What Is Relative Volume (RVOL)? Time-Adjusted Volume Explained

Relative volume (RVOL) tells you how busy a stock is compared with normal. An RVOL of 1× means average volume; 5× means five times its usual volume.

Why time of day matters

A simple RVOL divides today's volume by the full-day average. At 10 AM that number looks low for almost every stock, because most of the day's trading hasn't happened yet. Time-adjusted RVOL fixes that by comparing today's volume so far with how much the stock normally trades by the same time of day.

For example, if a stock usually trades 200,000 shares by 9:45 AM and has traded 600,000 today, its time-adjusted RVOL is 3×, even though it's still far below its full-day average.

How to read it

• Around 1×: a normal day.
• 2× and up: unusual interest, often around news, earnings or filings.
• 5× and up: heavy activity. The Supernova scan requires at least 5×.

High relative volume means many traders are involved and it is usually easier to get in and out. It doesn't say whether buyers or sellers are winning.

How Nexus Screener calculates it

Today's volume so far, divided by the average volume traded by that minute over the last 30 trading days. In pre-market it's compared with the stock's usual pre-market volume up to the same time. If a stock has fewer than 20 days of history, RVOL shows as "—" rather than a misleading number.