Footprint vs candlestick

A footprint chart and a candlestick chart describe the same bars, but the candlestick keeps only four prices, open, high, low and close, while the footprint keeps the volume traded at each price level inside the bar, split by aggressor side. The footprint therefore shows what happened inside the candle, which the candle can only summarise.

Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026

What each chart records

A candle with a long lower wick tells you price went down and came back. The footprint of the same candle tells you whether the wick was a few contracts probing the low or heavy selling that was absorbed by resting bids, and whether the recovery was buyers lifting the ask or sellers simply stepping away. The order flow trading guide calls this reading the auction rather than its outline.

Same bar, two levels of detail
CandlestickOpen, high, low, close; optionally total volume under the barPrice path summary
FootprintVolume at each price level, at bid and at ask, plus trade countWhere and by whom the volume was done
Derived from footprintBar delta, bar POC, imbalances, absorptionNot available from OHLC alone

When the candlestick is enough

  • Higher timeframes, where per-level detail averages out and structure matters more than execution.
  • Instruments whose feed delivers no trades, only bars; a footprint cannot be built from OHLC data.
  • Strategy rules that only use closes, ranges or moving averages; the app's backtest panel notes that server bars carry OHLC, volume and delta but no footprint levels, so such rules run without the tick drain.

When the footprint earns its place

  • Intraday futures on time, tick or volume bars, where individual prints matter and the guide on footprint trading recommends starting.
  • Decisions at a specific level: was the low defended by absorption, or did sellers simply run out?
  • Reading delta divergence, where price makes a new high while the aggressive buying that produced the previous high is missing.
  • Any per-level measure: imbalances between the ask at one level and the bid one level below, the bar POC, trade count per level.

In Senzoukria

The footprint screen draws the footprint inside a candle: the candle body and wicks are still there, and the cells fill the body's range. The Footprint type chip chooses what the cells show; the Bid × Ask entry of the Numbers family is the classic footprint, and the Heatmap candles option can fade the candle bodies by volume or delta. The footprint can also be lowered under the session profiles or the grid with the footprint layer setting, which is the closest the screen gets to a plain candlestick view.

The demo on the footprint page runs the app's own renderer on a candle being built in front of you, so the cells and the candle they sit in can be inspected together.

Common mistakes

  • Assuming a footprint replaces the candle. It sits inside it; the OHLC structure is still the frame.
  • Expecting a footprint from a data source that only delivers bars. Volume and delta per bar can exist without per-level detail; the levels then stay empty.
  • Reading footprint cells on a timeframe so high that each bar holds thousands of levels; the footprint becomes a blur, and the volume profile is the appropriate tool.

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Frequently asked questions

Can a footprint chart be built from candlestick data?
No. A candle stores four prices and possibly a total volume; it does not store which price levels traded or on which side. The footprint needs the individual trades with their aggressor side. If the source only provides bars, Senzoukria shows the candles and leaves the cells empty rather than estimating a distribution.
Do I lose candlestick patterns when I switch to a footprint?
No. The candle is still drawn, with its body and wicks, and the footprint cells are laid inside its range. An engulfing bar or a pin bar is still visible, and the footprint adds what traded inside it.
Which one should a beginner start with?
Most traders learn candlestick structure first because it is in every platform and every book. The footprint becomes useful once the question changes from where price went to who moved it and where. The order flow for beginners guide follows that order.

Keep reading

Strategy researchTest a trading strategy, from observation to challenge rulesDefine an observation, question it with the copilot, write a rule and explore costs, drawdown and fictional challenge limits in an interactive example.Quant · Start hereQuant trading for beginners: from idea to backtestDefine a testable rule, choose suitable data and evaluate later periods after costs.Order flow · HubOrder flow trading: the complete guideThe hub. What order flow is, what it shows — aggression, delta, imbalance, absorption, liquidity — and the tools that read it, each linked to a full guide.