Why volume matters
Price tells you what happened; volume tells you how many people agreed. A breakout on two or three times the normal volume is more likely to be backed by real buying than one on light volume, and a heavy-volume sell-off often marks distribution by large holders.
- Volume × is the latest day’s volume divided by the average of the previous 20 days.
- Up / down on heavy volume combines a 1.5× or larger volume day with a gain or a loss.
- Unusually quiet lists stocks trading under half their normal volume: often a pause before the next move.
- $ volume is average daily volume times price: how much money changes hands each day.
During the trading day the latest day is still in progress, so volume ratios start low in the morning and climb into the close.
Frequently asked questions
Does relative volume adjust for the time of day?
No. It compares the volume so far today with full-day averages, so early in the session most ratios are below 1×. The lists are most meaningful near or after the close.
Which markets can it scan?
Four, picked with the Market buttons above the table. Crypto (the default) scans the 250 busiest USDT pairs on Binance. Crypto perps scans the 200 busiest USDT perpetual futures on OKX. Both are free public data and need no key. US stocks scans about 600 US stocks and ETFs with your own free Alpaca key, and CME futures scans about 25 front-month CME Group contracts (stock indexes, Treasuries, oil, gas, metals, grains, livestock, currencies and CME bitcoin) with your own free Massive key.
Why do stocks and futures need a key?
Stock and futures prices are licensed data, so a website can’t hand them out for free. Alpaca (for stocks) and Massive (for futures) give anyone a free data key. Your key is saved only in your browser and sent only to that provider. See how to get a free Alpaca key and how to get a free Massive key for futures.
Which stocks does it scan with an Alpaca key?
About 600 US stocks and ETFs: roughly the S&P 500, popular growth and momentum names, and around 75 of the most traded ETFs. The largest 135 load first; the rest follow automatically a few seconds later.
Is the data real-time?
Crypto and crypto perps are live from Binance and OKX, on daily candles that start at 00:00 UTC (today’s candle is still forming). Alpaca’s free stock data is 15 minutes behind the market, and Massive’s free futures plan is 8 hours delayed. Turn on auto-refresh next to the results to update the table in place every 30 seconds, minute or 5 minutes.