Indicators & Strategy
How to Read Volume in TradingView: VWAP and Price-Volume Basics
Price says "what happened"; volume says "how much money took part." Technical analysis without volume is a concert with the volume turned to zero.
Basic setup
- Add Volume in indicators (usually on by default), and overlay its 20-period average — "high/low volume" needs a baseline; only compared to your own average does it mean anything;
- Add VWAP (volume-weighted average price): the weighted cost line of the day's trades, a common benchmark for institutional algo orders.
The price-volume quadrants
| Combination | Read |
|---|---|
| Price up, volume up | Healthy rally, broadening participation |
| Price up, volume down | Push is weakening, watch for exhaustion |
| Price down, volume up | Active selling, don't rush to catch |
| Price down, volume down | Selling drying up, watch for a base |
These are "tendencies," not laws. Price-volume near key levels (breakouts, prior highs/lows) carries the most information: a breakout on rising volume is a notch more credible; a breakout on falling volume, beware the fake-out.
Using VWAP
- Intraday bias filter: only long above VWAP, only short below — one of the cleanest intraday disciplines;
- A pullback to VWAP is the most-used second entry for an intraday trend;
- VWAP resets daily and only applies intraday — don't use it on a weekly chart.
Tip: more advanced volume tools (like Volume Profile) come with some paid plans. For starting out, Volume + VWAP is plenty.