Trade Ideas: Support Forum

[cwb1014]

Please Clarify VolumeX Filters, Pre-Market and Post-Market

The VolumeX (e.g., Volume 5) filters are described as follows (in green type) at http://www.trade-ideas.com/Help.html#alert_filter_NRBB5:

These compare the volume over the last 5 minutes to the volume expected in a 5 minute period. The result is always a percent. If you set the minimum volume to 400 then you will only see stocks which have been trading at least 4 times as much as normal in the last 5 minutes. Set the maximum volume to 90 to see stocks that have been trading less than normal over the last 5 minutes.

These filters work before and after regular market hours. However, you should set them to lower values as stocks typically trade significantly less during these hours.

What's confusing here is this language: "you should set them to lower values [before and after regular market hours] as stocks typically trade significantly less during these hours" when viewed in the light of this other language: "these [Alerts] compare the volume over the last 5 minutes to the volume expected in a 5 minute period".

If the comparison is always to "the volume expected in a 5 minute period" why would you need to set these filters to "lower values [before and after regular market hours]" inasmuch as the volume expected at these times is also lower?

In any event, assuming that you actually do need to use lower settings in the pre- and post-market, what settings would be reasonable at these times to find stocks trading at unusually high volumes?