On this page
Large Trade Ratio — Tape & flow, in its own panel below the chart.
What Large Trade Ratio measures
The calculation sums the volume of the N busiest price levels and divides it by the total volume across all usable levels, expressed as a percentage. N is clamped to the number of levels the bar actually has, so a bar with two levels returns exactly 100% — those two levels are the whole bar, and the figure is exact rather than extrapolated. The bar is skipped when it has no usable level, because the denominator would be zero. Unlike the percentile-based distribution indicator, the reference here is fixed: the three busiest levels stay three whatever the bar's height, which keeps the series comparable from bar to bar.
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:
Large trade ratio — part du volume tenue par les N niveaux les plus actifs : value = 100 × Σ (les topN plus gros vol(niveau)) / Σ vol(niveau) POURQUOI : même famille que `trade-size-distribution`, mais référence FIXE au lieu d'un percentile. Le percentile s'adapte au nombre de niveaux (sur une barre large il retient plus de niveaux) ; ici « les 3 plus gros » restent 3, ce qui rend la série comparable d'une barre à l'autre quelle que soit l'amplitude. Les deux se lisent ensemble : le percentile dit la FORME de la distribution, le topN dit la CHARGE des quelques prix qui ont compté. Convention : topN est CLAMPÉ au nombre de niveaux — une barre de 2 niveaux rend 100 %, valeur exacte (les 2 niveaux SONT toute la barre), pas une extrapolation. Défaut N=3 : le trio POC + ses deux voisins, la zone où se loge le gros d'une barre normale. 0 niveau exploitable → PAS de point (dénominateur nul). Aucun tick size requis.
How to read it
- High readings describe volume clustered on a few prices, the shape you see when trading repeatedly returns to the same area inside the bar.
- Low readings describe volume spread evenly across the range, which is what a bar that travelled without pausing tends to look like.
- Read it next to the bar's level count: 90% across three levels on a tall bar is a very different structure from 90% on a bar that only has four levels.
- Compare with the percentile-based trade size distribution. That one describes the shape of the distribution; this one describes how much weight the few prices that mattered carried.
- Treat a persistent shift in the readings across a session as a change in how volume is being distributed, not as a directional cue: the measure has no side.
Parameters and defaults
Top levels defaults to 3: the busiest price and the two next busiest, which on a normal bar is where the bulk of the volume sits. Increasing it moves the measure towards the total and pushes readings towards 100%; setting it to 1 reduces the indicator to the share held by the single busiest price, the point of control. No tick size is needed, so it works wherever per-level volume is available. Plot colour is the only other setting.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top levels | number | 3 | 1 – 50 |
What it does not show
Despite the name, the measure is about price level concentration, not about the size of individual orders: it cannot tell you whether the volume at a level came from one large trade or many small ones. It carries no direction, since buy and sell volume are summed. Short bars mechanically read high, up to the exact 100% of a bar with N levels or fewer, so the series should not be compared across very different bar heights. It also depends on complete per-level data; a feed that aggregates prints coarsely will flatten the distribution and lower the readings.
Related indicators
- Tape Speed — Tape & flow
- Diagonal Imbalances — Tape & flow
- Stacked Imbalances — Tape & flow
- Absorption Score — Tape & flow
- Unfinished Auctions — Tape & flow
- Effort vs Result — Tape & flow
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Frequently asked questions
- Does Large Trade Ratio measure individual order size?
- No. It measures how much of a bar's volume printed on its busiest price levels, which is concentration by price and not by order. A level with a high volume may have been built by one large trade or by hundreds of small ones, and this indicator cannot separate the two cases.
- Why does a small bar show 100%?
- The top-levels setting is clamped to the number of levels the bar contains. When a bar has three levels or fewer and the setting is three, the selected levels are the entire bar, so the ratio is exactly 100%. That is a correct value rather than an artefact, but it carries no information about concentration.
- How does it differ from a percentile-based distribution?
- A percentile adapts to the bar: on a tall bar it retains more levels, on a short one fewer. A fixed count of three levels stays three whatever the bar's height, which makes the resulting series comparable from one bar to the next. The two are complementary — the percentile describes the shape of the distribution, the fixed count describes the load on the few prices that mattered.