Relative period volume

I revisited the chart that I posted a while ago looking at the relative volume of each 1/2 hour period over the course of the day...including the first 1/2 hour of post market activity. I was trying to come up with a method of being able to compare each period with previous day periods. I did not come up with anything terribly easy so I went back to over simplification.

Here I plotted the 30 minute simple moving average of the close which would basically track the high of each bar directly as if it were a line chart of the high points. Then I offset yesterdays' ahead by 14 periods which overlays yesterdays' onto today...easy comparison this way. I then went to town and created 10 SMAs and offset each by an additional 14 periods...effectively this creates a cascade of SMAs overlaying today's volume representing the last 10 trading days general average.

I considered, and started colour coding the averages so I could tell how far back each one came from...then I decided that it is not necessary. I may grey scale them to fade them into the past so the more current ones are darker and likely more relevant. I do have to remember that the averages are of the close, or high of each bar so the fact that the bars are hanging in the breeze below the lines has no bearing, only the top of the bar is important. I could run averages using H/L/C data and put the lines in the middle of the bars...naw.

It is worth noting that Friday's volume was low over the course of the day, remained low into the close then skyrocketed past all ten days values in the aftermarket. Most regular traders do not trade in the aftermarket so I expect that was the large institutionals and fund managers getting their positions in or out for the month end weekend. Toady's volume was shooting right up the middle of the range.

This is just another piece of information to judge the trading day activity as it has no direct bearing on trades other than to justify a bias. Range trading if volume is lower than average or watch for trend breaks if volume is higher...generally speaking.

Jeff.