The Volume-Price Matrix

Four quadrants

Price up + volume up = conviction buying (healthy). Price up + volume down = drift, suspect (short-covering or apathy — fades easily). Price down + volume up = conviction selling (respect it). Price down + volume down = drift, benign (no one forced — often just fades). The quadrant tells you WHO is acting; the trend tells you what to do about it.

Effort vs result

Wyckoff's lens: compare the EFFORT (volume) to the RESULT (price progress). Huge volume + tiny progress = absorption (someone big is taking the other side); tiny volume + huge progress = vacuum (no opposition — moves on nothing reverse on nothing). Effort-result mismatches at S/R zones are among the highest-information reads on a chart.

Where to look

Volume reads matter most AT LEVELS: the test of a breakout (day 11), the reaction at a support zone, the response to news. Volume in the middle of nowhere is mostly noise. Level + volume + candle = the readable unit; each alone is a fragment.

Sources

• Volume Price AnalysisAnna Coulling
• Wyckoff MethodInvestopedia / StockCharts