Replies to post #138610 on The Question and Answer Board (IHUB)

[Slojab]

It's determined by whether a trade goes off higher or lower than the previous trade. Once it trades at a higher sp, for example, that trade and all subsequent trades will be classified as "buys".

Click on the "TRADES" icon on any stock board and you can see it in action.

[Mattu]

RE: Buy vs Sell on Trades Screen

You're right, all trades are technically a buy and a sell.

What the trades page does is try to determine what the executed order orginiated as based on the executed price. It takes an educated guess.

If the order executes at/near the ask price, it calls it a buy. If the order executes at/near the bid price, it calls it a sell.

Buy volume or sell volume is a daily sum total of the individual trades for the day for buys and sells.

The trades video might help, as well:

http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=demov&v=tr

Also, click Help on the Trades page, there's this text there, as well as other useful information:

The 'Buy', 'Sell' and '?' columns - Where the 'Price' is closest to the 'Offer' price, the trade is considered a 'Buy'. Where it is closest to the 'Bid' price, the trade is considered to be a 'Sell'. Where it is dead centre between 'Bid' and 'Offer', it appears in the '?' column; this indicates that the trade cannot be identified as either a 'Buy' or a 'Sell'.

Let me know if you have any other questions....