Volume is the honest number

Price can be moved by a single small trade. Volume cannot be faked in the same way, which is why every framework in Chapter 7 — Dow, Wyckoff, all of them — comes back to it.

What to compare

• Volume today against this stock's own recent average, not against another stock.
• Volume on advances against volume on declines.
• Whether a breakout past an obvious level came with volume or without it.

Turnover — the rupee value traded — is often more useful than share count, because it is comparable across stocks with very different prices.