^ on the contrary, volume is neither mass nor velocity as it pertains to momentum. Price is mass. The speed at which it moves is velocity. Volume is something altogether different.
^agree, to a slight degree, hence the "in a way" modifier. But a move on big volume will have more "weight" than a move on small volume. Just giving ideas to visualize what's going on.
Well if you want to split hairs on this than sure - price can gap with no trade activity - however the gaps are caused by a supply/demand imbalances, which is the aggregate volume of buy & sell orders in the auction. Like I said, volume leads price - including the bid/ask orders in the auction before the next trade prints. You assumed I was referring only to prints - that's not what I said. Looks your thinking is flawed - not mine.
You're substantiating my point. If volume is the catalyst that propels price to move more quickly, as in your example, then volume cannot be both the mass and the propellant. Anyway, I'm just being semantic so I'll leave it at that.
So mass(volume) multiplied by velocity(change rate of price) = momentum...price itself being current "location". One way of looking at it.
You just kind of described Level 2 quotes, in relation to watching a chart's real-time movement and trading. But trading is part art, part science...it pays to view things from a collective, dynamic picture from multiple angles. If all you know is Level 2, for example, and are basically blind with other facets of trading observation...you're bound to experience an inevitable lethal or damaging hit. Trading is kind of like being the creator/manufacturer of a chess board and pieces, as well as the player, as well as the event organizer, and etc etc expanding and contracting roles. Trading is like a moving camera zooming in and out at various speeds and heights of a sporting event or political assassination. You have to see and sense everything in real-time...the past, present and future. Initial convictions, but with malleable patience. -- You can't go hunting for deer, if all you have seen, and known, in your life is horses. You have to reasonably know what to look for and expect for. Otherwise you're just a blind man without a cane. , All of this just looks like random words and theory to the uninitiated. -- But you'd be surprised with what kind of returns this fluff generates, if truly digested right and applied right.