Trading volume is the total amount of trading activity in a particular market or stock for the trading day. It is the total number of shares that trade hands for that day. Volume can give insight into whether or not there is demand for a stock or not, as well as if institutions are in a rush to exit or if they are quietly taking profits or accumulating shares of stock.

Bullish trading action: When a stock moves higher on increasing trading volume, it is considered good because it indicates an increasing demand for shares.

When a stock or market has run up in price on heavy trading volume, and then the price moves back down on lighter trading volume, it indicates that investors are not eager to sell their shares.

If a stock closes in the higher end of its weekly trading range over a period of weeks on months on a consistant basis, it means there is a high liklihood that the stock is being accumulated by institutional investors.

Bearish trading action: When a stock moves lower on increasing trading volume, it is considered bearish because it means institutional investors are in a hurry to sell their shares.

When a stock or the market has fallen on heavy trading volume, and then moves higher on lighter or less trading volume, it is bearish because there is not as much demand for those shares as they move higher.

If a stock continues to close in the low end of its weekly price range over a period of weeks or months, it indicates that there is not as much demand for the stock and that it could be prone to selloff.

Trading volume is very helpful to use on longer term charts (weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly). It can give a better overall picture of whether or not institutions are accumulating shares or selling them.

Advancing Issues vs. Declining Issues: This is simply the number of stocks that are up in price vs. down in price throughout the trading day. If the market suffered a decline during the day but there were still more stocks up in price versus down in price, then that would be an example of good internal price action. If the market makes a big move higher, and there are more advancing stocks verses declining stocks, that also indicates good internal action. If the market posted big gains, but there were more declining than advancing stocks, it would mean that there were negative internals.

New 52 week highs vs. New 52 week lows: In a healthy market, you will see the number of stocks hitting 52 week highs expanding. If the market is declining, you will see the number of new 52 week highs decline and the number of new 52 week lows expand. During panic selling, there can be six or seven hundred stocks at new 52 week lows and only a handful at new 52 week highs.

Stock spits: When there are a high number of stock splits, it can mean that there is to much speculation in the market. Investors like to buy stocks that have split because the shareprice is half the price it was however there are more shares. Example. If a stock splits 2 for 1, and the stock trades at $40.00, then the stock will trade at $20.00 after the split. If there were 10 million shares outstanding, there would now be 20 million.

Intra-day chart. This is the movement of a stock throughout the trading day. Day traders will use different time increments such as 1 or 5 minutes.

Daily chart:  A daily chart (represented by a vertical bar) shows how the stock traded for one day. It usually shows the opening price, intra-day price range, and closing price. Volume is on the lower part of the graph.

Weekly chart: A weekly chart is a summary of one week of trading (represented by a vertical bar) and can smooth out the volatility associated with a daily chart. It will usually have an opening price, intra-week move, and closing price. These charts can also be used for longer-term analysis.

Monthly chart: A monthly chart is used for longer term trend analysis.

Quarterly chart: This chart looks at 3 month time-periods. Each vertical bar represents one quarter of trading.

Yearly chart: Each vertical bar represents 1 year. These are used to look at longer term trends of stocks and markets.