Volume surge
What does it mean when a market trades far more than usual, and what does that activity tell a trader?
In plain words
A volume surge is trading activity noticeably above its recent average. Volume counts how much of an asset changed hands over a period, and comparing it with a trailing average shows whether a market is drawing unusual interest.
Why it matters
Heavy volume usually means more positions are being opened and closed, which can make price moves easier to sustain and harder to reverse. It also signals that entering or exiting a position is less likely to be blocked by thin liquidity, though it says nothing by itself about direction.
In a real week: BTC, week of 13 May 2019
In the week of 13 May 2019, BTC traded $3.56 billion, which was 3.18 times its average over the prior 12 weeks. The price closed the week up 16.94%, with a range of 21.78% between a low of 6870.0 and a high of 8366.0, and the close sat at 85.5% of that range. The week's volume ratio was 3.18, and the week's close finished 4.81% below the 52-week high.
A common mistake
Treating a volume surge as a buy or sell signal on its own. It describes how much trading happened, not whether the price will keep rising or fall back.