Volume Analysis Explained: A Complete Beginner's Guide

Before proceeding, it's important to understand a key distinction relevant to forex specifically. Unlike centralized exchanges (such as most stock exchanges), the spot forex market is decentralized, meaning trades occur across a global network of banks, brokers, and other participants rather than through a single central exchange. Because of this structure, there is no single, complete figure for total global forex trading volume available to any individual broker or platform.

As a result, forex trading platforms generally display what's called "tick volume" rather than actual traded volume. Tick volume counts the number of price changes (ticks) that occur within a given period, used as a proxy or approximation for actual trading activity, rather than a precise count of the number of units or currency value actually traded. This distinction is worth keeping in mind throughout this unit and is explored further in the following lessons.

• Volume bars — how volume is typically displayed on a chart.
• Volume spikes — what a notably higher volume bar can suggest.
• Rising volume vs falling volume — trends in volume over time.
• Price-volume confirmation — using volume alongside price movement.
• Volume during breakouts and reversals — applying volume analysis to the breakout concepts from the previous group.