Markets like to probe. Price will take a stab at a new high to see if there is any trading interest in getting a rally started. Or price may probe the bid and find it triggering a sell-off. Any which way you look at it, price gets probed by the buyers and the sellers. While prices are being probed by the buyers or sellers their mark is left behind with volume. Bid/Ask Footprint® takes the real time volume and displays the value and adds color for easy visualization. The point behind Bid/Ask Footprint® is to show the probing action of buyer and seller at a specific price. It is the back and forth probing that shows who has the power of persuasion. Whether it is the buyer or the seller influencing price, the trader can view the results with Bid/Ask Footprint®.

In this example, we can find price being probed by the buyer and then the same price can be probed by the seller. It would look like this: 70x50 at a price of 768.30. The mark left by the aggressive buyer while probing the price 768.30 was 50 (volume) and the mark left by the aggressive seller while probing the price 768.30 was 70 (volume). This helps the trader to see what kind of effort is being put forth by the buyer and seller in attempting to influence the price to go their way.

Before you begin thinking "this is way too short term for me", think about what all this means over the course of time and not just a trade by trade basis. The fact is the market doesn't just move on one trade. It is the culmination of volume that impacts price one way or another. Having the ability to track how this volume is flowing into a market and then breaking it down as small as you desire is why scalpers, swing traders, and position traders are all finding the Footprint® chart a tool they cannot do without.

Learning Opportunity! - To learn more about the Footprints® click below. It's a short recording to teach you more and assure you get the most out of MarketDelta®.