Volume definition

Volume is the total amount of an instrument traded over a set period. Depending on the market, it counts shares, contracts, lots, or units.

High volume points to strong participation and confirms that plenty of buyers and sellers are active. Low volume points to weaker participation and can mean thinner liquidity, wider spreads, and less reliable price moves. Traders read volume alongside price to confirm trends, breakouts, reversals, and support or resistance.

Volume measures how much was traded; volatility measures how far the price moved. The two often rise together but are not the same, since a market can trade heavily yet barely move, or move sharply on thin volume. In spot forex there is no central exchange to report a single volume figure, so platforms show tick volume, the count of price updates, as a proxy.