Liquidity stacking (adds and refills)
Liquidity stacking is the build-up of resting size at one price or across adjacent prices on the same side of the book through new orders being added or refilled. It is the opposite of a pull: the displayed total rises without executions accounting for the change, and on a heatmap the band brightens or thickens through time.
Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026
Adds, refills and stacks
- An add is new displayed size arriving at a price where the level previously held less. The aggregated total rises with no execution to explain it.
- A refill is an add that follows an execution at the same price: size traded, and new size took its place.
- A stack is the cumulative effect: one price, or several neighbouring prices, accumulating size over minutes so that the band on the heatmap brightens as time passes.
- Stacking can come from one participant layering orders or from many independent orders attracted to the same area; aggregated depth cannot say which.
Reading a stack over time
The distinguishing feature of a stack is duration. A level that has been growing for twenty minutes while price oscillates above it tells a different story from a level that lit up two seconds ago. The heatmap guide on this site describes the display as showing where liquidity has been sitting, growing or draining, which is exactly the question a snapshot cannot answer. A DOM snapshot cannot answer it; a history of the book can. When price finally reaches a stacked level, the same three outcomes as for any wall apply: the size is executed, pulled or refilled, and only the comparison with trades at that price decides which.
Stacking and the footprint
On the footprint, a stacked level that gets tested shows heavy executed volume at one price, often with a delta skewed toward the side that hit it: sellers hitting a bid stack produce large bid-side volume in the cell. If price holds, the cell is a candidate for absorption; if the stack was pulled before the test, the footprint shows nothing unusual, because nothing traded. This is why the two displays are read together rather than one replacing the other.
In Senzoukria
The Heatmap screen's Colour mode includes an Adds tint, described in the settings as liquidity being placed, refills and stacking, next to the Pulls tint for the opposite event. The classification is inferred from the aggregated book and labelled as such. The Liquidity lens panel's Timeline records net increases, net decreases and trades at a selected level, and labels a repeated replenishment as a Refill candidate with the observations behind it. The Iceberg rings marker with its Refills to call it an iceberg threshold addresses the specific case of repeated refills at one price; it names a candidate, not a hidden order.
Common mistakes
- Reading a growing stack as buyers or sellers 'stepping in' with intent. Size arriving is a fact; the reason is not visible.
- Confusing stacking with a level being pushed into view by the feed's depth limit as price moves toward it.
- Comparing stack sizes across contracts with different lot sizes or across venues with different aggregation.
Related
This page in other languages
Frequently asked questions
- Is liquidity stacking the same as a stacked imbalance?
- No. Liquidity stacking is resting size accumulating in the book before any trade occurs. A stacked imbalance is a footprint pattern of executed volume across consecutive price levels, computed after trades printed. One describes offers, the other describes completed transactions; a stack in the book can be tested and produce an imbalance, or be pulled and produce nothing.
- Does a refill prove someone is defending the level?
- A refill shows that after size traded at a price, new size appeared there. It is consistent with a participant replenishing an order, and also with unrelated orders arriving. Several refills in a row while price is pinned make the first explanation more plausible, but the display cannot confirm a single owner or an intention.