# How to Read Volume in Trading (Tick Volume) · DT Academy > What volume tells you about a move, why forex only has tick volume, and how to read it at breakouts, fakeouts and liquidity sweeps. [Back to The DT Intensive](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/courses/dt-intensive) Day 15Why volume matters Chapters done # Why volume matters Day 15 of 26 · 9 min read · By DT Terminal Volume shows how much participation a move had behind it. This lesson explains why spot forex has no central volume and what tick volume really counts, how to read volume at breakouts, fakeouts and liquidity sweeps, why it follows the sessions, and how to write it into your strategy as a confirmation rule you can test. Unlock the full lesson in the app Worked examples, the quiz and the interactive tools are in the app. Free account. [Continue in the app, free](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fwhy-volume-matters) Chapter 1 of 7 ## What volume is **Volume** is how much traded during one candle: shares or contracts on an exchange, something rougher on most forex charts. It shows as a bar under each candle, taller when more happened. Price tells you where the market went. Volume tells you how much participation it took to get there. **Moves with few traders behind them are easier to reverse.** | Price does this | Volume is | A common reading | | --- | --- | --- | | Closes beyond a level | Well above average | Many traders took part; follow-through is more likely | | Closes beyond a level | Below average | Few joined in; the break is more likely to fail | | Wicks through a level, closes back | Very high | Stops being filled: **a sweep, not a break** | | Trends on and on | Fading bar by bar | The push is thinning; not a reversal on its own | **Readings, not rules.** Each one shifts the odds a little; none of them tells you what the next candle will do. **Price is the result. Volume is the effort.** A big result on little effort, or a big effort that goes nowhere, is **the mismatch worth noticing**. Not the same word: in MetaTrader 5's order window, **Volume** is your own order size in lots, as in [Day 7, Placing your first trade](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/placing-your-first-trade). Chapter 2 of 7 ## Why spot forex has no central volume Stocks and futures trade on exchanges, which count every share or contract. **Spot forex has no exchange**: banks, electronic networks (ECNs) and brokers trade directly, over the counter, so nobody can print the total. Where volume comes from one book, or many venues [Replay in the app](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fwhy-volume-matters%3Fsection%3Dno-central-volume%23no-central-volume) The volume bar on your `EURUSD` chart is almost always **tick volume**: how many times the price changed during that candle, in your broker's or data provider's feed. It tends to rise and fall with real activity. | Market | Where it trades | What the volume bar counts | Read it as | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Stocks | Exchanges, reported to one tape | Shares traded | Real volume | | `6E`, gold and index futures | One exchange | Contracts traded | Real volume for that contract | | Spot forex | Over the counter | Ticks in your feed | A proxy: **compare bars, not numbers** | | CFDs on gold and indices | Your broker | Usually ticks in its feed | A proxy, like forex | | Crypto | Many exchanges | That exchange’s own trades | Real, but one venue’s share | So read it as **relative volume**: relative volume = bar volume / average of the last 20 bars **Compare volume with itself, never with another feed.** 3,000 ticks means nothing alone. 3,000 when the last 20 bars averaged 1,000 is three times busier than usual. **How big the market is, and the futures check** The euro future on the CME (its code is `6E`) publishes exactly how many contracts traded in each bar. Spot forex trades about $9.6 trillion a day in the Bank for International Settlements' 2025 survey, and nobody sees all of it. When more people trade, the price updates more often. One study that compared tick counts with real traded volume from two large ECNs found the two closely matched hour by hour, and left shorter bars as an open question. That is why many forex traders use tick volume as a stand-in for the volume they cannot see. Some forex traders check the matching future, `6E` for `EURUSD`, to see real contract volume. It helps, with limits: the future is a different instrument with its own price (it carries the interest rate difference), its own hours, and only part of the market. Two brokers can print different tick counts for the same candle, but both will usually show the London open bar as bigger than the Asian bars before it. Chapter 3 of 7 ## Volume at breakouts and fakeouts **A breakout needs new orders beyond the level.** A close beyond on heavy volume means many traders took part. On thin volume few did, and once their orders fill there may be nothing left to carry it. DT Terminal Charts EURUSD · M15 Breakout The bars along the bottom are volume, one per candle. DT Terminal Charts GBPUSD · H1 Fakeout The bars along the bottom are volume, one per candle. The `EURUSD` break came at the London open on 3.9x the average volume, and held. The `GBPUSD` break came at 16:00 in New York on 0.6x, and 2 bars later price was back inside the range. **Heavy volume confirms a break. Thin volume makes it suspect, not wrong.** Some thin breaks still hold, and some heavy ones still fail. Volume shifts the odds; **your stop limits the cost**. **Example 01, and the fakeout in detail** Worked example ### Example 01: The London open break, read with volume The worked example, with every number walked through, is in the app. [Continue in the app, free](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fwhy-volume-matters%3Fsection%3Dbreakouts-and-fakeouts%23breakouts-and-fakeouts) Free account The `GBPUSD` candle closes 13.0 pips above a day's range at 1.26873, at 16:00 in New York, the quiet hour before the daily rollover. By price alone it is the same kind of break as the `EURUSD` one. The volume says otherwise: 0.6x the average, about half the usual. A common working line is **a break bar of at least 1.5x the recent average**. Chapter 4 of 7 ## Breakout or fakeout: your call Now call four breaks yourself. Each one closes or wicks through a range high: read the volume, make your call, and see the next three bars. Interactive tool ### Breakout or fakeout This interactive tool runs in the app, with your own numbers. [Continue in the app, free](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fwhy-volume-matters%3Fsection%3Dcall-the-break%23call-the-break) Free account Watch volume at the opens in the backtester Add the Volume indicator, replay a month of `EURUSD` on M15, and mark the Asian high and low before each London open. For every close beyond one, note the relative volume and whether the next four candles held. After 30 breaks, compare the heavy ones with the thin ones. Chapter 5 of 7 ## Volume and liquidity sweeps Stops gather above highs and below lows ([Day 13, Liquidity](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/liquidity)). A stop is a market order, so when price reaches the pool they fill at once, and a sweep often prints **one of the heaviest bars of the session**. **Volume never says which side won.** The close does: huge volume that closes back where it came from is big effort, no result. DT Terminal Charts EURUSD · M15 Sweep The bars along the bottom are volume, one per candle. The sweep candle wicks 3.7 pips under the equal lows on 4.1x the average volume, then closes 9.0 pips back above them. **Big volume with a wick back is the stops being filled.** It still needs [the sweep and shift sequence](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/liquidity#sweep-then-shift) before it says anything about direction. **The sweep in numbers** The two lows sit at 1.08106 and 1.08095, only 1.1 pip apart. The sweep candle wicks 3.7 pips under the lower one, to 1.08058, on 5,796 ticks against an average of 1,416: 4.1x, and more than three times the busiest bar before it (1,728). Then it closes 9.0 pips back above the lows. Every trade has a buyer and a seller, so a huge volume bar is not strength on its own. When it closes back where it came from, someone large took the other side of all those stops. A heavy bar that closes beyond the level is a break. Chapter 6 of 7 ## Volume through the day **Tick volume follows the clock**, for the reasons in [Day 5, Market sessions](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/market-sessions): the market is busiest while the big financial centres are at their desks. On a major pair the shape repeats nearly every day. Tick volume by hour London time, an illustrative day [Replay in the app](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fwhy-volume-matters%3Fsection%3Dvolume-and-sessions%23volume-and-sessions) **An illustrative shape, not measured data.** Exact hours shift by an hour when the UK or the US changes its clocks. So the first London candle, compared with the quiet Asian bars before it, **will almost always look heavy**. A break at the open on "three times the volume" may simply be an ordinary open. Worked example ### Example 02: One London open bar, read two ways The worked example, with every number walked through, is in the app. [Continue in the app, free](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fwhy-volume-matters%3Fsection%3Dvolume-and-sessions%23volume-and-sessions) Free account **Other ways the clock catches people out** The honest comparison is with the same hour on earlier days, or with bars from the same session. The `GBPUSD` fakeout earlier in this lesson closed above its range in the hour before the New York rollover, when volume is near its lowest, and quiet hours are where thin breaks are most common. And on bank holidays in London or New York the whole day runs thin. Economic releases, from [Day 6, Key news events](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/key-news-events), do the opposite: a burst of volume in seconds, often in both directions, which is a reaction to the number, not commitment to a direction. Chapter 7 of 7 ## What volume cannot tell you Volume has hard limits: - **It has no direction.** The close tells you who pushed. - **On forex it is a proxy.** Never compare tick counts across feeds. - **It follows the clock.** Compare like with like. - **News distorts it.** A release spikes volume whatever happens next. - **It confirms; it never triggers.** A spike alone is no reason to enter. So use it as a **confirmation rule** you can test: for example, a break bar of at least 1.5x the average of the same session's last 20 bars. Write the volume rule into your strategy Add the rule under Before the trade, with its number. Backtest with and without it, and keep the version that earns its place. **Testing the rule, and the limits in full** Every trade has a buyer and a seller, so a heavy bar is as much selling as buying. Tick volume differs by broker and data provider, so never treat a raw tick count as a level. Busy hours always look heavy and quiet hours always look thin. A volume spike is a check on a setup your rules already found. To find out whether the rule helps, take the same setups with the rule and without it, and compare the win rate and the average R of each group. If the filtered group is no better, the rule is costing you trades for nothing. Measure it on trades you can trust: fills synced from your broker, not the trades you remember. 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