For every buyer there is seller. For every seller there is a buyer. So just what is "Up Volume" or "Down Volume"? Yes, I know, "Up Volume" reflects transactions that occur on the offer. "Down Volume" transactions that occur on the bid. When used as a measurement of buying pressure, upvolume reflects the assumption that bids have risen to meet the offer. When used as a measurement of selling pressure, downvolume reflects the assumption that offers have dropped to meet the bid. In both cases, the assumption involves the use of market orders. But what about resting limit orders to sell or to buy? In this case, you might have a sell order that's filled on the offer. Yet this would be recorded as "upvolume". Vice-versa for buy orders on the bid. So, does "up" and "down" volume have any real value? Or is it just another chimerical T.A. crutch?
Friday ES sold off for the first thirty minutes however Trin opened low and began dropping lower during this time which told me that there was a lot of buying going on in stocks so I started looking for the reversal which came at 10:00. Volume is a key component in market analysis. A lot of people do not think it is so it is something you have to investigate and find out for yourself.
Limit orders are passive (or resting as you say) and so cannot move price, only market orders can, hence the focus on the direction of market orders. When the supply of limit orders is consumed price moves to the next pair. What you need to know is the behaviour of price during periods of increasing volume versus the periods of decreasing volume ie. which direction is dominant at any time. This tells you whether you have up or down volume. Tautological perhaps, but then so is the market.