Quote from FrankSlaughtery:
re the poster who said something about the interest in ung (i didn't quote b/c the chart was huge) - there is zero correlation b/w a huge volume increase and the future direction of the price. the huge volume day could just as easily be someone betting against ung (a pretty good bet imho b/c of the way it's structured).
i don't know how many times i've heard people say about a beaten down stock/security/whatever "it's down a lot, it just had a big volume day therefore someone is calling a bottom".
just watch price and don't predict the future. if price stops being in a downtrend (price is above 50 MA, or above 20 day high, whatever trend measure you want to use) then it's ok to enter saying the trend has reversed but not before.
"Look at the volume at key turning points. It's huge. The only logical way that can happen is if institutions are exiting in one direction and entering in the other, and other institutions are taking the opposite side as part of a hedge in another market (stocks, options, bonds, currencies, and so on). They perceive that their risk-reward ratio is better by buying futures at the high or selling them at the low and offsetting the risk in another market. Nothing else makes sense. You know that the volume is not from small individual traders being squeezed out of shorts and buying at the high. There are plenty of stupid people out there, but if you were to pool all of their buys at the high, it is still small compared to the institutional volume."
-Al Brooks