Volume
The fuel behind price moves: volume reveals the conviction behind each candle and separates solid breakouts from false starts.
Volume is the market's second fundamental data point after price: it counts the quantity of assets exchanged during each candle. Where price says what happened, volume says with how much conviction. One principle runs through all of technical analysis since Charles Dow: a price move backed by heavy volume is more reliable than a move met with general indifference.
How it's calculated
Raw volume comes from the market: it is the sum of quantities traded during the candle's period. Screener.Trading breaks it down into four sub-lines, each usable separately:
- Volume bars: each candle's raw volume, in units traded.
- Volume SMA: the moving average of volume (20 candles by default), which serves as the yardstick for spotting activity spikes.
- Dollar volume: volume multiplied by price : the actual amount of money exchanged, comparable across assets.
- Dollar volume SMA: the moving average of dollar volume, to normalize that monetary activity over time.
Dollar volume is particularly useful for comparing assets with very different prices: 1 million units of a $0.10 token weighs less than 1,000 units of a $500 stock.
How to read it
- Breakout + volume: a resistance break on volume clearly above average has better odds of holding than one on anemic volume.
- Healthy trend: ideally, volume swells in the direction of the trend and contracts during corrections.
- Climax: an extreme volume spike after a long move sometimes marks final capitulation or euphoria : an exhaustion signal.
- Divergence: new price highs on shrinking volume suggest waning buying interest.
Volume must always be read relative to its own average: "high" or "low" means nothing in absolute terms. Also bear in mind that its reliability varies by market: precisely measured on crypto and stocks, it is more indirect on forex, where it reflects quoting platforms' activity.
In the screener
Volume is the confirmation filter par excellence. Rule examples you can build in Screener.Trading: "volume bars above the 20 volume SMA on D1" to keep only assets in an activity spike; "dollar volume SMA above a threshold" to remove illiquid assets from your results; combined with a price breakout ("close above the upper Bollinger Band") the volume condition validates the strength of the move.
Across timeframes, a daily liquidity filter (dollar volume SMA above a minimum amount) can be added to intraday signals: you then only receive opportunities on genuinely tradable assets. That is a valuable habit on the crypto universe, where liquidity varies enormously from pair to pair.
Add a minimum dollar-volume filter to all your crypto screeners: it removes illiquid pairs where indicators are computed on a handful of trades and real execution would be difficult.
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- FeatureThe multi-indicator, multi-timeframe screenerCombine technical indicators, timeframes and comparison operators to keep only the assets that match your strategy exactly.
- FeatureWatchlists: your favorite symbols and your scan and backtest resultsGroup the symbols that matter to you (across every market) and reuse those lists as the universe for scans, backtests and automated scans.
- FeatureAutomated scans: your screeners on autopilotBots watch the market for you: they re-run your screeners at every candle close and e-mail you the moment an asset matches.
- IndicatorVWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price)The average that weights each price by traded volume: the VWAP shows the average price the market actually paid and serves as a benchmark for institutional players.
- IndicatorPrice: the raw data behind all technical analysisBefore any indicator, there is price. The close, open, high and low of each candle are the building blocks of your screener rules.
- IndicatorBollinger BandsA volatility envelope around a moving average: the bands widen when the market gets busy and tighten when it calms down.
- IndicatorSimple Moving Average (SMA)The oldest and most widely used trend indicator: an average of recent closes that smooths out market noise and acts as a dynamic reference line.
- GlossaryTimeframeA timeframe is the duration each candle on a chart represents (from one minute to several months) and sets the horizon of the analysis.
- GlossaryMarket orderA market order is an order executed immediately at the best available price, prioritising certainty of execution over price control.
- GuideBuilding your first screener, step by stepHow to turn a strategy idea into objective rules, pick the right asset universe, read scan results and iterate until you get a genuinely actionable list of opportunities.
- GuideSetting up trading alerts with autoscansLet your screeners watch the market for you: create an autoscan in two clicks, get an e-mail as soon as an asset matches, and avoid noise with a few best practices.