The best Footprint Indicator for Sierra Chart

Installation notes:

1) Send us your Sierra Chart Account  name so we can give you access
2) Make sure you are running SierraChart version 2564 or higher (Help->Download current version)
3) Enable openGL (Global Settings->Graphics Settings Global -> Other)
4) when you got access, goto Studies->Click on Add Custom Study and then add all 4 TDU Footprint custom studies to your chart

Video Playlist

Below you will find a playlist of videos in which we explain all the features 

Introduction

Delta Continuous POC

Delta SlingShot

Delta Sweep

Delta Trap

Delta Tail

Delta Drop

Delta Rise

Delta Flip

Delta Divergence

Configuration choices

Custom layouts

Trapped traders

Exhaustion Prints

Volume Sequencing

Volume Sweeps

Unfinished Business

Stopping volume

Zero Prints

Left / Right Cell Text options

You can select what you want to display for the numbers left & right of each candle .
By default we show the Bid/Ask numbers left & right of ach candle.
However you can choose between the following options for the left / right cell text

Left cell text options

Right cell text options

Left / Right Cell Background options

Beside choosing what you want to show as the left/right cell text you can also select what you would like to see in the background of on the left and/or right of each candle .  By default the background for the left/right cell is empty (None).
You can choose to show the volume, delta or Diagonal delta backgrounds in either the left and/or the right cell background

Left / Right Cell Background - Brick vs Profile vs Distribution

You have the option to display the background of the left or right cell in either brick or profile style. If you choose brick style, the background will cover the entire cell similar to the appearance of a brick. Conversely, if you select profile style, the width of each price level will vary based on the chosen value, such as volume or delta. It's worth noting that you have complete freedom to customize the left cell separately from the right cell.

Brick
The entire cell background gets filled a color (which color gets determined by the options described below)

Profile:
The background will show a profile where the width of each price level is based on the chosen value (see above) 
E.g. if you have choosen volume then the histogram will show the volume traded at each price level
and if you have chosen horizontal delta.. then the profile will show the horizontal delta for each price level

Distribution
The background gets filled with a distribution showing negative values on the left and positive values on he right

Brick Style background

Profile  Style background

Distribution  Style background

Left / Right Cell Background - Profile direction

When the background is set to profile mode (see above) then you can choose whether the profile direction should be from left->right or from right->left

Profile Direction  left->right

Profile Direction Right->Left

Left / Right Cell Background - Color Type

When selecting the cell background color, you can opt for a solid or gradient effect. If you choose a solid color, the background will be shown of with two customizable colors. Conversely, if you choose a gradient, the cell background color will display a shade between the two customizable colors, with the degree of shading varying based on the value.

Solid colors

Gradient colors

Left / Right Cell Background - Color Source

The source of color determines the criteria for selecting which color to use. For instance, if the color source is set to delta, a negative delta value would result in the selection of the red color, while a positive delta value would result in the selection of blue. It's worth noting that the colors can be customized. In addition to delta, other options for color selection include trades, bid, ask, and neutral.

Delta:
The cell background color gets determined by the horizontal delta.
A positive delta will be colored with the positive color (here blue).
A negative horizontal delta will be colored with the negative color (here red)

Neutral:
The entire cell background will be displayed with the neutral color

Imbalances:
The cell background color gets determined by whether there is a buy or sell imbalance.
If there is a buy imbalance then the cell background color will be shown in the positive color.
If  there is a sell imbalance then the cell background will be colored with the negative color

Color source: Delta

Color source: Neutral

Color source: Imbalances

Left / Right Cell Background - Number of  gradient colors

The number of gradient colors options dictates the number of color shade variations displayed for each color (such as red or blue) when gradient colors are activated. A greater number of options corresponds to a higher number of shades shown
A lower number corresponds to less shades.
If you look  carefully between these 2 screenshots you will see that the right image has more subtile shades then the left one

2 shades / color

10 shades/color

Entire bar background

Besides choosing a left/right cell background there is also an option to choose the background for the entire bar.
When enabled the background of the entire bar will be colored by the settings you choose. 

You can base the bar background coloring on
- Total Volume
- Total Delta
- Delta / Volume %
- Total Diagonal Delta
- Total # of trades

And just like with the cell backgrounds you can choose the scaling, color type, color source, color direction, style  and number of colors here too

On the right we see an example where the bar background displays the volume traded at that price level
Darker shades indicate higher volume was traded and lighter shades indicate lighter volume was traded at that price level

The bar background color (green/red) is based on delta. A green color is used to indicator positive delta and a red color for negative delta (of course these can be fully customized)

Finally we see that the right cell displays the horizontal delta as text and as histogram background
Here blue indicates positive delta and red indicates negative delta. Again you can customize everything to your liking

Zero Prints

Zero prints occur when there is no volume at the bid on the low of the bar, or when there is no volume at the ask at the high of the bar

RULES

- no (0) volume at the bid at the low of the candle
- no (0) volume at the ask at the high of the candle

On the right we see an example of a bar which has no volume at the bid at the low of the bar which is a bullish sign 

Thin Prints

Thin prints occur in the candle when there is aggresive selling / buying with almost no counter-trading .  With the thin print feature you can highlight the price levels where there is almost no counter trading  


RULES

- a bar (red or green) which has one or more low volume price levels on the bid and/ or ask

On the left you can see 2 bars. The first (green) bar has multiple thin prints on the bid colored in green, the 2nd (red) bar has a single thin print on the ask which is colored red since its a bearish sign

The default max volume for thin prints is set to 1. This means that any volume of 0 OR 1 on either the bid or ask will be highlighted 

You can change this max volume setting in the indicator settings to any value you like

Fat Prints

Fat prints are the opposite to thin prints and can be used to highlight and extend big volume occuring on the bid or ask

RULES

- a bar which has big volume on the bid or ask
On the right you can  see an example of a fat print where the bar has 3000+ contracts traded on the bid

The default threhold volume for fat prints is set to 1000. 

You can change this threshold setting in the indicator settings to any value you like

Big Delta

The big delta can be used to highlight and extend price levels in bars with a big delta. 

RULES:

A bar that has big delta at one or more price levels


In the screenshot we see a bar which has a delta of -1327 at a price level. This gets highlighted and extended forward until tested or for a specific number of bars. You can set the delta threshold  to determine which delta levels should be highlighted

Stopping Volume

Stopping volume occurs when a trend is exhausted and hits a brick wall of traders who are stopping the trend and pushing price in the other direction. We can detect this if the POC (and thus the most volume) is traded at the edge of the candle and the volume traded at the bid or ask is higher then the previous 10 candles

RULES:
- Green bar with POC near the low of the candle - there is more volume traded at the bid at the lowest 2 price levels in the current candle then there was traded at the bid at lowest 2 price in the last X candles

 - Red bar with the POC near the high of the candle - there is more volume traded at the ask at the highest 2 price levels in the current candle then there was traded at the ask at highest 2 price in the last X candles

Volume sequencing

Volume sequencing occurs when we have multiple price levels with increasing volume. When we see this we know the big guys are aggresively buying this market up (or selling it down) 

Bullish volume sequencing is colored with a blue background and bearish volume sequencing with a magenta background. Ofcourse you can change these colors as you wish

RULES:
Bullish volume sequencing
-  5 or more price levels with increasing volume on the ask

Bearish volume sequencing
-  5 or more price levels with increasing volume on the bid


On the left we see a footprint chart in which 3 bars contain volume sequencing. A clear indication the trend is up
If we take at the first bar then we can see buyers pushed the market up from the low and bought it up with increasing volume (0, 17, 165, 181 ,573). Each price level has an increasing volume

volume sequencing can also be extended tot the right for a fixed number or bars, until broken , or until tested

Exhaustion prints

Exhaustion prints indicate weakness. In an up trend we would like to see a good amount of contracts traded at the high, while in a downtrend we would like to see a good amount of contracts traded at the low. If this is not the case and we see only a small amount of volume at the high in an uptrend, or at the low in a downtrend then this indicates weakness or exhaustion. The trend might come to an end or go into a consilidation area 

RULES:
Bearish exhaustion prints:
- red candle with (almost) no volume at the ask at the high of the bar

Bullish exhaustion prints:
- green candle with (almost) no volume at the bid at the low of the bar

On the right we see price going sideways at a high printing several bars with bearish exhaustion prints. Then price suddenly drops
At the bottom again we see bearish exhaustion prints occur and 1 bar later the market reverses up again

By default the threshold for the exhaustion print is set to 10. So any cell at the high or low with a volume less of 10 will be marked as an exhaustion print.

Ofcourse you can customize the threshold, colors and you can even extend the threshold into the nex bars or until broken if you would like

Unfinished business

An unfinished auction occurs when the high (or low) has both buy and sell volume. The presence of bid trades at the high (or ask trades at the low) of a bar could mean that  movement has not yet been exhausted and there is a probability that price will return to that level soon to complete the process.

RULES:
- New high with numbers at bid AND ask at high of the bar

- New low with numbers at the bid AND ask at the low of the bar

Sweeps

Sweeps occur when aggresive buyers or sellers enter the market and aggresively start pushing price higher (or lower). These actions often leave small volume nodes behind which we can recognize with the sweeps

On the right we see a sweep through the bar with 4,0,0,0 volume at the ask

sweeps  can also be extended tot the right for a fixed number or bars, until broken , or until tested

Fading momentum

The fading momentum signal indicators that a trend or swing is weakening and likely to reverse or go into a consolidation phase

RULES:

Bearish:
-3 bars with positive delta , were the delta of each bar is lower then the previous bar

Bullish:
-3 bars with negative delta were the delta of each bar is higher then the previous bar



In the example on the right we can see 3 bars with negative delta going from -131 -> -52 -> -29. Clearly sellers are drying up and momentum is fading. When that happens we see the Fading momentum marker being drawn on the 3rd bar and the horizontal stripe being drawn by the indicator. After that  bar the market rips higher.

Bar statistics

The indicator can display bar statistics above and below each candle. In the indicator settings, you can define what should be displayed in each row above and below the candle. You can show up to 4 different rows above the candle and 4 different rows below the candle

Bar Markers

The footprint indicator can show markers for each footprint signal above/below each bar. Bullish signals will be shown beneath the candle and Bearish signals will be shown above the candle

Footprint summary table

The indicator can show a footprint summary table which shows all the important metrics for each candle
You can fully customize the look & feel of the table and which rows gets shown there

Note : You need to enable
Chart Settings->Chart Data->Historical Pullback Data 
if you want to show the COT High / Low values inside the footprint summary table.

Customize what to show

The footprint table can show up to 10 rows. In the indicator settings you can fully customize what to show in each row

Note that you dont have to show all 10 rows. If you only like to to show 3 rows then you can simply disable the other 7 rows by setting it to none

Delta Imbalances

The footprint order flow indicator can show
- normal imbalances
- multiple imbalances
-2nd slot imbalances
- oversized imbalances
- big imbalances
- stacked imbalances
- inverse imbalances
- reversal imbalances

Delta Signals

The footprint order flow indicator can show several delta signals like
- Above / below POC signal
- Delta Rise
- Delta Drop
- Delta Tail
- Delta Reversal
- Delta Divergence
-Delta flip
- Delta Trap
- Delta Continous POC
- Delta Sweep
- Trapped Traders

Delta Reversal signal (R)

The Delta Reversal signal gets plotted when a bar has an above-average max and min delta. It is plotted with the letter 'R' and a light salmon vertical stripe

RULES
- The bar has above-average max and min delta

EXAMPLE
On the right we see that the second bar has a high max and high min delta, and prices reverse.

Delta Drop signal (O)

The delta drop signal is a 4-bar signal and is indicated with the letter 'O' and/or a red vertical stripe. The signal happens when there is a sudden decrease in the delta and when the delta is getting weaker and weaker . This is often a tell that the current trend might be ending and we will go into a consolidation or reversal.

RULES:
-4 consecutive bars with decreasing delta

EXAMPLE:
Here you can see an example of a delta surge signal. The first bar has a delta of 596, then in the next bars we see the delta decrease to 13, -109 , -130 So in 4 bars, we went from +596 to -130 where each bar is getting a lower delta. When that happens the delta drop signal will be plotted 

Delta trap signal(A)

The delta trap signal is a 3-bar signal.. It tries to identify trapped traders in a strong up/down trend

RULES:

In a downtrend
- a green bar with strong positive delta
- followed by 2 red bars with negative delta which together cancel out the positive delta from the green candle
-  last red bar has a value area gap down

In an uptrend:
 - red bar with strong negative delta
- followed by 2 green bars with positive delta which together cancel out the negative delta from the red candle
- last green bar has a value area gap up


EXAMPLE:
Here you can see an example of a uptrend.. When price pulls back some traders went short thinking the the trend switched bearish. Immediately after we see strong buying coming in again with the Delta Trap signal

Delta Continuous POC signal(C)

Uses a continuous POC as a possible trend continuation signal

RULES:

In a downtrend
- a green bar 
- followed by a red bar which has the same POC price as the previous bar and negative delta
- followed by a red bar with negative delta and a value area gap
At least one of the 2 red bars needs to have strong negative delta


In an uptrend:
 -a red bar
- followed by a green bar which has the same POC price as the previous bar and positive delta
- followed by a green bar with positive delta and a value area gap up
At least one of the last 2 green bars should have strong positive delta


EXAMPLE:
Here you can see an example where price printed a delta continuous POC signal. You can clearly see th continuous POC as its highlighted by the horizontal yellow rectangle. Immediately after this we see another green candle which has strong positive delta. The close of that bar confirms the signal to go long

Delta Sweep signal(W)

Indicates when a big trader enters the market to push the market forward

RULES:

For shorts
- a red bar which contains a market sweep and has strong negative delta 

For longs:
- a green bar which contains a market sweep and has strong positive delta

EXAMPLE:
In the example we see market making a bottom and then a green candle gets formed with strong 1220 positive delta and a market sweep. The Delta sweep signal gets highlighted here in the background by a purple vertical stripe. You can customize the colors 

Trapped Traders Signal (P)

The concept of "trapped traders" refers to those market participants who find themselves in unfavorable positions due to incorrect predictions about market movements. For instance, consider the situation on the left where a significant amount of selling activity occurs at the lowest point of a price bar, but subsequently, the bar closes green. In this case, the traders who sold at the lowest point are considered "trapped" in a short position, as the market is moving against their expectations.

 To mitigate their losses, these trapped traders will need to close their short positions by placing buy orders.

 This influx of buy orders can contribute to the existing upward momentum in the market, further intensifying the price increase. In summary, trapped traders are market participants who, due to their incorrect predictions, inadvertently contribute to the continuation of a price trend in the opposite direction of their initial positions.

RULES:

- A green bar in which most volume was traded in the bottom part of the candle
- A red bar in which most volume was traded at the top of the candle


EXAMPLE:
Here you can see an example where some traders got trapped into a short.  (Green bar with most volume traded at the bottom)

Delta Slingshot signal(I)

Indicates a possible trend reversal when selling volume gets overrun by buying volume and market closing higher

RULES:

For longs
- a red bar with extreme negative delta
- followed by a green bar which closes above the red bar with positive extreme delta

For short:
- a green bar with extreme positive delta
- followed by a red bar which closes below the green bar with negative extreme delta

EXAMPLE:
In the example we see a red bar with -1321 delta 
Then after a consilidation bar the next bar closes above the red bar with with +1669 delt

Delta Signal Vertical Stripes

As shown before you can have multiple ways to show the delta signals. You can show them as bar markers, you can show them in the footprint summary table , but we also give you the option to show a vertical stripe when a delta signal occurs.

The vertical stripes are very easy to recognize and make sure you never miss any delta signal.

Alerts

The footprint indicator is equipped with a highly adaptable alert system. It allows you to activate as many as 10 alerts and select the corresponding signal for each alert. For instance, you can configure alert #1 to trigger when an exhaustion print emerges, while alert #2 can be set to activate when a delta trap is detected. The choice is yours.
Additionally, each alert can have its unique sound, and you can easily enable everything from the indicator settings.