Real volume
Also called Exchange volume, Traded volume, Actual volume
Real volume is the actual amount traded in a period, meaning the shares, contracts or lots that changed hands, as reported by an exchange. It is different from tick volume, which only counts how many times the price changed.
Spot forex has no central exchange, so no single place records every trade. The volume bars under a forex chart are therefore almost never real volume. If you treat them as real volume, you can believe a breakout had heavy buying behind it when it did not.
Real volume vs tick volume: what each bar actually counts
Tick volume ignores size. It counts quote updates in the broker's feed, and many of those updates come from liquidity providers (the banks and firms that supply your broker's prices) changing their prices with no trade at all. Every quote change counts as one tick, whether a large order, a small order or no order caused it.
Real volume counts size. One large order adds its full size to the bar. A hundred small orders add only their small sizes.
Tick volume often rises and falls with real volume, because busy markets tend to produce more price changes. That link is loose, though. It breaks when a few large orders hit the market at once, which the example below shows.
Worked example: one large order against many small ones
The figures here are an illustrative example. Bar A holds one trade of 10 lots. Bar B holds 20 trades of 0.01 lots each. To keep it simple, assume every trade moves the price by one tick. In a real feed, quote updates with no trade would add even more ticks to both bars without changing real volume. The calculation below counts both measures for each bar.
The two measures point in opposite directions. Tick volume calls Bar B the important bar. Real volume shows that Bar A carried 50 times more traded size (lots). Suppose Bar A was a breakout candle. A tick volume reading would make it look weak when it actually had the most size behind it. The chart below shows that disagreement on a short row of bars.
Which markets give you real volume
Whether you can see real volume depends on where the instrument trades, not on how good your charts are.
| Market | Real volume available? | What the volume bars usually show |
|---|---|---|
| Exchange-listed stocks | Yes, from the exchange | Shares traded |
| Exchange-traded futures, including currency futures | Yes, from the exchange | Contracts traded |
| Spot forex through a broker | No full-market figure | Tick volume from that broker's feed |
| CFDs on indices, metals or forex | Usually not | Tick volume from the provider's feed |
Checks before you trade on volume
- Know the source. Before you read a volume spike, check whether the bars are tick or real. If the instrument does not trade on an exchange, assume the bars are tick volume. Do not judge by the format of the numbers: shares and contracts are whole numbers too, so whole numbers do not prove the bars are tick volume. If you are still unsure, ask your broker's support whether the feed carries exchange volume.
- Compare within one feed only. Compare tick volume with earlier bars from the same broker. Never compare it with another broker's numbers or with exchange figures.
- Treat forex tick volume as an activity gauge. If tick volume spikes on a breakout, read it as "more quoting activity". Do not read it as "large money bought".
- Watch session changes. Tick volume rises when a major session opens, whether or not a real move is starting. Compare a bar with the same hour on earlier days, not with the quiet bar just before it.
- Look for disagreement. If price breaks a level on falling real volume, wait for a retest instead of chasing the move. Falling real volume on a break means less traded size is pushing price through the level, so the move has less trading behind it than the candle suggests. Falling tick volume only means fewer quote changes. On a forex chart, read it as quieter activity, not as proof that fewer orders are behind the break.
FAQ
Can I use currency futures volume to read a spot forex chart?
Futures volume is real traded size, but it covers only the futures market, not spot. It is a reasonable proxy when the pair has its own actively traded futures contract and you compare relative changes, such as a spike or a fade, during the hours the futures market is busy. It is a poor proxy for cross pairs with no active futures contract, outside the main futures trading hours, and for exact price levels, because futures prices differ from spot. Also check how the contract is quoted: some currency futures are quoted the other way round from the spot pair, so a rise in one is a fall in the other.