Volume and open interest are important ways to confirm trends. Volume is simply the number of shares of a trade the changed hands during a day. On charts you see it as vertical lines under the closing price (a histogram).
To confirm a bullish trend, you would want to see higher volume on days when the stock closed higher than its previous close. To confirm a bearish trend you would see higher volume when the closing price was lower than the previous close.
Open interest is the number of future contracts that are still un-settled at the end of each trading day. Rising open interest is seen as a bullish indicator. Falling open interest is seen as bearish and an indication of a possible reversal downward.
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