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Max Delta — Delta, in its own panel below the chart.
What Max Delta measures
The indicator reads the optional intrabar high-delta field placed on a bar by the backend when the tick source supplies it, and skips any bar where that field is missing or not finite rather than substituting a value. Because the column shows a peak and not a close, the interesting comparison is between the two: a tall peak next to a modest closing delta means buyers pressed and then met supply. A negative reading is meaningful in its own right, and is drawn in grey rather than red: it means the running delta never rose above zero at any moment of the bar, so sellers were ahead from the first tick to the last.
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:
Delta maximum INTRA-barre : lit `deltaHigh`, champ OPTIONNEL de FootprintBar posé par le backend quand la source tick le fournit — cet extrême n'est PAS reconstructible depuis les niveaux agrégés (l'ordre des ticks est perdu). Barre sans le champ (ou non fini) → pas de point : on n'invente JAMAIS un extrême intra-barre. Complément histogramme de la paire de lignes `min-max-delta` (delta.ts).
How to read it
- Compare each column with the bar's closing delta; the shortfall between them is the part of the buying push that was given back or absorbed.
- A grey, negative column says the bar was never net bought at any instant, which is stronger information than a simply negative closing delta.
- Peaks that shrink over several bars while price continues higher describe each new push being carried by less aggressive buying.
- A peak barely above the closing delta describes buying that held what it took, without a visible counter-move inside the bar.
- Peaks scale with bar volume, so compare them within the same session and bar type rather than across an open and a quiet period.
Parameters and defaults
Positive columns default to #26a69a and negative ones to the neutral grey #9e9e9e, a deliberate pairing that keeps the negative case readable as an absence of buying rather than as selling strength. Smoothing defaults to 1; since the series is made of peaks, averaging it over up to 200 bars removes the isolated spikes that give the indicator its purpose.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoothing | number | 1 | 1 – 200 |
What it does not show
The column reports only how high delta got, never at which second of the bar or for how long, so a fleeting spike and a sustained push are indistinguishable. It requires a tick-level feed with aggressor classification, and that data is provided and invoiced by the market data vendor, so some instruments or history ranges simply have no value to show. A high peak also says nothing about what met it: the resting orders that absorbed the push are not part of this calculation.
Related indicators
- Delta min/max — Delta
- Price/Delta Divergence — Delta
- Delta % Histogram — Delta
- Min Delta — Delta
- Trades Delta — Delta
- Bid/Ask Ratio % — Delta
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Frequently asked questions
- What is max delta in orderflow?
- Max delta is the highest point reached by the cumulative delta inside a single bar. Since delta builds tick by tick during the bar, it traces a path, and max delta is the top of that path. Traders read it against the closing delta to see how much of the buying pressure survived until the end of the bar.
- What does a negative max delta mean?
- It means the running delta stayed below zero for the entire bar, including its best moment for buyers. Sellers were net ahead from the first tick to the last, with no point at which aggressive buying pulled the bar into positive territory. In this indicator that case is drawn in grey to mark it as an absence of buying rather than as an extreme.
- Why is max delta unavailable on some instruments?
- The value comes from the tick stream at the time the bar is built, and only sources that deliver individual trades with an aggressor side can supply it. When a chart is fed by aggregated data, or when historical depth does not include ticks, the field is absent and the indicator leaves the bar empty. Market data of that kind is contracted from the provider and billed separately from the application.