Time and Sales
The chronological record of every executed trade in a security — price, size, and timestamp — also called reading the tape.
Time and sales is the running log of every completed trade in a security: the execution price, the share or contract size, and the precise timestamp, listed in the order trades occurred. Reading it is the original meaning of reading the tape. It differs from the order book, which shows resting orders that have not yet executed — time and sales shows what actually traded.
Traders use the tape to gauge order flow that depth alone hides: whether prints are hitting the bid (aggressive selling) or lifting the offer (aggressive buying), the cadence and size of trades, and bursts of activity that signal urgency. Many platforms color-code prints by whether they executed at the bid, the ask, or in between.
Caveats matter for interpretation: large block and dark-pool prints can be reported on a delay and appear out of sequence, off-exchange volume is flagged separately, and high-frequency activity can flood the tape faster than a human can parse — which is why discretionary tape reading is usually paired with footprint charts or cumulative delta.
Related Terms
Market Depth
The volume of open buy and sell orders at various price levels — a measure of how much size the market can absorb without large price movement.
IntermediateOrder Book
The real-time record of all outstanding buy and sell limit orders for an asset, organized by price level.
BeginnerOrder Flow
The stream of incoming buy and sell orders hitting the market — analysis of order flow reveals who is aggressive and where price is likely headed next.
AdvancedVolume
Total number of shares (or contracts) traded in a given period. Volume confirms price moves — no volume, no conviction.
Beginner