Volume and order flow
You will learn to
- Read what volume adds to price
- Recognise climaxes and fading participation
- Know what the Flow tab shows
Volume is participation
Volume is how much traded in each candle. It does not say which way price will go; it says how many people cared. Moves on rising volume have more fuel; moves on falling volume are fragile.
| Price | Volume | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Rising | Rising | Healthy, participation growing |
| Rising | Falling | Buyers tiring — careful chasing |
| Falling | Rising | Real selling |
| Falling | Falling | Pullback without much conviction |
Climaxes and breakouts
The biggest volume bar in a long while often marks the end of a move (everyone who wanted in got in, or forced sellers were liquidated) rather than the start. A breakout from a range on volume well above average is more believable than one on a quiet bar.
Order flow (the Flow tab)
- Order book: resting limit orders. Large walls can be real or pulled at the last second.
- Tape: trades as they happen, marked buyer- or seller-initiated. Aggression shows who is urgent.
- Liquidations: forced closes of leveraged positions — fuel for sharp moves.
Crypto trades on many exchanges at once. One venue's volume is a sample, useful for relative changes (more or less than usual), not as the whole market's number.
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Check yourself
1. Price makes a new high on the lowest volume in 20 candles. What does that suggest?
- Strong buying
- Weak participation — be careful chasing it ✓
- A guaranteed reversal
A move nobody is joining can continue, but it is fragile.
2. A huge volume spike after a long decline often marks…
- The start of a bigger decline
- Capitulation — often near the end of the move ✓
- Nothing
Climax volume frequently comes when the last sellers give up.
Terms in this lesson
- Climax volume
- An outsized volume spike, often near the end of a move.
- Order book
- Resting limit orders to buy and sell at each price.
- Tape
- The stream of executed trades.
- Volume
- How much traded in a candle — participation, not direction.
Practise it on real charts. In the app, this lesson comes with real examples (reveal what happened next), a graded drill and the track test. Open the Academy in NexusCore — free →