Put the two counters on different clocks
Traded volume is the number of shares that actually changed hands during a stated period, such as the current trading day. One matched share adds one to volume even though it has both a buyer and a seller. In Part 02.01 you saw why counting it twice would be wrong.
Pending quantity is shares on unfilled orders at a particular moment. The five-level board from 02.02.02 begins with 200 bid shares at ₹499 and 100 ask shares at ₹501. The displayed five-level totals are 1,000 on each side. These are not daily traded volumes; they can change the next second without an execution.
Some screens also show ‘total buy quantity’ or ‘total sell quantity’ beyond the five displayed rows. Check the label and feed before comparing that total with a five-level sum; they may cover different portions of the book.
The same final bid, two different histories
Each button starts again from 200 bid shares at ₹499 and LTP ₹500. Compare the change in pending quantity with the change in traded volume.
These are alternative paths from the same initial board. They are not claims that any of them happened to Bharat Foods.
Displayed bid quantity falls by 50, but LTP and traded volume do not change. Which mechanism fits?
A high number beside ‘buy’ is not yesterday's buying
A pending-buy total says how many displayed shares are currently sought at various prices, under that feed's definition. It is not evidence that those shares were purchased. A pending-sell total is not evidence that those shares were sold. Both can be cancelled, revised or filled, and both may include many price levels far from the best quote.
Daily volume says what completed during the day, but it does not identify whether the buyer or seller was more numerous, who initiated each trade, or whether a participant believed the company was undervalued. Every executed share required both sides. To explain a particular price move, you would need the sequence of trades and order changes, not one total and one screenshot.
Be careful with time: a book snapshot is at a moment, while volume is over an interval. Compare the same instrument, exchange, session and timestamp before drawing a relationship. A delayed feed or another exchange can make two apparently matching widgets describe different observations.
Fifty shares trade at ₹499 and then a new 50-share bid arrives at ₹499. What can the screen show afterward?
What this chapter gives you before an order
You can now read the nearest bid and ask, look behind them at displayed depth, state exactly what an imbalance compares, distrust an apparent wall without alleging fraud, and keep pending quantity separate from completed volume. That is enough to ask a better question before pressing an order button: which instruction gives you the right balance between a possible fill and a price you can accept?
Chapter 02.03 answers that through market, limit and conditional orders. It begins with the market order: seeking available quantity now, while the final execution price remains uncertain.