Volume: VOL

The price tells you where the market moved. Volume tells you how many people were there. It is the difference between the news "something is happening in the square" and a photo that shows whether three people stand there or thirty thousand. Professor Wick has a simple rule for volume: first look at who is behind the move.

What one bar is#

Trading volume is the amount traded in a given candle. On Binance, for the BTC/USDT pair it is counted in bitcoin: a bar of 40,000 under a daily candle means 40,000 BTC changed hands on this exchange that day. Every trade has a buyer and a seller, so volume does not say whether more people bought or sold – only how much was traded.

The colour of the bar just copies the candle: green under a candle that closed higher than it opened, red under one that closed lower.

VOL on Binance#

In Original mode, open the indicator icon above the chart and the Sub Indicator tab. VOL is usually on as soon as you open the chart. Its settings have two lines: MAVOL1 = 7 and MAVOL2 = 14. Binance describes them as adding up the volume over a period and dividing by the number of candles – an ordinary moving average, just of volume instead of price.

The volume averages answer whether today's bar is unusually high. A bar above both lines means more was traded today than in recent days.

When volume matters#

Three examples from the chart:

• On 5 March 2024 the price opened at 68,246, fell as low as 59,005 and closed at 63,724. 132,697 BTC were traded – about 2.9 times the average of the previous 20 days (46,120 BTC). Both the fall and the bounce had a crowd behind them.
• On 5 August 2024 volume was the highest of the whole period: 162,066 BTC, almost 6 times the average of the previous 20 days (28,032 BTC). The price fell from 58,161 to 54,019 that day.
• On 6 November 2024 the price jumped from 69,372 to 75,572 and broke above the previous highs. Volume of 104,127 BTC was about 4 times the average. A breakout with a crowd behind it.

In general: a breakout through an important level on high volume is more convincing than one hardly anyone noticed. And a move on low volume reverses more easily. More in the lesson Volume: confirming the move.

One exchange's volume is not the whole market#

Binance shows only trades on Binance. Bitcoin trades on dozens of exchanges and volume differs between them – even depending on where a zero-fee promotion is running. So compare volume over time on the same exchange, not numbers from different exchanges with each other.

Common myths#

• "A green bar = more people bought." The colour only copies the candle. There are always as many buyers as sellers.
• "High volume = the price will keep going the same way." The volume peak often comes at the end of a move – in panic or euphoria.
• "Volume on one exchange is Bitcoin's volume." It is that one exchange's volume. Compare it only with itself.