Trading Volume vs Delivery Percentage Explained
Two related but distinct numbers describe a stock's trading activity on a given day: volume and delivery percentage. Together they reveal not just how much trading happened, but how much of it was real buying and holding.
Volume
Volume is the total number of shares traded during the day. High volume means a lot of activity and usually tighter spreads; low volume means a thinly traded stock. Volume often spikes around news, results, or big price moves.
Delivery percentage
Delivery percentage is the share of that volume that was actually taken into demat accounts (delivery), rather than squared off the same day (intraday). A high delivery % suggests investors are buying to hold — a conviction signal — while a low delivery % with high volume points to speculative day-trading churn.
Using them together
A price rise on high volume and high delivery is a stronger signal than the same rise on intraday churn. Liquidity aggregates like average turnover and delivery percentage feed the screener, so you can filter for genuinely liquid, investor-backed stocks.