Volume Indicator: Formula, Settings and How to Read It
Volume plots the quantity traded in each bar as a histogram signed by the bar's direction: bars closing at or above their open are stored positive, bars closing below their open are stored negative. The pane therefore mirrors around a zero baseline instead of showing the always-positive column most platforms draw.
Senzoukria · Indicators · Updated September 2026
Volume ships with the Senzoukria desktop app, in the Volume group of the indicator catalogue. It is drawn in its own panel below the chart.
What Volume measures
Each column's magnitude is the total quantity that changed hands inside the bar, in the unit the feed reports for that instrument — contracts on futures, base-asset units on crypto pairs. The sign adds nothing about aggression; it is the close-versus-open comparison alone, used as a color channel so that one histogram series can be drawn in two colors. The comparison is close greater than or equal to open, so a bar closing exactly at its open counts as an up bar, which is the rule the renderer already applies to the candle body. Because the sign is real arithmetic rather than a fill color, the pane's axis is signed and down bars hang below zero.
The formula, as implemented
This is not a description of how the indicator is usually defined elsewhere — it is what the shipped code computes, documented next to the implementation:
Volume histogramme, coloré par la DIRECTION du close : close ≥ open → valeur +volume (couleur positive), close < open → −volume. Le signe est le canal de couleur du shape histogram — le pane rend donc un volume « miroir » (barres baissières sous la baseline 0, axe signé), choix assumé vague 1 : un histogramme toujours-positif coloré par barre exigerait une couleur par point, hors contrat du shape. Choix documenté : ≥ (doji compte haussier) — même règle que le corps de bougie du renderer.
How to read it
- Read height first and color second: a tall column below the baseline and a tall column above it represent the same amount of trading, in bars that closed in opposite directions.
- Height expanding as price leaves a range means participation is joining the move; a break printed on columns no taller than their neighbours has fewer participants behind it than the price action suggests.
- A very tall column at the end of an extended move is not directional on its own. It says a large amount of business was done at those prices, which can be continuation or transfer.
- Sequences carry more than single bars: three or four consecutive columns well above their neighbours describe a phase, one column does not.
- A bar closing exactly at its open appears on the positive side by convention, not because buyers were dominant.
Parameters and defaults
Up color defaults to #26a69a and down color to #ef5350; they decide which side of the baseline is tinted which way and never touch the values. Smoothing defaults to 1, which plots the raw per-bar quantity. Any higher setting, up to 200, applies an averaging pass after the fact: the histogram becomes a slow participation envelope and every change it shows arrives later than the bar that caused it.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoothing | number | 1 | 1 – 200 |
What it does not show
Volume says how much traded, never who initiated it — separating buy-initiated from sell-initiated quantity needs bid-by-ask footprint data, not this series. The signed presentation can be misread as a delta: a negative column is a down-closing bar, not net selling. Values are only as complete as the feed behind them, and consolidated or sampled feeds can report smaller totals than the exchange's own; market data is billed by the data provider, separately from the application subscription. On crypto pairs the quantity is denominated in the base asset, so columns are not comparable across pairs without converting to notional.
Using it in Senzoukria
Add it from the Indicators panel of any footprint chart or candle chart. It runs on futures data from Rithmic or Databento and on crypto pairs from Binance and Bybit, on the same engine — the calculation does not change with the venue, only the data feeding it does. Market data subscriptions are billed by the provider, separately from the app.
Related indicators
- Volume ROC % — Volume
- Relative Volume — Volume
- Trade Count — Volume
- Level Count — Volume
- Volume per Level — Volume
- POC Position % — Volume
See the full indicator library, or start with the order flow guide if you are new to reading aggression, delta and absorption.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does the volume histogram go below zero?
- Because the series is signed by bar direction: bars closing below their open are stored as negative values so that a single histogram can be drawn in two colors. The figure below the baseline is still traded quantity, not net selling, so compare a down bar to an up bar by absolute height.
- Does volume show buying and selling pressure?
- No. Every trade has a buyer and a seller in equal quantity, so volume alone cannot be split into buying and selling. Identifying the side that crossed the spread needs trade-by-trade data classified against the bid and the ask, which is what the footprint and delta indicators work from.
- What does a doji bar count as in the volume histogram?
- As an up bar. The test is close greater than or equal to open, so a bar whose close matches its open is drawn on the positive side. The candle body uses the same test, so the histogram and the candle never contradict each other.