Explain Buy/Sell Volume

[Xubu]

Hi,

The exchange i use Kraken.com has a 24 Hour Volume of 11,332.84 and about 9 hours ago this volume was only 6,155.49.

What does this actually mean? Is this the amount of Bitcoin that was traded in 24 hours? I assume that it is positive that the 24 hour volume is getting bigger instead of getting smaller? Like today's scenario.

[onemorexmr]

Hi,

The exchange i use Kraken.com has a 24 Hour Volume of 11,332.84 and about 9 hours ago this volume was only 6,155.49.

What does this actually mean? Is this the amount of Bitcoin that was traded in 24 hours? I assume that it is positive that the 24 hour volume is getting bigger instead of getting smaller? Like today's scenario.

buyvolume means how many people have made a market buy - this means they have taken orders out of the orderbook.
volume is buy- and sellvolume added together.

more volume means more coins traded which is a good sign as it means more interest (except when its a 0% fee exchange like some of the chinese where people can simply trade with themselves).

exchange volume:
more volume in on exchange is good as it will attract more traders to an exchange which raises their volume even more but allows for bigger trades without moving the market there that much.

volume bitcoin wide:
means more interest in bitcoin (from old- and newtimers).
if the bitcoin price moves up but there is not much volume it has the risk that this price change is not sustainable and wont last long

[TERA]

Volume is the amount of coins that switched hands. If trader A swaps 1btc for trader B for $450 , then 1 btc of volume has occurred.  It doesn't matter what order they placed their orders.  

In btc, high volume is generally bullish,  since there is a fixed supply.  However,  if it gets too big on one up day,  it can lead to the start of a short term reversal.

You can't just look at one indicator or one day in a vacuum.  You need to look at how the volume progressed across different days,  and different timeframes, and what the corresponding price action was.

As for "buy volume" and "sell volume", this can have two meanings

1. When a buyer places a trade high enough to hit an existing limit sell order,  that is a "buy". When a seller places a trade low enough to hit existing buy order,  that is a "sell". Sometimes this information is meaningless if a huge buyer or seller simply prefers to use limit orders.

2. The volume that occurred during an up day or other candle can be considered "buy volume" and the volume that occurred during a down candle can be considered "sell volume". However,  in reality there are always both a buyer and a seller involved.