Glossary / Relative performance

Relative volume

Also called: RVOL

Relative volume compares the volume traded in a session to that same security's own average volume over a recent window, expressed as a multiple. A reading of one describes a typical session for that security.

How it is measured

How is relative volume measured?

Divide the session's traded volume by the average session volume over a lookback window — commonly a few weeks to a few months. Intraday versions compare volume so far today against the average volume by the same time of day, which is necessary because volume is heavily concentrated near the open and the close.

Why it matters

Why does relative volume matter to a swing trader?

Raw volume is not comparable between securities — a mega-cap's quiet session dwarfs a small-cap's busiest one — so normalising against a security's own baseline is what makes participation legible across a scan. Swing traders read it as a participation check on any price event: the same percentage move on ordinary volume and on many times ordinary volume are different events. An elevated reading says more people traded, not which direction they were leaning.

Related

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The live scanner · Full methodology

Related terms

Volume
Volume is the number of shares that changed hands over a period.
Average dollar volume
Average dollar volume is the value traded in a typical session — shares traded multiplied by price — averaged over a recent window.
Breakout
A breakout describes price moving beyond a level that had previously contained it — a prior high, a prior low, or the boundary of a range price had been oscillating inside.
Bid-ask spread
The bid-ask spread is the difference between the highest price a buyer is currently willing to pay and the lowest price a seller is currently willing to accept.

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General information about market vocabulary, written to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. Not investment advice — see the risk disclosure.