Not really the same, because you can look at what currencies are actually being traded for. These researchers are not looking at bitcoin trades.
A better analogy would be like looking at clearing house data, and examining the net number of shares bought or sold at each broker, to determine how many individual investors are in the red. Even though the price changed throughout the day and you're only looking at the price at settlement time. And the net doesn't tell you anything about how many investors actually traded.