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Effort vs Result — Tape & flow, in its own panel below the chart.
What Effort vs Result measures
The range is computed as the bar's high minus its low, rounded to whole ticks on the instrument's grid, so the denominator counts every tick between the extremes, including those spanned only by a wick. The numerator is the bar's total volume as reported by the aggregation layer. A bar with a range of zero produces no value rather than a division by zero, and no value is produced at all when the instrument's tick size is unknown, since 'per tick' would be meaningless without the grid. The result is a cost-of-movement figure: the same volume against a narrower range raises it.
The formula, as implemented
This is not how the indicator is usually defined elsewhere — it is what the shipped code computes, documented next to the implementation:
Effort vs résultat : volume / range en ticks — combien de contrats il a fallu pour bouger d'un tick. Haut = le prix n'avance pas malgré le volume (absorption) ; bas = il glisse sans effort. range = round((high−low)/tick), 0 → null (une barre sans range ne mesure aucun « résultat », diviser par zéro serait un mensonge). Tick inconnu → null.
How to read it
- Rising readings while price stays in a range describe volume being traded without displacement, the classic footprint reading for absorption at a level.
- Falling readings during a directional move describe price travelling cheaply, which usually means the book was thin rather than that aggression was strong.
- Compare the reading with the neighbouring bars of the same session rather than with an absolute number: the scale depends on the instrument's tick size and typical bar volume.
- A single very high bar deserves a look at the footprint itself to see whether the volume sat on one price or was spread across the range.
- Bars with long wicks inflate the denominator, so a wick-heavy bar can show a low reading even though most of the volume printed in a narrow band.
Parameters and defaults
Only smoothing and colour are exposed. Smoothing defaults to 1, which means the raw ratio is plotted with no averaging; raising it applies a post-smoothing over that many bars, which calms the series but delays every turn by roughly the same amount. There is no threshold to tune: the indicator reports a ratio, not a classification.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoothing | number | 1 | 1 – 200 |
What it does not show
The number carries no side information, so it cannot tell you whether buyers or sellers were the ones being served. Because the denominator uses the full high-to-low range, bars whose extremes come from a brief wick are measured against ticks where nothing printed, which understates the true cost of movement. Bars whose high and low round to the same tick have no range to divide by and are skipped rather than given a substitute value. Values are not comparable between instruments, or across contract rolls where tick size or typical size changes. A quiet session can produce low readings that reflect absent participation rather than easy movement.
Related indicators
- Tape Speed — Tape & flow
- Diagonal Imbalances — Tape & flow
- Stacked Imbalances — Tape & flow
- Absorption Score — Tape & flow
- Unfinished Auctions — Tape & flow
- POC Drift (ticks) — Tape & flow
This page in other languages
Frequently asked questions
- What does effort vs result mean in order flow?
- Effort is the volume traded, result is the price distance covered. The indicator states the relationship as one number: contracts per tick of range. A large effort with a small result means the flow was met by resting liquidity; a small effort with a large result means little was needed to move the price.
- Does a high effort vs result reading prove absorption?
- No. It states that a lot of volume traded for little range, which is consistent with resting liquidity taking the other side, but the number carries no side and says nothing about where in the bar the volume sat. Reading the footprint of that bar shows whether the volume concentrated on one price or spread across the range, which is what separates absorption from a bar that simply traded back and forth.
- Does effort vs result work on crypto charts?
- It computes on any instrument whose tick size is known, including the crypto symbols the application analyses from exchange data. Note that the application handles crypto for analysis only, with no order placement, and that readings are not comparable between a crypto pair and a futures contract because their tick grids and typical sizes differ.