LTP (last traded price) is the price at which the most recent trade in a stock happened. ATP (average traded price) is the volume-weighted average price of all trades in the stock so far today. Volume is the total number of shares traded so far today.
What exactly is LTP?
Every time a buyer and a seller agree on a price, a trade prints. The price of the newest print is the LTP. It is what your app shows as "the price" of the stock, and it updates tick by tick through the day.
LTP is history, not a promise. It tells you where the last trade happened, not where your trade will happen. Your order fills against the live buyers and sellers in the order book, which is why the LTP can sit between the best bid and ask prices without matching either.
What is ATP and how is it different?
ATP averages all of today's trades, weighted by their size. A single trade of 10,000 shares pulls the ATP far more than a trade of 10 shares at the same price.
A tiny example. Suppose Kaveri Motors has had only three trades today:
| Trade | Quantity | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 shares | ₹200 |
| 2 | 300 shares | ₹210 |
| 3 | 100 shares | ₹205 |
- LTP = ₹205 (the last trade).
- ATP = (100×200 + 300×210 + 100×205) ÷ 500 = ₹1,03,500 ÷ 500 = ₹207.
- Volume = 500 shares.
The LTP jumps around with every trade; the ATP moves slowly because each new trade is diluted by everything traded before it. Comparing the two gives a quick feel for the day: an LTP well above ATP means recent trades are happening richer than the day's average, and vice versa.
Intraday traders also watch ATP because a similar volume-weighted average is the basis of the VWAP line many charting tools plot.
What does volume tell me?
Volume is the running count of shares that have changed hands today. If Meera sells 50 shares of Kaveri Motors and Arjun buys them, volume increases by 50. It counts the shares traded once, not once per side.
Why care?
- High volume means lots of participants, so orders tend to fill quickly and near the LTP.
- Low volume means a thin market. Your order itself can move the price, and fills can land away from the LTP.
- A price move on heavy volume carries more conviction than the same move on a trickle of trades.
Where do I see these numbers?
Your watchlist shows the LTP against each stock. Tapping into a stock's detail or depth view shows the ATP, the day's volume, and the queue of live bids and asks. See what market depth is and how to view it for a walkthrough of that screen.
Things to keep in mind
- LTP is the last trade, not a guaranteed price for your next order. Check the bid, ask and depth before trading.
- ATP resets every trading day; it only describes today's trades.
- Volume on NSE and BSE is counted separately. The same stock can show different volumes on each exchange.
- On low-volume stocks, prefer limit orders: a market order can fill noticeably away from the LTP.
Read next
What are bid, ask, and the bid-ask spread? — Behind the last traded price sit two others — the ones you actually buy and sell at.