Change over time
Price chart with volume panel
Pairs a price chart with traded volume on a shared time axis.
- Composite
- Price movement
- Activity comparison
What it answers
How do price changes coincide with trading activity?
- Shape
- Aligned price and volume panels
- What it shows
- Price/activity coincidence and unusual volume.
Example
The question
Did big price moves come with heavy trading?
Daily share price and volume, March
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Adding activity context to a price series.
Avoid it when
When separate units or unsupported causal inference are overlooked.
How to read it
Read price and volume in aligned panels at the same date.
Note
Use separate scales and units for price and volume.
The data you need
- Layout
- Wide OHLC table
- Fields
- Time: date/datetime; Price: number; Volume: nonnegative number; or OHLC plus Volume
- One row is
- One complete trading or measurement period. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Align price and volume to the same periods. Do not use volume as a price measure.
- Optional
- Optional Volume. Define trading calendar and adjusted versus unadjusted prices.
- Preparation
- Aggregate genuine observations into ordered periods using open/close order and period high/low; align volume and adjusted-price conventions.
- Units
- Price uses currency per instrument/unit; volume uses traded units. Define period length; price changes and returns have different units.
Worked example
Day 1 price 105, volume 12000; Day 2 price 108, volume 15000. Price rises 3 while volume rises 3000; this does not prove causation.
| Time | Price | Volume |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-01-01 | 105 | 12000 |
| 2026-01-02 | 108 | 15000 |