Time and sales (also known as the tape) is information that is used by professional day traders to watch the current price movements at its most detailed level. Time and sales shows each individual trade as it occurs, and is usually displayed as a scrolling list. Time and sales can be used as part of a larger trading system (such as a confirmation for an indicator trade), or on its own (as with scalping). Time and sales provides several pieces of valuable information about each trade, and the market as a whole.
Price
The time and sales shows the exact price that each trade occurs at, and also whether the trade occured at the bid (market selling price) or ask (market buying price). This information shows whether there are currently more buyers or sellers, and also what prices they are buying and selling at.
Volume
The time and sales also shows the amount of volume that each trade includes (the number of contracts or shares that were traded). This shows whether there are more contracts (or shares) being bought or sold, and at which prices the largest amounts of volume are trading.
Support and Resistance
By watching the time and sales, a trader can determine exactly where the current support and resistance levels are on an extremely detailed level. Support is shown by the time and sales having difficulty trading below a particular price, and resistance is shown by the time and sales having difficulty trading above a particular price.
Experience
Understanding the time and sales is a relatively simple concept, but it takes a lot of experience to be able to trade using the time and sales. Depending upon the market and the time of day, the time and sales can move very quickly, and keeping track of everything can become quite difficult. The more time that is spent watching the time and sales, the more useful the time and sales will become.
