1 Thing Most Traders Get Wrong About Volume

by Roger Scott | Jul 22, 2026

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Most traders look at price action and assume they’re seeing something meaningful…

But the truth is the majority of what you see on Wall Street is just noise. There’s not a lot of non-random movement in the market. Algos are constantly looking for price action and institutional traders are buying and selling all day.

That flow creates movement that looks important but rarely is.

This is why so many traders get sucked into meaningless wiggles on the chart. They confuse activity with intention. But when volume spikes above average, everything changes.

That’s your signal that something non-random is happening and either buyers or sellers have become aggressive.

That shift is where real opportunities begin.

What Aggressive Really Means

When I talk about aggression in the market, I don’t mean chaos or erratic behavior. I mean one side — bulls or bears — stops being passive and starts taking control.

They’re no longer placing casual incremental orders. They’re pushing hard in one direction with urgency.

If you go to an auction and see a rug you really like, you might bid $5 or $10 at a time like everyone else. But when somebody really wants that rug, they jump ahead — $15, $20, maybe more.

That sudden, forceful bidding creates a trend. That’s aggression, and that’s exactly what happens in the market.

When buyers get aggressive, sellers step aside. Suddenly there are nine buyers for every seller, creating the imbalance we need to make money.

Sellers behave the same way when they’re the ones in control.

And it’s important to remember that this kind of behavior doesn’t happen everywhere at once. Some sectors amplify these moves while others dull them.

That’s why we need to stick with sectors that are moving higher — sectors with real momentum make aggressive volume signals clearer and more reliable.

The opposite is also true. When there’s no real volume, buyers and sellers are in balance. Price drifts sideways because neither side is pushing hard enough to break that equilibrium.

When volume shows up, it’s because one side has decided to make a move and the other is backing away. That imbalance is where our edge lives.

Why This Matters for Your Trading

If you’re trading without focusing on volume, you’re getting caught in the random noise. You might stumble into a win but you won’t consistently find the non-random directional moves that pay with any reliability.

When I scan the market, I’m not looking for stocks that move a dollar up, a dollar down, back and forth. I’m looking for an angle — a clear, decisive opinion between buyers and sellers. The more you train yourself to spot these aggressive periods where volume confirms an imbalance, the more consistent your trading becomes.

We only make money when buyers and sellers are out of balance. When they’re in balance, price just floats as the market chops. But when one side gets aggressive and volume signals that shift, that’s when the real opportunity appears.

Start focusing on those moments. That’s where the edge is.

I hope that helps!

Roger Scott
Roger Scott Trading

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