How To Trade With Volume

Book Insight

Volume is often the most misunderstood market dimension, yet it is also one of the most honest. In How To Trade With Volume, Galen Woods distills decades of practical market study into a structured, accessible framework designed to help traders understand what volume truly represents: participation, interest, commitment, exhaustion, and imbalance. Unlike many theoretical books that treat volume as an abstract confirmation tool, this guide teaches volume as a context engine—a way to see what the market is really trying to do behind each price bar.

The book begins with Anchor Zones, a technique that identifies zones of structural importance based on extreme volume or range. Woods shows how these zones can become high-probability turning points and why price often respects them even across different timeframes. From there, he progresses into high-volume support and resistance, teaching how to interpret volume spikes not simply as “big activity,” but as footprints left by professional money responding to key levels.

Equally valuable is his exploration of low-volume signals, especially low-volume pullbacks. Woods explains the psychological logic behind why quiet retracements often precede explosive moves, revealing how lower participation reflects waning counter-trend commitment. He then ties these ideas to market structure, trend continuation, and the importance of fading weak hands.

The middle chapters introduce Volume Spread Analysis (VSA), simplified for practical use. Concepts like stopping volume, no demand, no selling pressure, traps, and exhaustion are presented through clear examples that bridge price action and volume behavior. The final chapters introduce volume-based indicators—Ease of Movement, On-Balance Volume, and VWMA—framed not as magic tools but as extensions of volume logic.

Through simple rules, clean charts, and pattern-based explanations, this book provides traders with a holistic understanding of volume’s role in market behavior. More importantly, it teaches why volume matters at turning points, breakouts, reversals, and trend continuations—making it an invaluable guide for traders seeking to align their entries with real market participation.

Core Concepts

Volume is the lens through which Galen Woods interprets price action. The core premise is that markets move not because price is rising or falling, but because participants are acting—and volume reveals their strength, motivation, and hesitation. Price without volume is incomplete; volume without price is directionless. The book positions volume as the missing dimension that clarifies structure, momentum, and trend quality.

Anchor Zones illustrate this relationship beautifully. These areas arise from bars showing extreme volume, range, or gaps—representing exhaustive or climactic behavior. Price frequently revisits and reacts to these zones because they reflect periods of strong institutional activity. Woods uses these areas as reference points for future reversals, breakouts, and tests.

High-volume signals build on this idea by identifying levels where the market showed strong interest. These often become durable support and resistance levels. The psychological logic is intuitive: when large traders commit at a price zone, subsequent tests often trigger similar reactions.

Low volume plays an equally important role. A pullback that lacks participation indicates that counter-trend traders are weak or hesitant, which makes trend continuation likely. This leads to low-volume pullback strategies—some of the most reliable continuation patterns available.

Volume Spread Analysis strengthens these concepts by focusing on the relationship between spread, close location, and volume. Patterns like stopping volume, no demand, and no selling pressure highlight where smart money is accumulating or distributing.

The final tools—OBV, VWMA, Ease of Movement—are presented as interpretations rather than mechanical systems, reinforcing the book’s central theme: volume is useful only when read in context.

Inside the Chart

The examples in this book show how volume transforms ordinary price action into actionable trading insight. In Anchor Zones, strong volume or range bars create structural reference points; when price tests the zone with a reversal bar, the trader has a clean entry and tight risk. Trend pullbacks become clearer when volume contracts—indicating that the opposing side lacks commitment. Woods demonstrates how a bullish trend with rising volume into new highs, followed by declining volume during a retracement, creates an ideal “low-volume pullback” setup.

VSA examples show this even more vividly. A down bar closing near the high with enormous volume—stopping volume—signals that professional buyers stepped in aggressively. Conversely, an up bar with narrow spread and low volume reveals a “no demand” situation, often preceding a decline. These principles echo across timeframes.

The OBV and VWMA chapters illustrate how divergences expose weakening trends. When price makes a new high but VWMA lags, volume is warning of exhaustion. Ease of Movement charts highlight how markets rise easily when supply is thin and fall easily when demand fades.

In every example, Woods emphasizes combining volume with structure and price behavior—resulting in trades grounded in logic, not guesswork.

Author’s Edge

Galen Woods is known for simplifying complex market behavior into clear, actionable frameworks. With a background in teaching traders and developing systematic price-action methods, he brings a practical, no-nonsense voice to the topic of volume. His approach is rooted in observation rather than theory: each concept is illustrated with real-market examples, structured rules, and clean reasoning. Woods excels at showing how volume interacts with trend, support, resistance, and momentum, and how traders can use these relationships to avoid traps, confirm breakouts, and time entries with precision. This blend of clarity, discipline, and context makes his work particularly valuable for traders seeking to integrate volume meaningfully into their price-action toolkit.

How To Trade With Volume by Galen Woods