Question:

On a breakout during the day, how do you determine if the volume is sufficient? Do you just extrapolate the breakout volume from the time of the breakout and compare it to the 50 dma of the stock’s volume? WOM likes to see a 50% volume increase on breakout. Do you use a minimum percent volume over the average? 

Another volume question. On a pull-back from a breakout, I assume you want the volume to decrease. What is your take on a pullback with an increasing volume? Again, is there a rule-of-thumb for determining an optimal volume decrease for buying in at a pullback? 

My Response:

For real time volume levels, you can compare volume to the average for any time during the day.. i discuss this in the tutorial section on buying.  Take the 50 day average and divide by 6.5 (hrs in trading day).  That gives you the hourly average volume which is also listed in the breakouts watchlist.  If the stock breaks out at 8:30AM take the hourly average and Multiply by two to get the average at that point in the trading day.  Compare this number to the trading volume of the stock.  On a delayed basis the percentage change from the average volume is published every 15 min. for each stock in the Breakout Tracker.
 
Regarding selling volume on an intraday basis you can use the method above to see if volume is below average at that point in the trading day.  To see the trend over several days or weeks, just pull up a chart (stockcharts.com is great) and look at the red volume bars of the stock.  Are they getting shorter as the stock declines?  You won’t always see a good decrease in volume.. what’s important is that selling volume isn’t surging.  On pullbacks, watching to see if it finds support at key levels is often just as, if not more important than the volume level..  Of course nothing is 100% certain in the stock market.  You use this information to gauge probability of success.  The key to becoming a good chart reader is to just start looking at the charts.  After you’ve looked at thousands of charts, you will notice certain trends and patterns emerge.