I always think of them as trades. Somebody has to sell for someone to buy, and vice versa...so they are really trades. No way to tell if they are actual buys and sells...you can look at the bid and ask and see where it hit. If it hits the bid and ticks down, that looks like a sell, but it's a buy for someone else. Opposite happens when a trades causes a tick up at the ask, looks like a buy, but really a trade...