Why Most Traders Misread Volume: A Deep Dive into Standard Volume vs Daily 24h Volume

And how a more advanced approach changed the way I trade momentum, breakouts, and liquidity

Volume is one of the most widely used metrics in trading. Every crypto trader, from beginner to professional, has stared at the green and red bars under their chart trying to decode market intent.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

This is especially true when it comes to the popular Daily 24h Volume indicator. You’ve probably seen it on exchanges like Binance, Bybit, OKX — and on TradingView indicators that attempt to emulate it.

And while the metric sounds intuitive (“how much volume traded in the last 24h”), it’s often misunderstood and misapplied in live trading.

In this article, I want to break down:

• Why many traders rely on Daily 24h Volume Indicator
• What its conceptual weaknesses are
• How it differs from standard bar-by-bar volume
• A clear comparison between the two
• And how these insights led me to build a customized, more actionable volume engine that I personally use

Let’s start with the basics.

1. Why Traders Use Daily 24h Volume Indicator

At the bottom, the 24-hour volume is highlighted in red, compared to the standard volume indicator above.

Daily 24h Volume Indicator is attractive because:

• It reflects overall market participation
• It updates continuously and shows exchange-wide liquidity
• It gives a sense of the asset’s current “activity level”

For example:

• If 24h volume is rising → traders assume interest is growing
• If 24h volume is dropping → traders assume liquidity is drying up

It’s a macro-level liquidity gauge.

But here’s the problem:

Daily 24h volume does NOT tell you what’s happening right now on your candle. It tells you what happened in the past day, smoothed into one enormous rolling window. This introduces several pitfalls.

2. The Weaknesses of Daily 24h Volume (Why It Misleads Traders)

Weakness 1 — It’s a rolling metric, not a per-bar signal

Daily 24 volume cannot show momentum shifts inside a candle. You might think volume is increasing… But it’s actually just updating the rolling window.

Weakness 2 — It hides individual bar structure

It blends all buy/sell pressure, spikes, and micro-movements into one big number.

You miss:

• Who is in control (buyers or sellers)
• Strength of candle body
• Wick dominance
• Volume spikes on breakouts

Weakness 3 — It reacts slowly

Because it covers the full 24h window, it behaves like a moving average:

• Big events fade slowly
• Sudden surges barely move the line
• It lags on market turns

Weakness 4 — Traders assume it reflects “current volume”

But the bar forming RIGHT NOW could have:

• Huge actual volume
• But Daily 24 barely moves

— or —

• Very small actual volume
• But Daily 24 stays high from past candles

This disconnect confuses decision-making.

3. Standard Volume vs Daily 24 Volume — Conceptual Differences

Below is a simplified comparison to set things straight.

In short:

• Daily 24h volume is liquidity context.
• Per-bar volume is actionable information.

Most traders mix these two concepts — and get confused signals as a result.

4. Why I Built My Own Volume Indicator

After years of active crypto trading, I realized I needed:

• Something as reliable as per-candle volume
• Something as informative as exchange 24h volume
• Something that actually helps predict breakouts and momentum shifts
• Something that reflects real buying/selling pressure, not just bar color
• Something that filters noise and highlights meaningful spikes

This led me to develop the Advanced Volume Suite — a tool that merges the strengths of both worlds:

• Exchange-style liquidity
• Real-time actionable volume signals
• Momentum detection
• Spike identification
• Breakout confirmation

It’s the volume engine I personally use in my trading, and now I’m sharing it publicly.

The next section describes how it works.

5. Introducing a complete professional toolkit for reading true market volume, momentum, and liquidity: Advanced Volume Suite (24h, Pulse, Spikes, Breakout Pressure)

🔍 What This Indicator Does

The Advanced Volume Suite is a multi-layered volume analysis system designed for traders who rely on volume as a primary decision driver. It expands far beyond TradingView’s standard volume bars by adding:

✔ True USDT Volume

All volume is converted into USDT value (volume × close) to normalize activity across increasing or decreasing prices.

✔ Rolling 24-Hour Volume (Exchange-style metric)

The indicator calculates a custom 24h rolling volume, just like Binance and Bybit display.

✔ Volume Pulse (Strength vs Average)

A powerful ratio that measures momentum inside each bar.

✔ Smart Volume Spike Detection

Identifies abnormal activity using:

• Body strength
• Wick compression
• Trend alignment

✔ Breakout Pressure Engine

Detects:

• Confirmed breakouts
• Fakeouts
• Areas where pressure is building near key levels

6. Fully customizable Advanced Volume Coloring — 3 modes

The indicator introduces intelligent volume bar coloring, which improves clarity and helps interpret orderflow visually:

1️⃣ Simple Mode

Green = close > open
Red = close < open
(Like standard volume but using USDT values)

2️⃣ Body Mode

Colors only when candle body is strong relative to its range.
Filters noise and highlights meaningful bars.

3️⃣ Delta-Style Mode

Detects “aggressive” buyers or sellers based on:

• Candle body dominance
• Upper/lower wick compression
• Directional pressure

7. Why This Matters to Traders

This indicator bridges the gap between:

• Micro-level volume (per-candle activity)
• Macro-level liquidity (24h rolling volume)

And wraps it into:

• A visual breakout system
• A momentum pulse
• Smart spike detection
• Real candle-based volume coloring

It replaces multiple tools and simplifies your volume-based decision-making.

8. How It Differs From the Standard Volume Indicator

9. Final Thoughts

Volume is one of the most important trading metrics — but only when interpreted correctly.

• Standard volume shows real-time behavior
• Daily 24h volume shows high-level liquidity
• My custom indicator merges both concepts and adds intelligent layers for clarity

If you’ve ever missed a breakout, failed to see a spike, or misjudged the strength behind a move, this suite gives you the clarity you were missing.

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Why Most Traders Misread Volume: A Deep Dive into Standard Volume vs Daily 24h Volume was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.