Have you ever encountered a situation like this?
A particular coin suddenly sees a large number of buy trades and a clear spike in trading volume, but its price doesn’t rise significantly.
There’s another situation: a large number of sell trades occur in succession, yet the price just won’t fall.
What does this actually tell us?
Many beginners see buying volume increase and assume buyers have the upper hand; they see selling volume increase and assume bearish pressure is stronger.
But in reality, high trading volume doesn’t mean the price will necessarily move in the corresponding direction.
To truly understand buying and selling pressure in the market, you need to know about a concept called Aggressive Buy/Sell Volume.
1. What Are Aggressive Buying and Aggressive Selling?
In a trading market, every trade usually has both a buyer and a seller.
For example:
One person is willing to buy BTC for 100 USDT, and another person is willing to sell BTC for 100 USDT.
Once both sides trade, the transaction is complete.
So, how do you distinguish aggressive buying from aggressive selling?
The key is: Which side actively accepts the price offered by the other side?
Aggressive Buying (Taker Buy)
The buyer is unwilling to wait for a lower price and instead actively trades against the seller’s order.
For example:
- Best ask: 100 USDT
- The buyer directly buys at 100 USDT
- This trade is usually classified as aggressive buying
Aggressive Selling (Taker Sell)
The seller is unwilling to wait for a higher price and instead actively trades against the buyer’s order.
For example:
- Best bid: 100 USDT
- The seller directly sells at 100 USDT
- This trade is usually classified as aggressive selling
Simply put:
Aggressive buying means buyers actively consume sell-side liquidity; aggressive selling means sellers actively consume buy-side liquidity.
Note: Every trade has both a buyer and a seller. The distinction between aggressive buying and selling is based on which side was more aggressive when the trade occurred—not on there being only buyers or only sellers in the market.
2. What Is Aggressive Buy/Sell Volume Used For?
Aggressive buy/sell volume can help us see which side is more actively initiating trades in the market.
For example, during a certain period:
- Aggressive buy volume: 800 BTC
- Aggressive sell volume: 500 BTC
Aggressive buy volume is therefore 300 BTC higher than aggressive sell volume.
This means there was more aggressive buying during this period.
But that does not mean the price will definitely rise.
Why?
Because price depends not only on the amounts of aggressive buying and selling, but also on order book depth, changes in limit orders, and the market’s ability to absorb trades.
That is what makes aggressive buy/sell volume especially worth studying.
3. Why Doesn’t the Price Rise Even When There Is a Lot of Aggressive Buying?
Suppose a coin is currently priced at 1.00 USDT.
A large amount of aggressive buying suddenly appears, but the price keeps hovering around 1.00–1.01 USDT.
The following may be happening:
1. Buyers continue to buy aggressively.
2. Sellers have placed a large number of sell orders nearby.
3. Buyers keep consuming sell-side liquidity, but the sell orders continue to be replenished.
4. The price cannot manage to break through.
This may indicate strong sell-side absorption or supply pressure above the current price.
In market analysis, this phenomenon is sometimes called absorption.
Simply put:
There is a lot of aggressive buying, but the price has not risen noticeably. This means the buyers’ aggressive trades have not yet translated into a significant price increase.
However, you cannot conclude from this alone that someone is selling off a large amount. You also need to watch subsequent price movements, order book changes, and trading activity.
4. Why Doesn’t the Price Fall Even When There Is a Lot of Aggressive Selling?
The reverse can happen too.
Suppose a coin is currently priced at 1.00 USDT.
A large amount of aggressive selling appears, but the price does not fall noticeably.
The following may be happening:
1. Sellers keep selling aggressively.
2. Buyers continue to absorb those sell orders.
3. Buy-side liquidity below keeps being replenished.
4. The price cannot break below a key area.
This may indicate strong buying support below.
If the price then starts to rebound and forms a higher low, it is worth watching for signs of short-term strength.
But you still cannot conclude that the trend has definitely reversed.
5. What Is the Aggressive Buy/Sell Volume Delta?
The aggressive buy/sell volume delta is commonly called CVD (Cumulative Volume Delta).
It is calculated by subtracting aggressive sell volume from aggressive buy volume to get the cumulative difference over a period of time.
The formula can be understood simply as:
Volume delta = Aggressive buy volume − Aggressive sell volume
For example:
Time | Aggressive buys | Aggressive sells | Volume delta
Hour 1 | 100 | 80 | +20
Hour 2 | 120 | 90 | +30
Hour 3 | 70 | 110 | -40
Hour 4 | 130 | 100 | +30
The data above is for illustrative purposes only.
If you keep adding these deltas together, you get the CVD.
A rising CVD means there was relatively more aggressive buying during the period; a falling CVD means there was relatively more aggressive selling.
It can help us track changes in aggressive trading activity, but it should not be used on its own to predict future price direction.
6. How Do You Read Divergences Between Price and CVD?
This is an analysis method well worth paying attention to.
Scenario 1: Price rises while CVD falls
The price keeps making new highs, but the CVD gradually declines.
This may mean that aggressive buying is not strengthening alongside the price rise, which is worth watching out for.
However, this may also be influenced by factors such as passive limit orders and differences between spot and futures trading activity.
Scenario 2: Price falls while CVD rises
The price keeps making new lows, but the CVD gradually rises.
This may mean that aggressive selling is not strengthening alongside the price decline, and that there are signs of some buying support in the market.
However, a divergence is not a reversal signal.
The price can continue its existing trend after a divergence appears, so you still need to wait for confirmation from price structure.
7. How Should You Use This When Watching the Market?
For BTC and ETH, you can try following these steps:
Step 1: Look at price structure first
Determine whether the current market is trending up, trending down, or moving sideways.
Step 2: Observe aggressive buy/sell volume
Check whether aggressive buying or selling has changed noticeably.
Step 3: Observe the CVD
Determine whether aggressive trading activity is moving in line with the price trend.
Step 4: Observe the price reaction
If aggressive buying increases noticeably but the price cannot break through resistance, watch for supply pressure above.
If aggressive selling increases noticeably but the price cannot break below support, watch for buying support below.
Step 5: Verify with other data
You can also look at trading volume, the order book, market depth, and open interest (OI).
Do not make a trading decision just because one indicator changes.
8. Three Common Mistakes Beginners Make
Mistake 1: Assuming that more aggressive buying means the price will definitely rise.
Aggressive buying only means buyers are more active. It does not mean sellers have no substantial limit orders to absorb it.
Mistake 2: Treating aggressive buy/sell volume as the total amount of money flowing in or out.
Aggressive buy/sell volume classifies trading activity. It is not the same as net capital inflows, nor does it directly show that a particular group is building a position.
Mistake 3: Ignoring the data source.
Data may differ across exchanges and trading pairs.
For example, aggressive buy/sell volume for Binance BTCUSDT perpetual futures is not the same as the total aggressive buy/sell volume across the global BTC market.
Try to use data from a consistent source for your analysis, and do not casually combine data from different markets.
9. Summary
Remember these six points:
1. Aggressive buying is when a buyer actively trades against sell orders.
2. Aggressive selling is when a seller actively trades against buy orders.
3. More aggressive buying does not mean the price will definitely rise.
4. More aggressive selling does not mean the price will definitely fall.
5. CVD can help track cumulative changes in aggressive trading activity.
6. Aggressive buy/sell volume must be analyzed alongside price structure and market depth.
What really matters is not just how many people in the market are buying or selling, but:
When aggressive buying or selling changes, how does the price actually respond?
That is the key to understanding market behavior.
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If you’ve read this far, it means you genuinely want to learn something—not just try your luck in crypto. If you found this useful, give it a like, leave a comment, and follow along. I’ll keep sharing rules for crypto beginners, trading basics, explainers on different coins, and insights into hot topics, doing my best to make complex things easy to understand. No trade calls, no empty promises—just knowledge and reasoning.
Coming next: 020 | Open Interest, Funding Rates, and Price: How to Analyze the Futures Market Together
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading carries extremely high risk, and futures trading may result in the loss of your entire margin. Please assess the risks carefully.