Big trades on NinjaTrader 8
Large prints drawn where they happened on your NinjaTrader 8 chart, and a list of them you can click through.
Setting names are shown in English because that is how they appear in the NinjaTrader indicator settings.
What it draws
OrderVane NT Pro reads the tape on your NinjaTrader 8 chart and marks the large prints:
- A bubble (●) for each big trade, at the price and time it happened. Its size grows with the volume and its color is the side that traded more.
- Absorption bars where big trades kept arriving without moving price.
- Diamonds where two or more same-side big trades landed close together.
- A big trades list, a separate window with the same trades as a table.
Where your tick history does not reach there are no bubbles. OrderVane will not draw an estimate in the shape of a trade.
What counts as a big trade
Trades that arrive within Time interval (sec) (0.1 s by default) are grouped. A group counts as a big trade when:
- its total reaches Big trade min volume (60 by default),
- it spans no more than Big trade max span (ticks),
- and its delta (buy minus sell) is at least Min delta filter (%) of its total.
Same-side bubbles within two ticks of each other in one bar are drawn as one.
"Big" is not the same number on every market. A small chip at the top of the chart reads Adapt N: the average of the largest big trade of each recent day (Lookback days (3-30)), times Factor (0.1-3.0, step 0.05). By default it is shown for reference only; turn on Apply adaptive to markers and the bubbles use it instead of your fixed minimum.
The big trades list
The third button in the chart's left column opens OrderVane — Big trades, newest first: time, side (B = buyers took the offer, S = sellers hit the bid), price and size, with a bar showing the size and its buy/sell mix. It lists the same trades the bubbles draw, up to 500 rows.
- Click a row and the chart moves to that bubble and circles it for about three seconds. ↑ and ↓ step through the rows, Enter goes to the selected row and Home jumps to the newest.
- All / Buy / Sell filters by side, and Size ≥ sets a minimum for the list (it never goes below the chart's bubble minimum). Click the number to type one.
- Wider window, more columns: a delta percentage and BASIS, the trade as a share of all volume in the minute before it (or the window set by Basis volume interval (sec)). The L2 % column shows
–on NinjaTrader. - Rows from today show the time only; earlier days carry the date, with a dotted line between days.
The window remembers its position, size, theme and filters.
Bubble colors and filters
| Setting | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Bubble buy/sell split | Draws each bubble as its buy and sell shares instead of one color for the side that won |
| Bubble coloring | By delta = the color of the side that won · Single color = every bubble in one color |
| Highlight color | The ring around a bubble you pick in the big trades list |
| Min / Max trade volume | Ignores individual trades below or above these sizes |
| Filter by basis ratio (%) | Shows only big trades that were at least this share of the volume in the basis window (0 = off) |
| Marker importance filter | Draws only the largest bubbles that fit the visible chart, plus every bubble from the last 10 minutes |
Big trades list and Buy/sell split can also be switched from the on-chart quick menu, in the MARKERS group.
Sound
With Sound enabled, a live big trade at or above the size the bubbles use plays a short sound, one for buys and one for sells, no more often than Sound cooldown (ms). Loading history is silent; only trades happening now make a sound.
What it needs
- NinjaTrader 8 on Windows, and tick (time & sales) data for the instrument. OrderVane NT Pro requests its own 1-tick series.
- The big trades list button appears while Big trades list, Engine enabled (tick-based) and Show markers (●) are on.
Honest limits
- Aggressor side comes from your data. Which side traded is read from the tick data your connection provides.
- A diamond is proximity, not intent. It says several same-side big trades landed close together, not that one participant placed them.
- These are observations. Bubbles, absorption and diamonds describe what already traded. None of them is a buy or sell signal, and the indicator does not place orders.
Common questions
Does NinjaTrader 8 have a big trades indicator built in?
NinjaTrader's own order flow tools are part of its Order Flow+ package, which depends on your NinjaTrader plan. OrderVane NT Pro is a separate indicator with its own license.
Can I click a big trade in a list and jump to it on the chart?
Yes. Open the big trades list and click any row; the chart moves to that bubble.
Is it the same as the Quantower version?
The big trade bubbles and the list work the same way as in OrderVane for Quantower, described on Big trade markers. The NinjaTrader version is a separate product with its own 14-day trial.
Related
- OrderVane for NinjaTrader 8 — what else NT Pro draws, and the free trial
- Big trade markers (Quantower) — the same markers on Quantower
- Absorption — what the absorption bar claims, and what it does not
- Naked POC — another level NT Pro draws from the footprint
- All docs
OrderVane NT Pro draws this on your NinjaTrader 8 charts.
See what it looks like · NT Pro $129 · 14-day free trial