If I told you that the average number of shares for a stock was 1,423,515 without telling you the name of the company, would you be able to tell me what "high", and "Low" volume would be for that stock?, would you need to see a chart?. I bring this up because when people talk about volume, it seems rather subjective depending on thier intended time frame. cm
I would say that it depends on the asset. If your a penny share, this number maybe relatively low. If your a futures contract, that is a descent amount of volume... In other words, if you profile the assets volume, you can see where this volume figure lies within the asset's range of volume values. If the number is in the upper part of its range, then it is a time when a relatively unusual number of transactions are being executed for some reason or another...
================ CashM; No i wouldnt need to see a chart, not only did i rephrase your question, but i like charts and focus on a few. Since i may look @ many, but focus on a few; average daily volume[adv] will answer your question, easy. Also record it[adv]about every 20 days; it varies. murray TT
to me volume is second in importance to price action. i am constantly monitoring the volume of stocks on my list and comparing it to the avg daily volume. i try to keep all my trades in stocks that are trading w/ hi volume relative to their average volume.
I would need two more pieces of information: * The volume on the previous bar * I would also like to see an average of volume for 30 periods. (mov(v,30,S)). That's all. Although I might add I would like an understanding of the instrument and how volume typically "works" for it. For example, it is a known fact that forex spot volume "dries" up after the New York session. However, If one wants to get a bit more objective, one could take a standard deviation(s), say 2 or 3 Xs, of that average and call any volume bar higher than that level high. But here too one would also want to make relative comparisons-that is bar to bar. Now if you are trying to determine if an issue (tradable) is too illiquid to trade, that is another story.
Everything is relative. Compared to what - it's 20 day avg volume? Is GOOG expensive? Relative to SUNW or Berkshire Hathaway? No context, no answer.