One thing I've learned over the years is that price gets all the attention, but volume usually tells the better story.

That's why I spent more time looking at RVOL than the red candle.

For anyone unfamiliar, relative volume (RVOL) simply compares today's trading volume with a stock's normal trading volume. A reading of 1.0x means average activity. 2.0x means twice as many shares changed hands as usual. It doesn't tell you whether buyers or sellers won. It tells you where the market is actually paying attention.

Here's what caught my eye on the copper tape:

NREDF: 2.2x average volume

TECK: 1.4x

COPJ: 1.3x

FCX: 1.1x

BHP: 1.2x

NREDF went wild while attracting the most attention in the group.

The obvious question is whether that attention was buyers building positions or holders rushing for the exits.

That's where context matters.

The elevated volume came immediately after a series of technical updates that included the expanded 39.7k-acre Wilmac project, a regional magnetic anomaly interpretation, and the Plume Grid release identifying two mapped alteration zones that management believes warrant further geophysical work before drilling. The company gave the market new information, and the market responded with the highest participation among the copper names I was watching. Whether you liked the response or hated it, the stock clearly moved onto more traders' screens.

Now I'm watching something different.

What I'd rather see is volume remain elevated while the selling pressure starts fading. That's often how reversals begin. Sellers throw everything they've got at a stock, volume explodes, and eventually there are simply fewer shares left to dump. If buyers continue stepping in after that, the character of the chart starts changing.

This means the battle is happening now, not six months ago.

To me, that's what 2.2x relative volume actually represents.

Just a reminder that the market suddenly cares a lot more than it did a week earlier, and that's usually where the most interesting charts come from.







Price Told One Story. Relative Volume Told Another.