Net Volume

Volume measures the number of shares traded of a security in a given time. Apple, for instance, has an average daily volume of about 30 million shares. That means that, on a typical day, 30 million shares of AAPL stock trades hands.

All that volume doesn’t come at the same time, of course. A stock will bounce around during a day, up one moment, down the next. These mini-moves come with varying volume as well. The momentary advance might come with a spike in volume, while the subsequent momentary dip comes with only light trading.

Net volume provides the difference between uptick volume and downtick volume. Add up all the shares that changed hands when a stock moved up (that figure gives you the uptick volume). Then add up all the shares that changed hands when the stock moved down (providing the downtick volume). Finally, subtract the downtick volume from the uptick volume. The figure remaining is called the net volume.

Net volume represents a technical indicator that relates volume to price movement. It suggests whether the bullish or bearish sentiment has more conviction for a particular stock.