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Is Tapeboard a cheap professional terminal alternative?

Yes. Tapeboard gives retail traders professional-grade market tooling — real-time scanning, charts, SEC filings, and macro data — for $39/mo, versus an institutional terminal's roughly $24,000 per year. It runs in one browser tab with no contract, and there is a permanent free tier so you can start with no credit card.

Is Tapeboard's free tier really free, or does it expire?

The free tier is permanent — no credit card, nothing expires, and it never auto-converts to paid. Every new account also gets 7 days of full Pro access automatically, then settles onto the free tier: 15-minute delayed data, 10 of 45 scanner presets, and 12 of 44 chart indicators. It stays useful indefinitely.

How much does Tapeboard cost?

Tapeboard has a permanent free tier (no credit card). Pro is $39/mo (or $290/yr — about $24/mo billed annually) and unlocks real-time data, all 45 scanner presets, all 44 chart indicators, alerts, AI research, and the trade journal. Terminal is $79/mo and adds the full AI suite. Every new account gets 7 days of Pro automatically.

What kind of data does Tapeboard cover?

Tapeboard covers real-time US equities quotes and candles, 800,000+ macro economic series, SEC EDGAR filings with 10-K/10-Q/8-K search, insider transactions, cryptocurrency order books, forex rates, commodities, yield curves, and an economic calendar. All in one interface.

What tools does Tapeboard replace?

Tapeboard replaces the five or six browser tabs most market participants keep open: a stock screener, a charting tool, a fundamentals site, a macro economic data source, a filings search, and a crypto market tracker. Everything is in one tab with consistent keyboard shortcuts and streaming data.

Who is Tapeboard for?

Tapeboard is built for self-directed investors, analysts, day traders, finance students, and anyone who wants professional-grade market tooling without the five-figure terminal fee.

Do I need to install anything?

No. Tapeboard runs entirely in your web browser with zero setup. Sign up and the full terminal loads in a single tab.

Relative Volume (RVOL)

// today's volume divided by the average volume at the same time of day

Relative Volume (RVOL) is the ratio of today's cumulative share volume to the average cumulative share volume at the same time of day over a recent lookback window. RVOL of 2.0 means today is running at twice the typical pace.

// TL;DR

Time-of-day-aware. RVOL at 10:00 ET compares against the typical 10:00 ET cumulative volume, not the typical close-of-day total.
Standard lookback is 20 sessions (one trading month). Some scanners use 10 or 30.
RVOL above 2.0 in the first hour is a common gappers-and-movers screener filter. Above 5.0 is unusual.

§01 // HOW_ITS_CALCULATED

How it is calculated

RVOL(t) = cumulative_volume_today(t) / avg(cumulative_volume(t)) over lookback N sessions

t is the current time of day.
N is the lookback in sessions (Tapeboard default: 20).

The cumulative-volume comparison is what makes RVOL useful. Comparing absolute share count at 10:00 ET against the daily total for the prior 20 sessions would always look small; comparing against the 10:00 ET running total gives a regime-comparable number. The lookback excludes today.

§02 // WHAT_TRADERS_USE_IT_FOR

What traders use it for

Day-trading scanners. RVOL >= 2.0 with a price move identifies names trading hotter than typical at the same point in the session.
News-flow confirmation. A headline that prints with RVOL barely above 1.0 is being faded; RVOL of 4 or 5 is the market acting on the headline.
Volume-weighted entry confirmation. A breakout on declining RVOL is a low-conviction breakout; on rising RVOL it is participation.

§03 // WORKED_EXAMPLE

Worked example

// WORKED_EXAMPLE: $TSLA

RVOL on $TSLA after an earnings gap

Suppose at 10:30 ET the cumulative TSLA volume is 18.4M shares. The 20-session average cumulative volume at 10:30 ET is 6.1M shares. RVOL prints 18.4 / 6.1 = 3.02. As of 2026-05-02 10:30 ET. The session opened on a +4.2% earnings gap; an RVOL of 3.0 in the first hour is consistent with institutional reposition rather than a fade.

Live data: /stocks/TSLA.

§04 // COMMON_PITFALLS

Common pitfalls

Lookback choice matters. A 20-session lookback that includes a prior earnings event distorts the average; some scanners drop the highest and lowest sessions.
Pre-market volume is not always included. Tapeboard's RVOL is regular-hours-only by default; pre-market gappers can show RVOL near 1.0 at the open even if pre-market activity was extreme.
Low-float names compute RVOL on a small denominator. A nano-cap with average daily volume of 50,000 shares can print RVOL of 20 on a 1M-share day; the absolute liquidity remains thin and the metric overstates the move.
RVOL is a measurement, not a prediction. High RVOL says the tape is moving; it does not say which direction.

§05 // WHERE_IT_APPEARS_ON_TAPEBOARD

Where this metric appears on Tapeboard

RVOL renders on /scanner (sortable column), on every `/stocks/{T}` ticker page, and as a screener-preset filter (e.g., "Top RVOL gappers" preset).

Tapeboard surfaces this metric as a first-class screening filter. See the comparison pages at all Bloomberg alternatives for how Tapeboard's relative volume (rvol) surface compares against Koyfin, Finviz, TradingView, and Unusual Whales.

§06 // RELATED_TERMS

Related terms

Options Flow: OPRA is the consolidated US options price-reporting authority; every executed options trade reports to OPRA in real time.
Gamma Exposure (GEX): Aggregate dealer-position gamma across an option chain. Positive GEX implies dealers buy dips and sell rips (volatility-suppressive); negative GEX implies the reverse (volatility-amplifying).
Dark Pool Print: Dark pools are SEC-registered Alternative Trading Systems regulated under Reg ATS. Trades execute off-exchange but post to FINRA TRF in real time after execution.

§07 // PRIMARY_SOURCES

Primary sources cited

SEC EDGAR full-text search documentation: US-equity consolidated tape volume is reported through the Securities Information Processor (SIP) per Reg NMS. https://www.sec.gov/edgar, retrieved 2026-05-04.

§08 // PAGE_REVIEW

Methodology last reviewed 2026-05-04 by Marcus Reilly, Editor at Tapeboard. Every claim on this page has a row in the citation registry. Glossary terms reverify on the Jan 15 / Apr 15 / Jul 15 / Oct 15 cron and any time the underlying primary-source publishes a methodology change. See methodology for the full fact-check process and corrections for the public correction log.

Disclaimer. This page is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing on Tapeboard is investment advice. See the full risk disclaimer.

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