Bid/Ask Ratio % Indicator: Formula, Settings and How to Read It
Bid/Ask Ratio % shows the share of a bar's volume that traded on the buy side: buy volume divided by the sum of buy and sell volume, multiplied by 100. Readings run from 0 to 100, where 50 means aggressive buying and selling were exactly matched.
Senzoukria · Indicators · Updated September 2026
Bid/Ask Ratio % ships with the Senzoukria desktop app, in the Delta group of the indicator catalogue. It is drawn in its own panel below the chart.
What Bid/Ask Ratio % measures
The calculation uses only the price levels that carry a usable buy and sell breakdown, so it reflects the classified part of the bar's volume. The 50 line is the reference point but is implicit: the renderer draws no fixed level, and the series is meant to be read as an oscillator around 50, in the way a percent range oscillator is read around its own midpoint. A bar with no volume produces a gap rather than a reading of 50, because an absence of flow is not the same as balanced flow.
The formula, as implemented
This is not a description of how the indicator is usually defined elsewhere — it is what the shipped code computes, documented next to the implementation:
Part acheteuse du volume : buy / (buy + sell) × 100 ∈ [0, 100] (`barBuySell` — niveaux exploitables uniquement). 50 % = équilibre parfait : la ligne médiane à 50 est IMPLICITE (le renderer ne trace pas de niveau fixe — lire l'oscillateur autour de 50, comme un %R). Volume nul → trou (null), pas « 50 % » : l'absence de flux n'est pas l'équilibre.
How to read it
- Above 50, aggressive buyers took more of the bar's classified volume; below 50, aggressive sellers did.
- Several consecutive bars staying on the same side of 50 describe a persistent tilt, which is more informative than any single reading.
- A series oscillating tightly around 50 describes a two-sided auction in which neither side is taking the bulk of the volume.
- Readings close to 0 or 100 deserve a glance at the bar's volume: on thin bars the extreme can rest on very few contracts.
- Because the value is a share, two bars with the same reading can involve completely different amounts of volume.
Parameters and defaults
The colour parameter defaults to #26c6da and does not affect the calculation. Smoothing defaults to 1 and can be raised to 200, turning the line into an average share across bars, which softens extremes and delays crossings of the 50 line. There is no threshold parameter, so any notion of a stretched reading has to be judged visually against the 50 reference rather than set numerically.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoothing | number | 1 | 1 – 200 |
What it does not show
Normalising to a share removes all information about size, which is the main way this indicator can mislead: a 95 % reading on a handful of contracts looks identical to one on heavy volume. It cannot distinguish a single large aggressive participant from many small ones taking the same side. It requires the feed to classify the aggressor side at each level, and levels without that breakdown do not contribute. Finally, it describes executed volume only and says nothing about the resting orders on either side of the book.
Using it in Senzoukria
Add it from the Indicators panel of any footprint chart or candle chart. It runs on futures data from Rithmic or Databento and on crypto pairs from Binance and Bybit, on the same engine — the calculation does not change with the venue, only the data feeding it does. Market data subscriptions are billed by the provider, separately from the app.
Related indicators
- Delta % — Delta
- Session CVD — Delta
- Delta momentum — Delta
- Delta min/max — Delta
- Price/Delta Divergence — Delta
- Delta % Histogram — Delta
See the full indicator library, or start with the order flow guide if you are new to reading aggression, delta and absorption.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the bid ask ratio in orderflow?
- It is the proportion of a bar's traded volume that was executed on the buy side, expressed as a percentage of total classified volume. A reading of 70 means roughly seven out of ten contracts traded at the ask rather than the bid. It describes the balance of aggression within the bar on a fixed 0 to 100 scale.
- Is the bid/ask ratio the same as delta?
- They are built from the same two quantities but presented differently. Delta is the difference between buy and sell volume in contracts, while this ratio is the buy side's share of their sum as a percentage. The ratio makes bars of different size comparable, and delta preserves the magnitude the ratio discards.
- What does a bid/ask ratio of 50 % mean?
- It means aggressive buying and aggressive selling accounted for the same amount of the bar's classified volume. It is the neutral reference of the scale, which is why the series is read as an oscillator around 50. A bar where nothing traded is shown as a gap instead, since no flow is not the same as balanced flow.