Indicators: tape (speed of tape, absorption score)

What each study computes

Tape Speed is the sum of trade counts over a window of N bars divided by the sum of their closed durations in minutes. A bar's duration comes from the source when it is known; otherwise a time-based timeframe such as 1m or 5m supplies its nominal duration, but only once the next bar confirms the close. Tick, volume and range bars without a source duration leave a gap, and the last open bucket is never measured with the wall clock. Its guide card carries the unit Trades per minute and the tag Source dependent.

Diagonal Imbalances counts, per bar, the levels flagged by the diagonal test: buy(P) ≥ k × sell(P − 1 tick) with buy(P) ≥ Min qty, and the mirror for sells. A level may carry both flags and then counts twice. Stacked Imbalances marks bars with at least Min stack consecutive flagged levels: an arrow-up at the top of a buy stack, an arrow-down at the base of a sell stack.

Absorption Score is signed: for each level, buy absorption requires buy(P) ≥ max(pct × bar buy volume, Min qty) and the bar high within tolerance ticks above P; sell absorption is the mirror at the low. The score is Σ absorbed buy − Σ absorbed sell, positive when buying was absorbed near the high. A bar with fewer than two distinct levels scores 0. Unfinished Auctions reuses the footprint definition: the highest level has buy = 0 and sell > 0, or the lowest level has sell = 0 and buy > 0; a square is placed on the bar high or low. Effort vs Result is totalVolume divided by the rounded range in ticks. POC Drift (ticks) is the signed move of the bar POC in ticks from the previous bar, ties resolved to the lower price.

Settings

Reading the outputs

• A high Effort vs Result value means many contracts per tick of movement (price held despite volume); a low value means price slid with little effort. A bar with zero range produces no value.
• POC Drift (ticks) and the Stacked Imbalances of this group overlap with POC Migration and Stacked Imbalance in later families: here the drift is signed and the stack markers are arrows; there the migration is absolute and the markers are squares.
• The Unfinished Auctions guide card notes that some platforms call an extreme with both sides positive an unfinished auction; this study keeps the zero-side convention and promises no retest.

Limits

• Diagonal Imbalances, Stacked Imbalances, Absorption Score, Effort vs Result and POC Drift (ticks) need the instrument tick size; without it they output nothing.
• Tape Speed depends on known bar durations; an unknown duration produces a gap, not an assumed rate.
• The Absorption Score heuristic does not prove passive replenishment or iceberg orders; it flags a large level next to an extreme.