Level Count Indicator: Formula, Settings and How to Read It
Level Count reports how many distinct price levels actually traded inside each bar, counting only levels with non-zero quantity. It measures the dispersion of activity independently of volume: two bars carrying the same volume can print across three levels or across forty.
Senzoukria · Indicators · Updated September 2026
Level Count ships with the Senzoukria desktop app, in the Volume group of the indicator catalogue. It is drawn in its own panel below the chart.
What Level Count measures
The value is the number of distinct keys among the bar's tradable price levels, with zero-quantity levels excluded because a level that never traded was not touched. Zero is a measured outcome here, not a gap — a placeholder bar with no ticks genuinely touched zero levels, and the point is still emitted. Because the count can never be negative, the histogram uses a single colour on both channels. Compared with the bar's range, the difference exposes hollow bars: a wide range crossed on very few traded levels.
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:
Nombre de niveaux de prix TOUCHÉS dans la barre = nombre de clés distinctes parmi les niveaux exploitables (qty = 0 exclu : un niveau à volume nul n'a pas été traité). POURQUOI : mesure la DISPERSION de l'activité indépendamment du volume. Peu de niveaux + gros volume = enchère verrouillée (rotation) ; beaucoup de niveaux + volume comparable = le prix a balayé sans se faire absorber. Comparé au range (high − low), l'écart révèle les barres creuses. Convention : 0 est une VALEUR MESURÉE, pas une absence d'information — une barre placeholder sans aucun tick a bien touché zéro niveau, on émet le point. (Différent d'un rapport, où 0 au dénominateur interdit d'émettre.) Toujours ≥ 0 → une seule couleur sur les deux canaux de l'histogramme.
How to read it
- Few levels combined with heavy volume describes a locked auction — size changing hands in a narrow band, usually rotation around a level.
- Many levels with comparable volume describes a sweep: price travelled through the book without being absorbed anywhere in particular.
- Compare the count with the bar's range in ticks. A range much wider than the number of traded levels means the bar left untraded prices behind it.
- A count narrowing over consecutive bars after a move marks activity concentrating into a band; read it alongside the footprint rather than alone.
- Zero readings are real measurements — those bars traded nothing — so do not mistake them for missing data.
Parameters and defaults
Smoothing defaults to 1, so each bar's count is plotted exactly as measured; larger values up to 200 average the count and turn the pane into a dispersion baseline against which individual bars can be judged. Grey (#9e9e9e) is the default, and the same colour serves both histogram channels since the count cannot go negative.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoothing | number | 1 | 1 – 200 |
What it does not show
The count depends on tick size and on the price granularity of the feed: the same market sampled at a coarser increment yields fewer levels for identical activity, so values cannot be compared across instruments or across data sources. It says nothing about volume, direction or aggressor side — a forty-level bar may be one lot at each level. Time-based bars with no trades report zero, which is correct but will dominate the pane during quiet hours. A level touched by a single contract counts exactly as much as a level where hundreds traded.
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
- Volume — Volume
- Buy/Sell Volume — Volume
- Average Trade Size — Volume
- Volume ROC % — Volume
- Relative Volume — Volume
- Trade Count — Volume
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 does the number of traded price levels in a bar tell you?
- It tells you how widely the bar's activity was spread across prices, separately from how much traded. A low count with high volume points to an auction working a narrow band; a high count with similar volume points to price moving through the book without settling anywhere.
- Is a level count of zero the same as missing data?
- No. Zero means the bar genuinely touched no price level with a non-zero quantity — nothing traded during that interval. The indicator emits the point rather than a gap, because zero is a measurement here and not an absence of information.
- How is level count different from the bar's range?
- The range spans the highest and lowest prices reached, including prices where nothing traded. Level count only counts the prices that actually traded. Comparing the two reveals hollow bars: a wide range crossed on few traded levels means price passed through without transacting much on the way.