DOM (depth of market)
The DOM, or depth of market, is a live ladder of prices showing the resting limit orders displayed at each level: bid sizes stacked below the current price and ask sizes stacked above it. It shows displayed liquidity waiting to trade, not the trades themselves.
Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026
Anatomy of the ladder
The ladder is the rawest view of order flow: it is the exchange's aggregated book, as far as the feed shows it. On CME, feeds are either MBP (market by price, sizes aggregated per level) or MBO (market by order, each order tracked individually); the distinction changes what the ladder can and cannot tell you.
- Price column in the centre, one row per price level, with the best bid and best ask adjacent and the spread between them.
- Bid column: the displayed size of resting buy limit orders at each price below the market.
- Ask column: the displayed size of resting sell limit orders at each price above the market.
- Optional columns for last trade and executed volume at each level, which is where aggression meeting the resting size becomes visible.
What the DOM shows and what it does not
The DOM reading guide is explicit that not every pulled order is spoofing: a wall disappearing near price has several explanations, and a snapshot alone does not settle which one applies. Its main limitation is time: the ladder shows now and resets every tick, which is what the liquidity heatmap fixes by recording the book through time.
| Observable on the ladder | Not established by the ladder alone |
|---|---|
| Displayed size at each level right now | Hidden or iceberg quantity behind it |
| A level growing, shrinking or vanishing | Whether the change was a cancel, a fill or a feed gap |
| Stacked levels on one side | Whether they will hold when price arrives |
| The best bid and ask and their sizes | The intent of whoever placed them |
In Senzoukria
The DOM lives on the Heatmap page, to the right of the heatmap canvas, with a DOM profile beneath it that shows the same depth level by level; the guided tour step on the heatmap describes both. "DOM settings" holds the panel width, "Levels per side" (or "All"), and a "Large orders ≥" threshold that highlights big displayed sizes. Scrolling over the ladder explores depth, and faded rows are levels seen earlier in the session that are no longer in the live book.
A second rendering, the "DOM ladder" in the heatmap settings, draws book depth directly on the chart at the exact height of each price, with optional bid x ask sizes inside the band. On Rithmic and Databento feeds the ladder follows the futures book; on Bybit it follows the recorded crypto book. Replay includes DOM playback for sessions whose depth was recorded; broker tick history alone contains no book.
Common mistakes
- Reading displayed size as commitment. Limit orders can be cancelled at any time.
- Expecting the ladder to show every participant. Hidden orders and off-book activity are not displayed.
- Confusing the DOM with the footprint. The ladder shows resting orders; the footprint shows executions.
- Reading the ladder without a time dimension. A level's history, visible on the heatmap, is usually more informative than its current size.
Related
This page in other languages
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between the DOM and the order book?
- In practice they name the same thing. The order book is the exchange's list of resting limit orders; the DOM is the trader-facing ladder that displays it, price by price, with bids on one side and asks on the other. Some platforms reserve DOM for the ladder widget you can trade from and order book for the raw data.
- Do I need a special feed to see the DOM?
- You need a feed that carries depth, not only trades. Some accounts provide live depth while their historical data holds only executions; the NQ/MNQ order flow guide notes that live trades, depth, historical trades and historical depth are entitled per account, so check each one with the provider rather than assuming depth comes with trades.
- How many levels should the DOM show?
- As many as the feed provides and the screen can hold. An MBP feed carries a fixed number of aggregated levels per side set by the exchange and the provider, while an MBO feed can rebuild the ladder from individual orders. Senzoukria's "Levels per side" setting limits the rows drawn. Fewer levels keep the ladder readable during fast markets; more levels show where distant liquidity sits.