# This Looks Like Trading Conviction (But Isn’t)

Canonical: https://tradersdailydirection.com/this-looks-like-trading-conviction-but-isnt/

Hey friend,

We got some services data this morning, which was generally in line with or slightly above expectations.

Let’s see how the markets have been moving.

## The Daily Direction

![Uploaded image 1](https://tradersdailydirection.com/media/driver-tdd/ccd1c5e721a61e9636b9a492d79a0f2a2405dc4b87dc17b12504c3ddf500e641.png)

**Note:** Indexes closed higher last Friday. But they opened mixed this morning, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq opening higher but the Dow and Russell 2000 moving lower.

## The Daily Nugget

_**Don’t confuse volume with conviction**_

Big volume gets traders excited.

A stock suddenly trades two or three times its normal volume…

And it’s easy to assume big investors must be piling in.

Not necessarily.

Heavy volume can come from all kinds of places.

A news event.

Short covering.

Day traders chasing a move.

Or a wave of sellers rushing for the exits.

So volume by itself only tells you a lot of trading happened.

It doesn’t tell you who was behind it.

What usually tells you more is what happens afterward.

If the stock holds the move, keeps attracting buyers on pullbacks, and continues acting stronger than the rest of the market…

That starts to look a lot more like real demand than one giant volume spike.

Because when you’re trying to spot conviction…

Who is buying can be just as important as how much is trading.

![The Traders Agency Team signature](https://tradersdailydirection.com/media/driver-tdd/b3ac24b7f4da731ee1942eda483ce715e7e70a6baaa65ecd3d2bcde2d9f863a0.png)

_The Traders Agency Team_