9. Measuring Volume Information

“The relationship between trading volume and securities prices is a complex one which, when understood properly, can lead to many insights in portfolio theory.”

—Walter Sun, MIT Laboratory of Information and Decision Systems, The Relationship Between Trading Volume and Securities Prices, 2003

There are several old but elegant homes in a local community that were supposedly built by an old-time Amish master carpenter who never used a tape measure. There are also old-school master traders who can successfully trade solely on gut feel and intuition. However, I would not recommend so much as furnishing a house without a tape measure.

A book on volume analysis would be incomplete without a section on volume indicators. So far, I have discussed volume in generic terms without actually developing the concepts or indications into indicators. I have discussed mostly general principles, such as: