Imbalances and stacked imbalances on the footprint

What it does

Per-cell imbalance flags are computed when each renderer bar is converted into a footprint candle, so they exist on every chart whether or not any indicator is on. A level is a buy imbalance when its ask volume is at least Rate × its bid volume, and a sell imbalance when its bid volume is at least Rate × its ask volume, on the same price level. A level must first pass the Vol filter (minimum total volume) and the Min diff (minimum absolute ask − bid difference). With Ignore zero on, a level where the opposite side is zero is not flagged. In the Bid × Ask layout a flagged number is drawn bold with a glow: red for a sell imbalance, green for a buy imbalance.

The Stacked Imbalances overlay is a separate detection that follows the ATAS diagonal convention: a buy imbalance at level L compares buy volume at L with sell volume at L − 1 (one tick below), and a sell imbalance at L compares sell volume at L with buy volume at L + 1. A zero divisor with a non-zero numerator counts as an imbalance. Consecutive flagged levels of the same direction form a stack; a stack of at least Min levels is drawn as a translucent rectangle over the bar with a label SI followed by the count. Skipping a level breaks the stack, because the structural argument behind a stack requires contiguity; the tick step is inferred from the spacing of the bar's levels.

Settings

How to use it

• The four Cell coloring rows are global: they colour cells on the whole footprint and keep working with the Stacked Imbalances overlay switched off. They are housed in this pane because there is no separate on/off entry for cell colouring.
• Changing any cell colouring value invalidates the candle conversion cache and reconverts every loaded bar, which is why the four values are grouped and stepped rather than free text.
• Stacks are drawn at 12 % fill and 40 % border opacity inside the bar's cell column; the SI label sits at the top of the rectangle.
• The overlay is computed by the asynchronous indicator runner, which coalesces updates with a 200 ms throttle and a 300 ms idle deadline, so a stack can appear up to about half a second after the print that completed it.

Limits and pitfalls

Per-cell colouring compares the two sides of the same level; the stacked overlay compares diagonally. A cell can therefore glow without belonging to a stack, and a stack can include levels whose own cell is not coloured. Neither rule reads the order book or proves absorption; both measure executed volume as reported by the source.

Stacks are detected on the displayed footprint bars, including the forming bar, and disappear if a later update changes the ratios. A quiet feed with few contracts per level produces many infinite imbalances when Ignore zero is off; the default keeps it on for that reason. Stacked Imbalances ships off by default because the rectangles cluttered quiet 5-second charts.