At a glance
The short version
Most forex and CFD charts show tick volume — a count of price changes, not of contracts traded. It correlates with real activity, loosely, and it differs from broker to broker. CRTLAB carries real traded volume for every market, minute by minute, and puts it under the chart as volume bars, on it as a volume profile, and beside it as a footprint.
Where the volume comes from
Volume is real traded volume, not tick counts: for indices, forex, gold, silver and oil it is the matching futures contract's exchange volume, minute by minute; for crypto it is exchange volume (Coinbase); for US stocks it is the exchange's trades in regular hours.
Spot forex has no central exchange, so nobody has the true volume of EURUSD. The EUR futures contract does — every lot is printed on the exchange — and it trades the same currency pair. That is why futures volume is the standard proxy professionals use for forex volume, and it is what CRTLAB shows.
Every higher timeframe sums the 1-minute volume exactly, so a 4H bar's volume is the volume of the minutes inside it — no estimation, no smoothing.
What changes when the volume is real
Volume spikes line up with events you can name: the 8:30 New York releases, the London open, the equity cash open on the indices. Tag the economic news on the chart alongside it and you can see which releases actually moved size, not just price.
Profiles and POCs mean something: a high-volume node built from real contracts is a level where real positions were opened, which is the whole premise of volume-based support and resistance.
Three ways to use it in replay
Frequently asked questions
Is forex volume on CRTLAB real?
It is the matching futures contract's real exchange volume, the standard proxy for spot forex volume, which has no central exchange.
Which markets have real volume?
All 38 — indices, forex, gold, silver and oil (futures volume), crypto (exchange volume) and US stocks (exchange trades).
Is volume free to use?
CRTLAB is free to try. You get real volume bars, profile and footprint on every market, with every tool the product has, for your first 10,000 candles of replay — roughly two hours of stepping through a chart, no card needed. After the sample, unlimited replay is $14.99 a month, cancel any time.