You are incorrect in this assumption. Volume is at least as important as price action in markets where volume information is available to its participants.
@lovethetrade you did not comprehend my original post correctly. That is not my contention. You touched on it with... "where volume information is available.." My point is....IS accurate volume information available. Sprout, simples and RM quoted above have some good input on the subject.
I guess it would depend on how many degrees of separation between you and volume. If you're a person who believes more people in the market place indicates a good time to buy or sell (for example, the comparison between black friday vs. after christmas sales), you probably take a more fundamental view of volume that its relevance is compromised by incomplete reporting. I tend to get one degree further out, and I'm more concerned about what I can infer about the reaction that I presume is based on (possibly inaccurate) reports of volume. So I accept that volume reporting is incomplete, but also accept that these incomplete volume reports can inform on the market activity. When you're being trampled to death at dawn the day after thanksgiving, the distinction of Wal-Mart's online vs. in-store sales is probably of little importance to you--but we can safely say the volume of people there was at least partially causal to the trampling.
%% Well one of my chart services is not as accurate on volume as the other, over a long period of time. I like 2 [ both]. But in alphabeticial arrangement, [price comes before volume] Wisdom is profitable to direct
%% Exactly, mostly......................................................................................
Why do you have to make an assumptions? Most "Dark pool" trades are reported to the consolidated tape almost immediately. You just can't see quotes.
True. It does provide an overall context. Lot's of folks use the methodology of filtering by sector, leaders in that sector, the weeklies, the dailies, screening for HH's, LL's, bounces off trendlines, VE's, BO's, FBO's, FTT's so on and so forth. The advance of volume peaks and (easily glossed over) troughs rise in relation to the 65day volume. In other words, one is using the 65day ave line as a "tidal" reference. Current volume in relation to that line will provide valuable information in real time. It's subtle, beginning PA traders will not see it. They see the price translation first. From what I can tell from masterful PA traders is that they use volume to support/confirm their thesis, setups and entries. I could be mistaken for I haven't traveled very far down that path. Al Brooks books are densely written. I've never made it through all of them but from what I gather - traders committed to excellence have derived tremendous insight from them. Back to volume,... Look for the shape of the overall forest not the trees in the volume histogram. If one logs bar-by-bar, one will start to see it. If not, then well, it doesn't exist to that particular person eyes. One could look at the 30min for their instrument. It shows a repeating pattern every-single-day. The catenary. Insights can be derived when one studies from DU to DU instead of the open to close. The information lag gets smaller as one drills down into faster timescales. For very short term trading each peak and trough conveys information in where price action is currently in the current trend segment. There are no easy answers,.. only insight, which comes from purposeful learning, annotating, logging, journaling and debriefing. Sleep come next. In the morning the unconscious has processed the previous day and new questions will arise. Until a moment where a flash of cognition occurs,... the Aha! Lasting insight isn't given, it's self-initiated and deduced. Trading for me has been a journey of self=discovery. There's nothing like all the emotions one feels when one is in a trade and doesn't have a clue on how to read a market. The most intense roller-coaster ever. ...being up thousands down thousands, oooof! hmm, not very sustainable, imho. The views one glimpses on the journey is breath-taking and awe inspiring. HTH
%% I assume that is right; even 80% can be a help.Beside$, real low volume in junk stocks can block profit.I saw record volume in GE not mean much of anything so no wonder some dont look @ volume much @ all.LOL
For me Volume is important. I added a volume criteria for entry about a year ago, I needed something to keep me out of trades and be more selective. Otherwise I over trade. So me I have found that unless the volume is over the running average that the trade has a lower probability of working out. In raw numbers I have found that the ES has good volume if over 8000 CT's per 3 minute bar. One of my early mentors was huge on the idea that price FOLLOWS volume. I find that trades for me that have low volume, while they do work out it is less likely and will take MUCH longer time wise. I like to think of it like a trade needs the volume to push price higher/lower. anyway, this has worked for me...