Volume is the amount of activity behind a price move — how many contracts, shares or ticks changed hands over a period. Price tells you where the market went; volume tells you how much conviction was behind it. A move on heavy volume carries more weight than the same move on thin volume.
Read as a panel beneath the candles, each volume bar lines up with one candle and measures the effort spent during that period. Rising price on expanding volume suggests genuine participation; rising price on shrinking volume hints that the move is running out of fuel.
Why volume matters
Every transaction needs a buyer and a seller, so volume itself is neutral — it counts activity, not direction. Its value is as a measure of interest. A breakout backed by a surge in volume shows many participants agree with the new price; a quiet breakout can be a handful of orders that soon fade.
- Volume measures effort or participation, not direction on its own.
- Read each volume bar against the candle directly above it.
- Expanding volume confirms interest; contracting volume warns of fading interest.
- Volume is context for price — it rarely gives a signal by itself.
Volume is the conviction behind price — it tells you how much the market cared about a move, not which way it will go next.
Throughout this course we build from raw volume to profiles, VWAP and order-flow tools like delta. No single volume tool wins every time, so treat everything here as context, not certainty, and keep risk management central to every decision.