Time & Sales: what each print, column and condition means

Start in plain English

Time & Sales, often called "the tape", is the window that lists completed trades in the order they were reported. Each row is called a print. A print carries a time, a price and a number of shares. Most platforms also show where the trade was reported and a condition code.

For a small-cap day trader, Time & Sales is the most direct record on screen of what actually traded. The quote shows what is offered right now. Level 2 shows displayed orders behind the quote (How to read Level 2). The tape shows trades that already happened.

The core idea: each print is a trade report, and its condition decides what it updates. Almost every print adds to volume. Only some prints are allowed to move the last price, the high of the day or the low of the day. Read every row as equal and you misread the window.

This lesson covers what the window shows and how to read its columns. Using the tape to form trading hypotheses, such as speed, size and where prints land against the quote, is a separate skill taught in the scalping course: Tape reading.

One burst of prints, column by column

All prices, sizes and times in this example are Illustrative. Harrowgate Freight is fictional.

At 10:14:00 ET, Harrowgate Freight is quoted $4.21 × $4.22. Its high of the day so far is $4.25, printed at 09:52, and its low is $3.88. In the next ten seconds your Time & Sales window shows these seven prints. They are listed oldest first here; many platforms put the newest at the top.

Read it one column at a time.

• Time. When the print reached your screen, in ET. The 10:14:08 print is marked "sold out of sequence": it was reported late, so the trade itself happened earlier, when the stock traded lower.
• Price. Most prints are in whole cents. The 10:14:03 print at $4.2150 sits at the midpoint of the 10:14:00 quote. Off-exchange fills, such as a broker filling a customer at the midpoint, can print at sub-penny prices; this lesson shows them as reported.
• Size. Shares in the trade. For a stock at this price, 100 shares is a round lot, so the 40-share print is an odd lot.
• Venue. "Exchange" prints were executed on a stock exchange. "TRF" prints were executed off-exchange and reported to a FINRA trade reporting facility. Two of the seven prints, 2,500 of the shares, came from off-exchange.
• Condition. The code that tells the data system how to treat the print.

Now apply the consolidated-tape rules (as of 2026-10-06; sources at the end) to see what those ten seconds changed:

Volume: 300 + 1,200 + 500 + 40 + 800 + 2,000 + 600 = 5,440 shares.

So a trader who read the bottom-most late print as "the price" saw $4.19 when the last price was $4.24. A trader who read the odd lot as "a new high" saw $4.26 when the consolidated high was still $4.25. Both errors happened within ten seconds, and both came from reading rows without their conditions. One caveat: some platforms build their own highs and charts from every print, so another screen could show $4.26 as the high. The rest of this lesson explains each column, the conditions that matter most, and why screens differ.

Time: when it was reported, which can differ from when it traded

Exchange trades reach the consolidated feed within moments. Off-exchange trades are reported by the FINRA member firm that executed them. During the facility's operating hours, FINRA Rule 6380A requires a report "as soon as practicable" and no later than 10 seconds after execution (checked 2026-10-06). A report outside that window is late. A late report of a regular-hours trade carries the condition "sold out of sequence". It sits in your window at the moment it arrived, next to trades that happened seconds or minutes after it. Some platforms show a separate execution time; many show only the arrival time.

Extended-hours trades carry their own condition. Under the UTP Plan specification (version 4.1, September 2026), trades executed between 12:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. ET, or between 4:00:01 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET, are marked Form T. A Form T trade reported more than 10 seconds late is marked "extended hours, sold out of sequence". Session hours are covered in Trading sessions. A planned overnight session (23-hour trading) may change how night trades are labelled; re-check this section after it launches.

Price: cents, sub-pennies and prints far from the quote

SEC Rule 612 sets the minimum increment for quotes and orders, not for executions. So a trade can print at a sub-penny price even in a stock above $1, for example when a broker fills a customer at the midpoint of the quote. The SEC's Rule 612 FAQ confirms that sub-penny price improvement is allowed. Below $1, quotes themselves can use four decimals. The details are in the advanced lesson Tick size.

A print far from the current quote is usually explained by its condition, not by a sudden move. A late report shows an earlier price; an average-price trade reports the average of several earlier executions; a cancelled or corrected trade may be removed or replaced later. Treat a strange print as a question to check, not as a price you could have traded at.

Size: round lots and odd lots

Size is the number of shares in one trade. It is not the number of traders, and it is not the size of one order. A 5,000-share buy that fills against five resting sell orders may show as five prints. Five separate buyers can also show as five prints.

Since 2025-11-03, round-lot size depends on price under the amended Regulation NMS rules, as carried in the UTP specification (§3.30):

• $250.00 or less: 100 shares;
• $250.01 to $1,000.00: 40 shares;
• $1,000.01 to $10,000.00: 10 shares;
• above $10,000.00: 1 share.

For almost every small cap, a round lot is 100 shares. A print below the round lot is an odd lot. Odd lots are reported to the consolidated tape and count toward volume, but they do not set the consolidated last, high or low.

Venue: exchange or off-exchange

An exchange print names, or codes, the exchange where it executed. Off-exchange trades come from alternative trading systems and from broker-dealers that fill orders themselves. They are reported to a FINRA trade reporting facility (TRF) or to FINRA's alternative display facility. On the Nasdaq-listed feed, FINRA carries the market center code "D", with a sub-code naming the facility. Platforms label them "D", "TRF" or "off-exchange".

Off-exchange prints count like other trades in volume and price statistics. They do not show who traded or why. The advanced lesson Dark pool prints covers them on small-cap tapes; the glossary entry off-exchange print gives the definition.

Conditions: which prints move last, high, low and volume

The two consolidated data plans publish a matrix of what each condition updates. The rows below match in the UTP specification (version 4.1, September 2026) and the CTA's CTS specification (version 2.11b, 2026-01-29), checked 2026-10-06:

Two rules sit under the table. When a print carries several conditions, any "No" wins. And these are the rules for the consolidated statistics. A platform may follow them, or build its own last, high, low and charts from a different set of prints.

The Form T row is why the official high of the day ignores premarket trading, while many charts and alerts include it. High of day, low of day and VWAP works through that difference, and Candlestick charts shows how filters change the candles you see.

Colors and side labels are the platform's inference

Many platforms color prints green when they land at or above the ask and red at or below the bid. That label is not in the trade report. Reports carry time, price, size, venue and conditions, but not which side started the trade. The platform infers it from the quote it had at that moment, and the inference can be wrong with fast quotes or late reports. The glossary entry aggressor side explains the idea; Tape reading covers how traders use it.

Observe vs. infer

Harrowgate Freight at 10:14:09 ET (fictional; all figures Illustrative):

Common mistakes

• Reading the newest row as the price. Check the condition. The last price is the last eligible print, which may not be the newest row.
• Calling an odd lot or a late print a new high. Under the consolidated rules, odd lots do not set the high. A late print can, but it shows an earlier moment.
• Reading color as identity. Green does not mean "a buyer" and red does not mean "a short seller".
• Comparing two windows without checking filters. One platform may hide odd lots or off-exchange prints; another shows everything. Their tapes and volumes then differ.

Apply it in FennEdge

• FennEdge has no live Time & Sales and no Level 2 depth (as of 2026-10-06). Read the tape on your broker's or trading platform's window, and check which conditions and venues it shows or filters.
• The Gapper HOD Timeline shows when past gappers printed their high. It uses the highest 1-minute high from 04:00 to 20:00 ET, built from eligible trades rather than every print, so it includes premarket and after-hours highs that the consolidated high leaves out. It is a historical review tool: guests, Free and Plus see the latest completed session; earlier sessions need Pro or Max (as of 2026-10-06).
• The Trading Journal holds your real fills, synced from supported brokers. After a session, compare a fill's time and price with the tape on your platform. It is not for practice or simulated entries.
• The Scanner (paid: Plus, Pro, Max) alerts on rapid moves, session highs and LULD halts of Nasdaq-listed stocks. It shows alerts, not prints.

What this lesson does not claim

• It does not claim that any print or sequence of prints predicts price.
• The condition rules are those of the consolidated data plans, checked 2026-10-06. Platforms may display, rename or filter conditions differently.
• Condition names here are descriptive; the two plans use different one-letter codes.
• Harrowgate Freight and its prints are fictional.

Go deeper

• FennEdge first. Article: Level 2 vs. Time & Sales. Next lesson: Candlestick charts.
• Using the tape as evidence: Tape reading in the scalping course.
• Off-exchange and sub-penny prints: Dark pool prints; glossary tick size.

Exercises

Three exercises follow this lesson: a concept check (what an odd-lot print above the high changes), a calculation (the consolidated high after a burst of prints with different conditions) and a scenario (a large print far below the quote, reported late). Exercises, answers and progress are available after signing in.

Primary sources

• UTP Plan. UTP Data Feed Services Specification, Version 4.1 (September 2026): §3.1 Market Center Originator ID, §3.14 sale condition modifiers, matrix and notes, §3.30 round lot size.
• CTA Plan. CTS Pillar Output Specification, Version 2.11b (2026-01-29): Sale Condition field and calculation notes.
• FINRA. Rule 6380A: Transaction Reporting.
• FINRA. Trade Reporting Frequently Asked Questions.
• SEC. Responses to Frequently Asked Questions Concerning Rule 612 (Minimum Pricing Increment).

Sources checked 2026-10-06. Harrowgate Freight and all prints, prices, sizes and times in this lesson are fictional and Illustrative. This lesson is education, not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past patterns do not indicate future results.