What is stock volume?
Stock volume is the count of the number of shares traded in a given time period, usually daily for a typical chart. For any given transaction, there is a buyer and a seller; the stock volume is a count of the number of shares exchanged between a buyer and a seller.
What is volume in stocks?
Volume in stocks refers to the total number of shares traded for a particular period. If 2 million shares are traded in a day, the day’s trading volume is 2 million. Importantly this means that 2 million stocks change hands from buyer to seller.
What is volume bar chart?
The Volume Bar Chart enables you to visualize supply and demand for a given stock at a specific minute, hour, day, week, or month. This is the most commonly used volume indicator in the technical analysis of stocks and commodities.
What does it mean when a stock has high volume?
High volume in stocks can mean two things. High volume when the price is decreasing means there are more sellers than buyers; a sell-off. High volume when the stock price is going up means there is a rally in the stock price, meaning more buyers than sellers, which increases demand, which pushes stock price up.
How much volume does a penny stock have?
Penny stocks often do not have enough volume. For example, if the stock price is $1 and the volume is 5,000, that means only $5000 of stocks is traded in a single day; that is not for a fair and equitable market.
What does 20,000 mean in stock bar?
If 20,000 shares were traded, then the bar will show 20,000. The changes in volume from day to day indicate that a stock is more in demand if the volume bar rises and the stock price increases or less in demand if volume drops on price decreases.
What is a VAP chart?
The Price at Volume (VAP) chart displays a horizontal bar overlayed on the price chart to provide insight into the number of stocks traded at a specific price point. This shows you the potential supply and demand variance or potential pivot point at a price level regardless of time.
Use live stock market quotes in stocks trading software
Do you want to know how to monitor this value real time? It’s easy. All you need is free trading software such as Medved Trader (new product created by former creators of Quotetracker) and a real-time data source (like your broker or a specialized data provider).
Alternative to check intraday stock market volume
If you have not this software you can try to achieve this result by different way. Put your ticker into watchlist into your trade software. Then monitor current daily volume of these shares. Also check average volume available on Yahoo finance website. Here is example where to look for this info for AAPL :
The broker software could be also used to monitor stock volume
Another option is to monitor todays trade volume real-time in your trade software that is provided by stocks broker. Short term traders often receive real time trading data also to this broker platform so there is possible to monitor intraday values. The only issue is if there is available also average trading volume in this platform.
High Volume Stock Screener
High volume usually implies something interesting is going on in a stock. We may not know the why behind the move for some time. The example I show below is a stock that first alerted on a high volume scan, and then alerted again four hours later, on a ‘social media’ screener. The stock was already up over 6% by then.
High Volume Penny Stocks
All of the above can also be used to find high volume penny stocks. But as penny stocks are so popular, I have written a separate article just for penny stocks. See How To Find Good Penny Stocks.
Summary
When it comes to finding high volume stocks, Trade Ideas has some of the best filter options for volume, particularly intraday volume.
How to know if a stock has a volume spike?
There are only two ways to know if a volume spike has occurred within this list. 1) You have intimate knowledge of the average volume levels for each stock. 2) You open the chart for each stock to check if there is unusually high volume. Most likely, it will be the latter.
What does volume spike mean?
A volume spike signifies that today’s trading activity is out of the ordinary, which implies that something significant is happening today. Large moves in the stock market are often accompanied by a volume spike. Here's an example:
Why are stockbeeps not time sensitive?
2) They are not time-sensitive because they measure current volume against the entire daily average volume.
Can you detect a volume spike?
You could discover a volume spike using a scanner. Some do measure relative volumes. However, many free scanners are usually end-of-day scanners. Which means you can only spot a volume spike after the market has closed.
What does volume mean in options?
Volume represents the number of contracts traded during the current or latest market session. The higher the volume, the greater the number of options traded. In general, a higher volume means a lower spread between the "bid" and "ask" prices, the prices at which you can sell or buy the option.
When is the highest volume of an option?
Option volume is highest in the weeks and days before expiration , and at strike prices closest to the current price. However, buying or selling an option soon to expire represents a riskier trade, as the "time value" of the option is rapidly deteriorating.
How to compare daily volume to intraday volume?
First, place average volume next to real-time volume on a quote sheet, using the proximity to compare dozens of securities at the same time. Second, build a running total of average daily volume and superimpose it over volume histograms at the bottom of the chart. This second method can also be used for end-of-day analysis, as well as measuring the impact of a rising or falling average over time.
Is intraday equity volume skewed?
Updated Aug 18, 2019. Intraday equity volume can be tough to read because market participation is skewed toward the beginning and end of the trading day, with volume shrinking through the lunch hour and picking up in the late afternoon.
What does volume tell you about a stock?
What does trading volume tell? The stock volume shows the action that has taken place in a particular stock. All the activity, be it selling or buying, gets recorded in the volume metric. If the stock is showing a lot of volumes, it means that there is a lot of interest or activity happening around the stock.
What does volume mean in stock market?
In stock markets, volume or trading volume means the number of shares traded over a particular period. Trading volume is always measured over a specific time period. In this article [ show]
What to look for in intraday trading?
Intraday traders, who have to square-off their position in a relatively much shorter time span, look for stocks with high trading volumes. While volumes are important, one should also look at other factors before investing in a stock.
Why are volume levels higher in trading?
Higher volumes indicate more buyers and sellers in the market. Within a single trading session, volumes tend to be higher during the market opening and closing as intraday traders are in a hurry to book and close their positions for the day. While investors and traders can use volume as a metric, trading volume analysis is beneficial ...
What is high volume?
Volumes are high when stocks are actively traded. Similarly, volumes are low if the stocks are not actively traded. Trading volume can be measured for any type of financial instrument: stocks, bonds, derivatives (futures and options contracts), gold and mostly all kinds of commodities. Stock exchanges publish trading volumes in ...
Is volume a measure of market strength?
Therefore, at times, volumes can be a measure of market strength when analysed with other indicators as well. Let’s understand this better in examples: When prices fall with the stock volume going up, it may mean that the trend is going towards the downside.
Does a pick up in volume affect the price of a stock?
A pick up in trading volumes of stock may have a significant impact on the price of the stock. However, high volumes are always not the reason why the price of a stock moves. Multiple reasons impact the stock price. Although, a lot of times, volumes do help us to confirm the existence of a particular trend. When viewed together with price rise ...
Why do traders track volume?
Traders and investors often track volume levels to help them decide when to buy and sell stocks, with the aim of taking a position or locking in profits from a position they already hold. You can track volume visually or manually.
What is the ticker of a stock?
The ticker is the two-, three- or four-letter abbreviation used to identify a publicly traded company. This will bring up a chart of the company's stock price movements over a set period.
How to overlay indicators on a chart?
Almost all charting software offers the option to overlay indicators onto your charts. Locate the indicators list and select "Volume." This will insert a histogram below the price chart. Each bar on the histogram represents a time frame equal to your chart's period setting. For example, if your chart period setting is 30 minutes, each bar on the volume chart represents 30 minutes of trading. The numbers along the vertical axis of the histogram tell you how many shares were exchanged over the period, so the higher the bar, the higher the volume.
What is a moving average?
A moving average is a line plotted from a preset number of preceding periods. The default moving average on the Free Stock Charts site, for example, is preset to 50 periods, meaning it calculates the average volume of the previous 50 periods of trading.
Does a broker offer charting software?
Many brokers offer their clients charting software as part of their service package. If you have an account with a brokerage, check to see if charting software is available. If not, numerous websites offer free charting software.
What does volume mean in stock?
Volume is the lifeblood of any stock. It represents the interest in the trading activity of said shares. Heavier volume indicates heavier interest and vice versa or lighter volume. A rise in volume tends to kick off significant price moves in many cases, however it is not a requirement. Despite conventional thinking, ...
What is volume in stock trading?
Volume is counted as the total number of shares that are actually traded (bought and sold) during the trading day or specified set period of time. It is a measure of the total turnover of shares. Each ticket represents a trade and counted towards the total trading volume.
Why do money managers use dollar volume?
Money managers use dollar volume metrics to determine whether a stock has enough liquidity to support a position. Dollar volume can also be used to get an idea of money flow when scanning for stocks breaking out or breaking down that are generating the highest dollar volume during the day.
How to tell if a stock is trading heavier or lighter than normal?
To determine if the volume is trading heavier or lighter than normal, traders can refer to the relative volume figure. Higher Relative Volume can bring volatility to a stock and make it easier to move.
What color is a volume bar?
Volume bars are usually colored green or red. Green represents net buying volume while red represents net selling volume. Some traders prefer to measure the volume with a moving average to spot when volume is relatively heavy or thin.