What is a Footprint Chart?

Nydar's Footprint Chart shows the actual bid and ask volume traded at each price level within every candle, with automatic 3:1 imbalance detection across all price ticks. Unlike standard candlestick charts that only show OHLC, Nydar's footprint reveals the internal battle between buyers and sellers — typically displaying 20-50 price levels per candle depending on volatility.

What are volume imbalances on a Footprint Chart?

Nydar flags a volume imbalance when the bid or ask volume at a specific price level exceeds the other side by a ratio of 3:1 or more. When 3 or more consecutive price levels show the same directional imbalance, Nydar highlights this as a stacked imbalance — one of the strongest signals in order flow analysis, often preceding continuation moves with 65-70% reliability on 15-minute and higher timeframes.

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Footprint Chart

Nydar's footprint chart shows bid vs ask volume at every price level inside each candle with delta and absorption detection

Crypto OnlyThis widget requires a crypto trading pair (e.g., BTC/USDT)

Footprint Chart widget showing bid and ask volume at each price level across 8 five-minute candles for BTC/USDT

What Is Nydar's Footprint Chart Widget?

Nydar's Footprint Chart breaks each candle open and reveals the bid volume vs ask volume at every price level inside that bar, with automatic 3:1 imbalance detection and stacked-imbalance alerts across consecutive price levels. A normal candlestick chart only shows open, high, low, and close — Nydar's footprint shows the internal battle.

Nydar highlights exactly where buyers and sellers fought, who won at each level, and by how much. This is the primary tool used by professional order flow traders to read market microstructure. The theoretical basis for volume-at-price analysis is laid out in Maureen O'Hara's Market Microstructure Theory (Blackwell, 1995), which explains how trade size and direction encode information, and Jim Dalton's Mind Over Markets (Traders Press, 1990), which introduced Market Profile and the concept of value areas that underpin footprint chart interpretation.

Nydar's Key Concepts

Imbalances (3:1+ ratio)

When one side overwhelms the other at a price level by a ratio of 3:1 or greater, Nydar highlights it automatically. Nydar colours buy imbalances green and sell imbalances red, showing where aggressive directional activity occurred.

Stacked Imbalances

Nydar detects three or more consecutive price levels with the same directional imbalance. This is one of the strongest signals in order flow analysis — Nydar's stacked imbalance alerts indicate a large aggressive order being worked across multiple levels.

Point of Control (POC)

Nydar marks the price level with the highest total volume inside each candle. This is where the most trading activity occurred and often acts as a magnet for future price action.

Unfinished Auctions

Nydar identifies when the high or low of a bar has zero volume on one side — the auction at that extreme was never completed. Price is statistically likely to revisit these levels to finish the auction.

Net Delta Per Bar

Nydar calculates the total buy volume minus sell volume for each candle, colour-coded to show the overall character of the bar at a glance. Positive delta = net buying, negative delta = net selling.

How to Read Nydar's Footprint Data

Absorption:Nydar shows high sell volume at a level but price still moves up = buyers absorbed the selling. That level becomes potential support on retest.

Exhaustion:Nydar's delta displays declining values on consecutive bars during a rally = buying pressure is fading. Watch for a reversal.

Initiative:Nydar's stacked buy imbalances at the low of a bar = aggressive buyer initiated the move. Strong directional conviction.

Nydar's Pro Tips

Focus on Nydar's stacked imbalances — they are the highest-probability signals
Nydar flags unfinished auctions at session highs/lows — strong magnets for price
Combine with Nydar's Volume Profile widget to see where POC and value area align
Use Nydar's Level 2 heatmap alongside to see resting orders vs executed flow
Higher timeframes (15m, 1h) produce more reliable imbalance signals in Nydar's footprint

How Footprint Compares to Other Nydar Widgets

Feature	Footprint Chart	Volume Delta	Order Flow	Level 2 / DOM	Volume Profile
Bid vs ask per price level	Inside each candle	Net only	Tape-level	Resting orders only	No side split
Imbalance detection	3:1 auto + stacked	Cumulative delta	Large trade flags	Bid/ask ratio	No
Point of Control (POC)	Per candle	No	No	No	Per session
Historical candle data	Yes	Yes	Real-time only	Snapshot only	Yes
Absorption detection	Built-in	Divergence only	Manual	Wall watch	No
Best paired with	Volume Profile	Footprint	Level 2	Footprint + Chart	Footprint