What Is Relative Volume (RVOL) and Why Every Day Trader Needs It

Most traders focus on price. The traders who consistently find the best setups focus on volume — specifically, relative volume.

What is relative volume?

Relative volume (RVOL) compares a stock's current trading volume to its average volume over a set period (usually 10 or 20 days). An RVOL of 5x means the stock is trading 5 times its normal volume right now.

Why it matters

Price moves on volume. A stock up 10% on normal volume is very different from a stock up 10% on 10x volume. High relative volume means:

• More traders are paying attention
• The move has more conviction behind it
• There's more liquidity, so your entries and exits are cleaner

How to use RVOL in your scans

Most traders set a minimum RVOL threshold in their scanner — commonly 2x or higher for early morning scans, 5x or higher for pre-market movers. The higher the RVOL, the more significant the move.

RVOL + price momentum = high-probability setups

The strongest setups combine price momentum (a big move in a short period) with high relative volume. This is exactly what AlphaScan Pro's MCS Score captures — it weighs RVOL alongside other momentum signals to give each stock a 0–100 ranking.

Instead of manually calculating RVOL across thousands of stocks, the scanner does it automatically and surfaces only the stocks that meet your criteria.

The takeaway

If you're not using relative volume in your scans, you're missing one of the clearest signals the market gives you. Add it today.