FootPrint

Introduction

The FootPrint is an analysis tool that breaks down market activity for each candle. This tool displays transactions carried out both on Bid and Ask on each side of the candle. Moreover, you can choose to visualize the volume profile on one side and delta values on the other, as well as the delta bar and Bid x Ask values with delta bars. The indicator also highlights Imbalances, which can influence the price movement or cause its rejection. Unfinished auctions may indicate when there is a possibility that a price will be revised. Other key points that can be observed include the Control Point, where the price is also likely to be revised, and an estimate of the Commitment Of Traders or COT for each candle. The FootPrint indicator also allows the identification of absorptions and the integration of many other variables into your trading strategies.

Chart Properties

Automatic Cryptocurrency Volume

This setting automatically converts volumes to the principal unit when trading with cryptocurrencies. For other financial instruments, this option has no effect, so it is enabled by default.

Max Historical Candles

This setting determines the maximum number of bars that will be displayed on a chart. If you set a limit of 1000 bars, the 1001st bar will be discarded. This setting ensures efficient operation in 24-hour markets, like Forex and cryptocurrency, preventing excessive memory usage.

Automatic Footer Margin

This option automatically adjusts the chart on the Y-axis to prevent it from overlapping with the footer. It usually works well, but in some cases, it may cause the Y-axis to overflow. If this problem occurs, simply disable this option.

Margin without footer

This setting allows adjusting the chart margin in percentage when the footer is not visible.

Use Metric Suffix

This option groups volumes using the decimal metric system with suffixes like Kilo, Mega, Giga, etc.

Metric Suffix Decimals

Allows adjusting the number of decimals after the comma when the metric system is used.

Set Bar Spacing and width at load

This option determines the width and spacing of the candles when a chart is loaded. If the option is disabled, the chart will maintain the same configuration when reloaded. This option is useful for less experienced users and that’s why it is enabled by default. More advanced users can disable it so that their chart maintains its shape when reloading.

Bar Spacing at load

Spacing between candles when automatic configuration is enabled at loading.

Bar Width at load

Width of the candles when automatic configuration is enabled at loading.

Volume Divisor

This option allows dividing the volumes by a set number. With Zero it is deactivated. When enabled, it disables the use of the metric system, as it has priority.

Ticks per bar

Allows grouping several ticks into a group as if they were one. This is necessary for instruments with very small ticks. For example, indices like the NQ or Crypto.

Width to hide candle Data

The width in pixels of a candle for associated data to be hidden. This value sets the changeover point between wide and narrow view.

Cot Divisor

This value divides the COT values to make them more readable. If set to zero it is disabled.

Right Chart margin

Allows setting a margin on the chart. It is recommended to leave it disabled (with -1) since templates have a defined margin and this value will be added to the chart margin in all cases. It can’t be determined if an indicator was loaded directly on a chart or from a template.

Historical Calculation mode

Allows defining how to determine the ask volume and the bid volume in the history. The recommended way is to use the BidAsk mode. Some data providers send data with values on one side only (BID) and without this option, the other values are zero. The UpDownTick option allows determining if the volume was at the ask by observing how the price moves and thus making a separation. The best is to choose a data provider that separates because the UpDownTick mode discards volume that can’t be determined if it was at the Bid or the Ask.

Realtime calculation mode

Same as historical but for real-time mode. We have not seen cases where it is necessary as data providers that do not separate the bid and ask in history, almost always do it in real time. The recommended is to leave it in BidAsk.

Indicator Rendering ZOrder

Sets the Z Order of the indicator. This option allows shifting the indicator on the Z axis. This axis is not visible (it’s internal to the PC hardware) but allows organizing an order of rendering on screen. This way, one indicator can be displayed over another, over candles, etc.

Number of pinned candles

PipFlow is capable of drawing up to two candles at the end of the chart in narrow mode that always remain visible. This allows the trader to monitor these final candles when analyzing earlier areas in narrow mode where they are not observed. Zero doesn’t put any, and 1 or 2 can be placed.

Pinned Candle Width

Defines the width of the pinned candles.

Pinned Candle space

Space between pinned candles when there are two of them.

Indicator Rendering ZOrder

Sets the Z Order of the indicator. This option allows shifting the indicator on the Z axis. This axis is not visible (it is internal to the PC hardware) but allows organizing an order of plotting on the screen. With this, one indicator can be displayed over another, over candles, etc.

Number of pinned candles

PipFlow is capable of drawing up to two candles at the end of the chart in narrow mode that always remain visible. This allows the trader to monitor these final candles when analyzing previous zones in narrow mode where they are not observed. Zero does not put any, and 1 or 2 can be placed.

Pinned Candle Width

Defines the width of the fixed candles.

Pinned Candle space

Space between fixed candles when there are two.

Candlestick bar properties

Show candle body

Show the body of the candles or not. It may be useful to disable it when the outline is shown since the outline will resemble the values of the candle body. In some cases, it can be useful to display other types of candles not defined by PipFlow.

Show outline in footprint bar

To show the contour of the candle or not.

Show bar wicks

Whether to display the wicks of the candles or hide them.

Hide bar border in narrow view

Set it to true to remove the border to facilitate the visualization of the candles in narrow view.

Show bar border

Allows displaying the border of the candle or not. This option includes narrow mode and expanded mode.

Wick Color up

Allows defining the color of the wick when the candle is bullish.

Outline Candle down

Contour around the entire candle including the footprint bars when the candle is bearish.

Outline Candle up

Contour around the entire candle including the footprint bars when the candle is bullish.

Outline fill color Up

Fill of the contour when the candle is bullish.

Outline fill color Down

Fill of the contour when the candle is bearish.

Wick Color Down

Color of the wick when the candle is bearish.

Candle body Color up

Color of the wick when the candle is bullish.

Candle body Color down

Color of the candle body when it is bearish.

Candle Width

The maximum width in pixels of the candle body.

Footprint Bar properties

Bar Type

Allows you to configure the type of FootPrint bars that are shown on the sides of the candle. It can be Bid/Ask, Volume/Delta, SideDelta, or SideDeltaBidXAsk.

Bar Style

This setting determines how the bars are represented on the chart. Here are the available options:

• Saturation: In this mode, all bars are drawn with the same size, but with faded colors to represent different values.

• Volume: In this case, all colors are drawn with the same opacity, but the size of the bars varies according to their value. Thus, bars with a higher volume will be drawn larger.

• Solid: In this mode, all bars are represented with a uniform size and a solid color, regardless of volume.

• VolumeAndSaturation: In this case, both the size and opacity of the bars adjust according to volume. That is, bars with a larger volume will be drawn larger and with greater opacity.

• None: If you select this option, no bars will be shown on the chart, only text will be displayed.

Min Saturation Transparency

Allows setting a minimum opacity (0-100) for the bars. In this way, bars with lower volume will always have some opacity and won’t become transparent. For example, with values equal to or greater than 20.

Text Color

The color of the text for the footprint bars.

Bar Text Alignment

CenterCandle aligns the texts towards the center of the candle. CenterBar aligns the texts within the bar (taking the maximum width).

Volume Up bar color

Color for the Ask bars.

Volume Down Bar Color

Color for the Bid bars.

Volume Bar Color

The color of the volume bars.

Close indicator

None will disable it. When “Text Color” is selected, the text color will change at the close as can be seen in the following image.

Close Box Border Transparency

The transparency of the close box border. (0-100)

Close Box Fill Transparency

The transparency of the close box fill. (0-100)

Close Color

The color of the close indicator.

High Volume Indicator

Choose rectangle if you want a rectangle over the bars or None if you want it disabled.

Separation between footprint bars

The separation in pixels of the FootPrint bars from the center of the candle. This defines the margin for the bars from the center of an imaginary line that crosses the center of the candle.

Distance for text in footprint bars from center

When the candles are aligned towards the center of the candle this value establishes a margin between the text and the end of the bar.

Bar Volume Filter

A volume filter that will prevent the bars from being displayed if they don’t have a volume higher than the one specified. Leave at zero to disable. This makes cluster detection easier and helps develop the strategy of “hiding behind the elephant.”

Maximum font size for Footprint bars

FootPrint is able to adapt the size of the texts according to the size of the bars. This would be the maximum text size when the bar gets too big. Putting very extreme values slows down the drawing of the footprint and text rendering is generally a very slow operation for the hardware. Set them carefully. No matter how fast PipFlow is, it cannot go faster than the hardware.

Minimum font size for Footprint bars

Minimum size to display the texts. A size smaller than this hides the texts of the FootPrint showing only bars. Set this value carefully as it can make the drawing very slow if extreme values are used. PipFlow always tries to make the text as large as possible.

Volume Divisor

This number divides all Bid, Ask, Volume, and Delta values in each candle to make the numbers more readable for the end-user if they are too large.

Distance for text in footprint bars from center

Obsolete, will be removed.

Do not render zero values

If the value to be displayed is zero, whether bid, ask or volume, it is not displayed.

Bar Text antialias

The ‘Bar Text antialias’ option allows you to set the text rasterization method, which determines how the letters and numbers of the data are converted into pixels on the screen. There are three modes available:

ClearCase: This is the highest quality method, offering a clear and sharp display of texts. However, it is also the slowest in terms of performance, as it requires more system resources to process the information. This mode might be suitable if you have a high-powered graphic device.

GrayScale: This mode offers a slightly lower display quality than ClearCase, but it is faster and therefore less demanding for your system. This is an intermediate option, providing a balance between display quality and system performance. By default, GrayScale is set due to this balance.

Aliased: This is the fastest of the three modes, but also the lowest quality in terms of text display. However, if your system performance is low and you experience a slowdown in the FootPrint display, then Aliased mode may be the most appropriate option.

In short, the choice of rasterization mode depends on the capacity of your graphic device and the speed with which you need the data to be processed and displayed.

VPOC

Show naked vpoc

Select to display the naked POC (not yet touched by the price).

Extend naked vpoc

Sets whether the POC should be extended beyond the edge of the chart.

Min POC volume

This is a filter to display the higher volume POCs, thereby discarding the less interesting POCs.

POC Coloring Style

AllEqual draws all lines in the same color. Delta marks the POCs with a negative delta in one color, a positive in another, and zero in a third color. The ValueArea option allows to show the POCs in one color if the candle’s close is below the value area, another if it is above and a third if it is in the value area. This allows to determine the intention.

POC Lines lines 0-2

The color used to draw the POC lines.

POC Color 0-2

The color for the bar when it has the highest volume.

Imbalances

This section is for configuring imbalances. Imbalances allow you to observe regions where more operations have been carried out in one direction than in the other. These situations tend to move the price and cause points where the price tends to make a turn. Therefore, they are very important.

Imbalances display mode

• None: Does not show them

• Horizontal: will show imbalances on the same tick. This option is useful when tick grouping is used.

• Diagonal: Diagonal: compares bars on the bid with bars on the ask one tick higher. If there is tick grouping, the comparison is made between groups.

• Horizontal and Diagonal: shows both previous forms

• Combination Horizontal and diagonal: The imbalance will only be displayed if two conditions are simultaneously met: the existence of a diagonal imbalance and a horizontal imbalance. In other words, only those imbalances that occur both on the vertical axis (diagonal imbalance) and on the horizontal axis (horizontal imbalance) will be highlighted.

Show imbalances bars

If the bars are shown or hidden. It does not deactivate the imbalance, it simply hides the bars that define them.

Color for Bid

If the imbalance goes to the bid, this is the color used to show the bars.

Color for ask

If the imbalance goes to the ask, this is the color used to show the bars.

Box width

The pixel width of the imaginary box that surrounds the imbalance lines. The wider it is, the more it enters the profile bars.

Line width

The width of the imbalance bar.

Comparison operator

This is the type of operator used for the comparison. If ratio is chosen, a division will be used and it is the number of Xs in comparison with the other. If it’s difference, the result of the subtraction is the number to compare.

Operator Threshold

The amount to compare to determine if there was an imbalance or not.

Min size of winning side filter

If the winning side has a value greater than this value, the imbalance will be displayed, otherwise it will not be detected.

Min size of total volume filter

If the total size of both sides of the imbalance has this amount of volume it will be detected, otherwise it will not be shown.

Bold imbalance text

The text of the winning side of the imbalance is displayed in bold.

Increment in size of imbalance font

Difference between the size of the normal font and the size of the imbalance font. For example, if your normal font has a size of 10 and this value is 2, the imbalance font size will be 12.

Unfinished Auctions

Unfinished auctions are zones at the edges of candles where there is no loss of interest from buyers and sellers. It means that it is likely to be a zone where the price will revisit later until the battle ends.

Show unfinished auctions

Select to display unfinished auctions.

Box Color

The color of the box and the lines.

Candle Developing Value Area

The candle’s value area will show you the zone of greatest activity of the candle. By definition, this is where 70% (some traders consider 68%) of the activity takes place and is the most important zone. This area always includes the point of control (POC). In the software, it is possible to define the percentage.

Show Developing value area

Select to display the value area of the candles.

Value Area Percent 0-100%

The percentage to define the value area. It is 70% by default. However, with this option, you can redefine it.

Value Area width

The pixel width of the value area bars.

Developing Value Area color Bid

The color of the bar when the delta is negative.

Developing Value Area color Ask

The color of the bar when the delta is positive.

Developing value area horizontal displacement

The displacement of the bar from the center of the candle. (it can be negative)

Order Filter

The order filter plays a crucial role in eliminating market noise, allowing you to focus on the most relevant transactions. This functionality discards those orders of lesser importance or lesser volume, leading to a cleaner visualization focused on market movements that truly have a significant impact. Essentially, this filter is an effective tool for enhancing analysis clarity and optimizing your trading strategies.

Minimum order size

Orders with a volume higher than this set value will be processed in the analysis. All those orders that have a lower volume will be discarded and ignored in the process. If this value is set to zero, all orders, regardless of their volume, will be included in the analysis. This setting allows to adjust the tool’s sensitivity to the magnitude of orders, providing greater control over the quality and relevance of processed data.

Maximum order size

Orders with volume smaller than this size will be processed. The others will be ignored. Define it to zero to include all orders. This option is included for completeness but is of little use. It will probably be removed in the future.

Information zones

“Information zones” represent additional data that is attached to each candle, providing the opportunity to analyze various variables that typically would not be directly visible on the candle. This functionality allows for more relevant information to be displayed directly on the chart, thereby facilitating a deeper and more comprehensive market analysis without the need to divert attention to other elements or windows.

Settings

There are 6 zones, three at the top and three at the bottom of the candle.

• Top Upper Zone
• Top Middle Zone
• Top Lower Zone
• Bottom Upper Zone
• Bottom Middle Zone
• Bottom Lower Zone

Each zone can be defined as:

Nothing: Empty zone (but does not leave empty space).
DeltaClose: The delta of the candle.
DeltaFinish: Candle's Delta Finish.
DeltaMinMax: Shows two values Delta Min and Delta Max.
ImbalanceCount: Total imbalance count on each side for the Bid and Ask.
ImbalanceVolume: Like ImbalanceCount but instead of the count, the total volume of the imbalances.
Volume: Total volume of the candle.
COTUp: The COT of the candle.
COTDown: The COT of the candle.
Ratio: Ratio according to the extreme.

Colors

All the colors used in this software have been designed to be easily interpretable in an intuitive manner. Therefore, we will not delve into a detailed explanation of each of them. However, as a helpful tip, if you prefer a certain background not to be colored, you can choose to use a “transparent brush”. This functionality provides greater flexibility and customization, allowing you to adapt the software’s display to your individual preferences.

Graphic delta properties

Show graphic delta

This option allows the user to decide whether to visualize the delta graph in their analysis. The graphic delta provides useful information about the difference between the volume of buy trades and the volume of sell trades for each time interval. By activating this option, the delta candle will be displayed.

Blank space between candle and graphic

This parameter refers to the space that is configured between the price candle and the deltas candle in the graph. It allows users to adjust the visual distribution to improve readability or focus on certain elements. By increasing this value, the distance between both candles will increase, providing more space on the graph to analyze each candle individually. Conversely, by decreasing this value, the candles will be closer to each other, allowing a more consolidated view of the data.

Graphic delta down indicator color

This is the color assigned to the candles when the delta is negative. It is useful for providing an immediate visual representation of the delta’s state, allowing you to quickly distinguish between positive and negative values.

Graphic delta up indicator color

This is the color assigned to the candles when the delta is positive. Just like the negative delta indicator color, this color helps to differentiate and quickly visualize the positive delta values on your graph. These colors can be customized according to your preferences, for a more comfortable interpretation of the data.

Wick Color

Color of the delta candles' wick.