Is a fair value gap the same as an imbalance on a footprint?

No. On a footprint, an imbalance compares ask volume at one price with bid volume at the price below, inside one bar. A fair value gap is a three-candle price pattern. They can coincide, since a fast bar often shows stacked imbalances, but they are measured on different data.

Do fair value gaps get filled?

Many are revisited, and many are not. Any claim about fill rates depends on the instrument, timeframe and definition of a fill, and it has to be measured on all gaps, including those that were never revisited, before it can be relied on.

Fair value gap (FVG)

A fair value gap (FVG) is a three-candle pattern in which the first candle's high is below the third candle's low (bullish), or its low is above the third candle's high (bearish), leaving a price zone inside the middle candle that the wicks of its neighbors do not cover. The term comes from 'smart money concepts' teaching, and it is unrelated to the value area of auction market theory.

Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026

Definition

Take three consecutive candles. In a bullish FVG, the high of the first candle is below the low of the third: the middle candle rose so fast that the two neighbors' ranges do not overlap, and the zone between them is the gap. A bearish FVG is the mirror image. The pattern is usually read as an inefficiency that price may revisit, and its edges are used as reference levels.

The name invites a confusion. In auction market theory, fair value is where the market accepts price and builds volume, the value area. A fair value gap is the opposite: a zone the market crossed quickly, with little two-sided trade.

What order flow adds

A candle chart only shows that the zone was traversed in one direction. A footprint of the middle candle shows how much actually traded at each price inside the gap and on which side. Often the gap corresponds to rows with little volume relative to the rest of the bar, the per-bar version of a low volume node or of single prints in Market Profile. Sometimes it does not: heavy volume can trade inside the gap on a fast bar, and then the zone was not thin at all.

A worked example

The first candle's high is 5,001.00; the third candle's low is 5,003.00. The bullish FVG spans 5,001.00 to 5,003.00, eight ticks. The middle candle ran from 5,000.50 to 5,004.00. Its footprint shows 12 to 30 contracts per price between 5,001.25 and 5,002.75, against more than 200 at its point of control near the top. The gap was thin in volume as well as in candles, which is consistent with a low-volume area. If the same rows had shown 150 contracts each with strong bids, the thin-zone interpretation would not apply.

In Senzoukria

There is no FVG indicator. The Single Prints overlay marks, within each bar, the prices whose volume is at most a set percentage of the bar's largest level, 5% by default, which is the volume-based check of a thin zone. Volume per Level measures a bar's average volume per traded price, and the Volume Profile overlay's 'Detect HVN / LVN' option shades low volume nodes over the chosen period. The footprint's cells show the traded volume inside any zone directly.

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Frequently asked questions

Is a fair value gap the same as an imbalance on a footprint?: No. On a footprint, an imbalance compares ask volume at one price with bid volume at the price below, inside one bar. A fair value gap is a three-candle price pattern. They can coincide, since a fast bar often shows stacked imbalances, but they are measured on different data.
Do fair value gaps get filled?: Many are revisited, and many are not. Any claim about fill rates depends on the instrument, timeframe and definition of a fill, and it has to be measured on all gaps, including those that were never revisited, before it can be relied on.

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