.
| Parameter | Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
period | str | The time period to consider for historical data. Can be “intraday”, “daily”, “weekly”, “monthly”, “quarterly” or “yearly”. Defaults to “daily”. | "weekly" |
close_column | str | The column name for closing prices in the historical data. Defaults to “Adj Close”, in which case the open, high and low prices are adjusted for dividends in the same way. | "Close" |
rounding | int | None | The number of decimals to round the results to. Defaults to None, which uses the rounding of the Toolkit (4 unless set otherwise). | 2 |
growth | bool | Whether to calculate the growth of the Accumulation/Distribution Line. Defaults to False. | True |
lag | int | list[int] | The lag to use for the growth calculation. Defaults to 1. | 4 |
standardize | bool | Whether to standardize (Z-Score) the result. When combined with growth=True, standardizes the growth values instead of the raw values. Defaults to False. | True |