OrderVane

Order flow, step by step

Ten short pages, each building on the one before. Start at the top, or pick up where you left off.

How to use this path

Listen while you read

A 21-minute audio conversation that walks through the same ten steps in order — useful on a commute or before you start. It was generated with Google NotebookLM from these ten pages and checked against them; the voices are AI.

  1. How to read a footprint barA footprint bar replaces the single candle body with a price ladder. Once you know which half is which, the rest of the marks follow.
  2. Naked POCA POC that price has not come back to. The idea is simple; what makes it usable is being precise about when the line stops.
  3. Stacked imbalance zonesOne imbalanced row is a detail. Several in a row is a band — and the band is what stays on the chart.
  4. Big trade markersThree shapes, three different facts about aggression. The rule they share: every mark is a real print, drawn where it happened.
  5. AbsorptionAggressive orders met resting size and the resting side held. The whole observation is that volume happened and price did not follow.
  6. ExhaustionThe buying stopped because there was no more buying, not because someone stopped it. That distinction is easy to state and hard to observe, and this page is mostly about why.
  7. Volume shelfA price that took an unusual share of the volume around it. The measurement never touches your chart bars, which is why the same shelf sits at the same price on every timeframe.
  8. Session levelsA footprint bar tells you what happened inside one bar. Session levels tell you which prices the market has already spent time agreeing on.
  9. Reading the previous session's value area edgesOne place to look and one routine: price comes back to the previous session's VAH or VAL. OrderVane does not tell you what to do there. It turns the first touch into a measurement you can set next to the second.
  10. Iceberg orders on the DOMA price where resting size is filled, then reappears, again and again. What it looks like on the ladder, and what can and cannot be read from it.

Check yourself

Ten questions, one for each step. Answer in your head, then open the answer.

1. On a footprint bar, how is the volume in one price row split?
A) The left half is volume at the ask, the right half volume at the bid.
B) The left half is volume at the bid (sellers hitting resting buyers), the right half volume at the ask (buyers lifting resting sellers).
C) The left half is contract volume, the right half money traded.
D) The left half is orders placed, the right half orders cancelled.

Show answer

B. Left = bid side, sellers hitting resting buyers; right = ask side, buyers lifting resting sellers. Back to the page

2. When does a naked POC line stop extending?
A) When a later bar closes at or beyond the level.
B) At the end of the session, whatever price does.
C) At the first bar whose high-to-low range, wicks included, covers the level.
D) Only when a minimum volume trades at that exact price.

Show answer

C. A line stops at the bar where price touched the level — wicks count. Back to the page

3. What breaks a stacked buy imbalance zone?
A) Price touching the zone's top line.
B) A later bar's low trading below the zone's bottom.
C) One row inside the zone showing more bid than ask volume.
D) A bar closing in the middle of the zone.

Show answer

B. A buy zone stays active on contact and is broken when a bar's low trades below its bottom. Back to the page

4. How does a cluster marker (◆) differ from a bubble (●)?
A) A bubble marks resting orders, a cluster marks stop orders.
B) A bubble is one large print; a cluster is several aggressive prints in a row on the same side.
C) A bubble is a volume average, a cluster is volatility.
D) Bubbles are drawn in the day session, clusters overnight.

Show answer

B. A bubble is a single event; a cluster is many prints hitting the same side without a pause. Back to the page

5. What does absorption look like on a footprint chart?
A) Heavy volume on one side of a row while the bar's range stays narrow around it.
B) Zero volume at the bid while price advances quickly.
C) Bars widening while total volume falls.
D) No trades at all during a fast move.

Show answer

A. Size traded and price did not follow: a heavy row with the range staying narrow around it. Back to the page

6. Why is there no chart marker for exhaustion?
A) It happens too fast to draw.
B) It is caused by hidden resting orders.
C) It is the absence of orders that were never sent, so there are no prints to mark.
D) It only happens in the last minute of a session.

Show answer

C. Absorption is something that happened; exhaustion is something that stopped happening. Back to the page

7. Why does a volume shelf sit at the same price on a 1-minute and an hourly chart?
A) It is updated by the exchange each week.
B) It is measured from a fixed five-minute source, not from your chart bars.
C) It is based on daily closes.
D) It forces every chart to the same bar type.

Show answer

B. The measurement reads a fixed five-minute source and slides three windows across it. Back to the page

8. What is the touch band around the previous session's VAH, VAL and POC for?
A) It defines the range where price counts as being at the level, instead of an exact tick.
B) It sets the session's opening range.
C) It shows the spread between two contracts.
D) It hides small trades from the chart.

Show answer

A. Price rarely stops at an exact number, so the band is what "at the level" means in practice. Back to the page

9. When is the absorption mark on a value area edge drawn?
A) As soon as price comes within 10 ticks of the line.
B) After a touch has ended, if it traded unusually heavily and price got no more than 3 ticks past the line.
C) At the session open, for every level.
D) Before the session opens, from the previous day's volume.

Show answer

B. It appears after the fact, about 15 minutes after the touch has ended — not as price arrives. Back to the page

10. How does a DOM tool spot a possible iceberg order?
A) By reading account numbers in the exchange data.
B) By seeing resting size reduced by fills and then refilled, again and again, within a short window.
C) By measuring candle heights on a higher timeframe.
D) Only with order-by-order (MBO) data.

Show answer

B. Refills are inferred from Level 2 depth and the trade tape; exchanges do not label icebergs. Back to the page

After the path

The pages describe what a tool draws and how to read it. Nothing here is a trading signal or a prediction — what you do with it is your decision. To see the same things on your own chart:

OrderVane draws this on your Quantower charts.

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