Just to be clear, is volume surge the same as volume buzz?  Your help index only lists volume buzz, but it sounds like they're the same thing, that is, they measure the percent of volume at the time of the day compared to a stock's average volume for that time of day.  Right?

One more question.  How might you suggest I tweek volume surge in an Easyscan as to find stocks that have not already blasted off into the stratosphere, but might do so shortly?  For instance, setting one day volume surge at 90 to maximum, tends to produce a list of "bubble stocks" already up huge.  I'd like to find them just before if possible. (don't we all!)

Volume Surge and Volume Buzz are similar concepts but are not the same.

Volume Surge Today uses the following Indicator Formula. It compares the volume that has happened during the current trading day so far and expresses it as a percentage of the average volume over the most recent 100 days. This means if the current volume is a partial day, the average volume is being calculated with partial volume for today and full volume for the previous 99 bars.

100 * V / AVGV100

Volume Buzz is based on the 100-Period Simple Moving Average of Volume over the previous 100 days (so not including today).

The current Volume is compared to a percentage of the average volume which is directly proportional to the percentage of the trading day which has already passed. So at 10:15 AM ET, the current volume would be compared to about 11.54% of the 100-Day Simple Moving Average of Volume ending yesterday. If the result is +25%, it would mean that current Volume is about 14.42% of the average volume instead of 11.54% of the average volume.

So at the end of the day, you could approximate Volume Buzz using a formula like:

100 * (V / AVGV100.1 - 1)

This formula would also have the same or a similar order to Volume Buzz over the course of the day even though the values would not match.

Volume Buzz can be used as a WatchList Column and sort, but cannot be used as an EasyScan Condition.

So there are three basic differences.

Volume Surge Today bases its average on most recent 100 bars including today. Volume Buzz bases its average on the 100 bars ending yesterday.

Volume Surge Today is the current volume expressed as a percentage of its average volume. Volume Buzz is expressed as the percentage it is above or below its average volume.

Volume Surge Today makes no attempt to adjust its average volume to the time of day. Volume Buzz multiplies its average volume by the percentage of the trading day which has passed so far before doing its calculations.

Volume Buzz might be better than Volume Surge Today at catching things early because the average volume being used is adjusted based on the time of day. You would unfortunately need to use it as a WatchList Column and sort instead of an EasyScan condition.

Bruce,

At the end of the day, Vol Buzz = Vol Surge -1.0 exactly. 

So I am wondering that whether during the trading hours Vol Buzz = 100 * (V / AVGV100.1 - 1) * timepercentage. And at end of the day, it switches to 100 * (V / AVGV100 -1).

Would you explain?

- Mark

Yes, Volume Buzz compares the current volume to the 100 day average for that time of day.  Once the market closes, Volume Buzz and Volume Sure are essentially the same.

Thanks. I confirmed this by manually calculating some values today.

So the formula is: 100 * V / AVGV100 / (CurrentElapsedTimeInHours/6.5) - 100.

The reason I tried to figure out the exactly formala is I want to convert it to Zanger Volume Ratio which is using 20 avg as the base.

ZVR = (VolBuzz + 100) * AVGV100 / AVGV20.1

I'll start by mentioning that fairly extensive testing was done along with follow-up in other threads at the time this was posted which indicated that the formulas given in my original response were the correct formulas and that Volume Buzz used the previous moving average while Volume Surge Today used the current moving average.

This doesn't mean there is any sort of guarantee the testing was right at the time or even if it was that the values don't use exactly the same basis today. I mention it mostly as a caution on the possibility of this previous testing being correct and possibly still be applicable. I have not done any recent tests.

Your idea as to how to convert Volume Buzz into the Zanger Volume Ratio is quite creative. The big issue I see with it as regards TC2000 is that there is no way to reference Volume Buzz in a Personal Criteria Formula or in an on chart indicator.

Hi Bruce, thanks for your comment.

I did the manual calculation today with multiple stocks. Was not able to get exact match of Vol Buzz for each of them, but the AVGV100 seems to result in closer Vol Buzz value than the AVGV100.1.

The values of AVGV100 and AVGV100.1 are usually very close for most stocks except for those with hugh vol spike on current day, in which case the Vol Buzz value is huge and standout. It doesn't make much difference to get a more accurate value since Vol Buzz is used for sorting anyway.

As to the ZVR, it is a shame we can't reference the Vol Buzz value. My solution is adding an indicator PCF column called ZVR Factor = AVGV100 / AVGV20.1 by the side of the Vol Buzz column. That way I can calculate in my mind the ZVR value by (Vol Buzz + 100) * (ZVR Factor).

I wish TC2000 can provide a shorter term Vol Buzz using 20-25 day moving average. 100 day is too long and not sensitive enough for swing trading (though it is still quite useful in observing breakout validity).

Thank you for your suggestion.