Realtime Delta Volume Action [LucF]█ OVERVIEW
This indicator displays on-chart, realtime, delta volume and delta ticks information for each bar. It aims to provide traders who trade price action on small timeframes with volume and tick information gathered as updates come in the chart's feed. It builds its own candles, which are optimized to display volume delta information. It only works in realtime.
█ WARNING
This script is intended for traders who can already profitably trade discretionary on small timeframes. The high cost in fees and the excitement of trading at small timeframes have ruined many newcomers to trading. While trading at small timeframes can work magic for adrenaline junkies in search of thrills rather than profits, I DO NOT recommend it to most traders. Only seasoned discretionary traders able to factor in the relatively high cost of such a trading practice can ever hope to take money out of markets in that type of environment, and I would venture they account for an infinitesimal percentage of traders. If you are a newcomer to trading, AVOID THIS TOOL AT ALL COSTS — unless you are interested in experimenting with the interpretation of volume delta combined with price action. No tool currently available on TradingView provides this type of close monitoring of volume delta information, but if you are not already trading small timeframes profitably, please do not let yourself become convinced that it is the missing piece you needed. Avoid becoming a sucker who only contributes by providing liquidity to markets.
The information calculated by the indicator cannot be saved on charts, nor can it be recalculated from historical bars.
If you refresh the chart or restart the script, the accumulated information will be lost.
█ FEATURES
Key values
The script displays the following key values:
• Above the bar: ticks delta (DT), the total ticks for the bar, the percentage of total ticks that DT represents (DT%)
• Below the bar: volume delta (DV), the total volume for the bar, the percentage of total volume that DV represents (DV%).
Candles
Candles are composed of four components:
1. A top shaped like this: ┴, and a bottom shaped like this: ┬ (picture a normal Japanese candle without a body outline; the values used are the same).
2. The candle bodies are filled with the bull/bear color representing the polarity of DV. The intensity of the body's color is determined by the DV% value.
When DV% is 100, the intensity of the fill is brightest. This plays well in interpreting the body colors, as the smaller, less significant DV% values will produce less vivid colors.
3. The bright-colored borders of the candle bodies occur on "strong bars", i.e., bars meeting the criteria selected in the script's inputs, which you can configure.
4. The POC line is a small horizontal line that appears to the left of the candle. It is the volume-weighted average of all price updates during the bar.
Calculations
This script monitors each realtime update of the chart's feed. It first determines if price has moved up or down since the last update. The polarity of the price change, in turn, determines the polarity of the volume and tick for that specific update. If price does not move between consecutive updates, then the last known polarity is used. Using this method, we can calculate a running volume delta and ticks delta for the bar, which becomes the bar's final delta values when the bar closes (you can inspect values of elapsed realtime bars in the Data Window or the indicator's values). Note that these values will all reset if the script re-executes because of a change in inputs or a chart refresh.
While this method of calculating is not perfect, it is by far the most precise way of calculating volume delta available on TradingView at the moment. Calculating more precise results would require scripts to have access to tick data from any chart timeframe. Charts at seconds timeframes do use exchange/broker ticks when the feeds you are using allow for it, and this indicator will run on them, but tick data is not yet available from higher timeframes. Also, note that the method used in this script is far superior to the intrabar inspection technique used on historical bars in my other "Delta Volume" indicators. This is because volume and ticks delta here are calculated from many more realtime updates than the available intrabars in history. Unfortunately, the calculation method used here cannot be used on historical bars, where intrabar inspection remains, in my opinion, the optimal method.
Inputs
The script's inputs provide many ways to personalize all the components: what is displayed, the colors used to display the information, and the marker conditions. Tooltips provide details for many of the inputs; I leave their exploration to you.
Markers
Markers provide a way for you to identify the points of interest of your choice on the chart. You control the set of conditions that trigger each of the five available markers.
You select conditions by entering, in the field for each marker, the number of each condition you want to include, separated by a comma. The conditions are:
1 — The bar's polarity is up/dn.
2 — `close` rises/falls ("rises" means it is higher than its value on the previous bar).
3 — DV's polarity is +/–.
4 — DV% rises (↕).
5 — POC rises/falls.
6 — The quantity of realtime updates rises (↕).
7 — DV > limit (You specify the limit in the inputs. Since DV can be +/–, DV– must be less than `–limit` for a short marker).
8 — DV% > limit (↕).
9 — DV+ rises for a long marker, DV– falls for a short.
10 — Consecutive DV+/DV– on two bars.
11 — Total volume rises (↕).
12 — DT's polarity is +/–.
13 — DT% rises (↕).
14 — DT+ rises for a long marker, DT– falls for a short.
Conditions showing the (↕) symbol do not have symmetrical states; they act more like filters. If you only include condition 4 in a marker's setup, for example, both long and short markers will trigger on bars where DV% rises. To trigger only long or short markers, you must add a condition providing directional differentiation, such as conditions 1 or 2. Accordingly, you would enter "1,4" or "2,4".
For a marker to trigger, ALL the conditions you specified for it must be met. Long markers appear on the chart as "Mx▲" signs under the values displayed below candles. Short markers display "Mx▼" over the number of updates displayed above candles. The marker's number will replace the "x" in "Mx▲". The script loads with five markers that will not trigger because no conditions are associated with them. To activate markers, you will need to select and enter the set of conditions you require for each one.
Alerts
You can configure alerts on this script. They will trigger whenever one of the configured markers triggers. Alerts do not repaint, so they trigger at the bar's close—which is also when the markers will appear.
█ HOW TO USE IT
As a rule, I do not prescribe expected use of my indicators, as traders have proved to be much more creative than me in using them. Additionally, I tend to think that if you expect detailed recommendations from me to be able to use my indicators, it's a sign you are in a precarious situation and should go back to the drawing board and master the necessary basics that will allow you to explore and decide for yourself if my indicators can be useful to you, and how you will use them. I will make an exception for this thing, as it presents fairly novel information. I will use simple logic to surmise potential uses, as contrary to most of my other indicators, I have NOT used this one to actually trade. Markets have a way of throwing wrenches in our seemingly bullet-proof rationalizing, so drive cautiously and please forgive me if the pointers I share here don't pan out.
The first thing to do is to disable your normal bars. You can do this by clicking on the eye icon that appears when you hover over the symbol's name in the upper-left corner of your chart.
The absolute value and polarity of DV mean little without perspective; that's why I include both total volume for the bar and the percentage that DV represents of that total volume. I interpret a low DV% value as indecision. If you share that opinion, you could, let's say, configure one of the markers on "DV% > 80%", for example (to do so you would enter "8" in the condition field of any marker, and "80" in the limit field for condition 8, below the marker conditions).
I also like to analyze price action on the bar with DV%. Small DV% values should often produce small candle bodies. If a small DV% value occurs on a bar with much movement and high volume, I'm thinking "tough battle with potential explosive power when one side wins". Conversely, large bodies with high DV% mean that large volume is breaching through multiple levels, or that nobody is suddenly willing to take the other side of a normal volume of trades.
I find the POC lines really interesting. First, they tell us the price point where the most significant action (taking into account both price occurrences AND volume) during the bar occurred. Second, they can be useful when compared against past values. Third, their color helps us in figuring out which ones are the most significant. Unsurprisingly, bunches of orange POCs tend to appear in consolidation zones, in pauses, and before reversals. It may be useful to often focus more on POC progression than on `close` values. This is not to say that OHLC values are not useful; looking, as is customary, for higher highs or lower lows, or for repeated tests of precise levels can of course still be useful. I do like how POCs add another dimension to chart readings.
What should you do with the ticks delta above bars? Old-time ticker tape readers paid attention to the sounds coming from it (the "ticker" moniker actually comes from the sound they made). They knew activity was picking up when the frequency of the "ticks" increased. My thinking is that the total number of ticks will help you in the same way, since increasing updates usually mean growing interest—and thus perhaps price movement, as increasing volatility or volume would lead us to surmise. Ticks delta can help you figure out when proportionally large, random orders come in from traders with other perspectives than the short-term price action you are typically working with when you use this tool. Just as volume delta, ticks delta are one more informational component that can help you confirm convergence when building your opinions on price action.
What are strong bars? They are an attempt to identify significance. They are like a default marker, except that instead of displaying "Mx▲/▼" below/above the bar, the candle's body is outlined in bright bull/bear color when one is detected. Strong bars require a respectable amount of conditions to be met (you can see and re-configure them in the inputs). Think of them as pushes rather than indications of an upcoming, strong and multi-bar move. Pushes do, for sure, often occur at the beginning of strong trends. You will often see a few strong bars occur at 2-3 bar intervals at the beginning or middle of trends. But they also tend to occur at tops/bottoms, which makes their interpretation problematic. Another pattern that you will see quite frequently is a final strong bar in the direction of the trend, followed a few bars later by another strong bar in the reverse direction. My summary analyses seemed to indicate these were perhaps good points where one could make a bet on an early, risky reversal entry.
The last piece of information displayed by the indicator is the color of the candle bodies. Three possible colors are used. Bull/bear is determined by the polarity of DV, but only when the bar's polarity matches that of DV. When it doesn't, the color is the divergence color (orange, by default). Whichever color is used for the body, its intensity is determined by the DV% value. Maximum intensity occurs when DV%=100, so the more significant DV% values generate more noticeable colors. Body colors can be useful when looking to confirm the convergence of other components. The visual effect this creates hopefully makes it easier to detect patterns on the chart.
One obvious methodology that comes to mind to trade with this tool would be to use another indicator like Technical Ratings at a higher timeframe to identify the larger context's trend, and then use this tool to identify entries for short-term trades in that direction.
█ NOTES AND RAMBLINGS
Instant Calculations
This indicator uses instant values calculated on the bar only. No moving averages or calculations involving historical periods are used. The only exception to this rule is in some of the marker conditions like "Two consecutive DV+ values", where information from the previous bar is used.
Trading Small vs Long Timeframes
I never trade discretionary at the 5sec–5min timeframes this indicator was designed to be used with; I trade discretionary at 1D, 1W and 1M timeframes, and let systems trade at smaller timeframes. The higher the timeframe you trade at, the fewer fees you will pay because you trade less and are not churning trading volume, as is inevitable at smaller timeframes. Trading at higher timeframes is also a good way to gain an instant edge on most of the trading crowd that has its nose to the ground and often tends to forget the big picture. It also makes for a much less demanding trading practice, where you have lots of time to research and build your long-term opinions on potential future outcomes. While the future is always uncertain, I believe trades riding on long-term trends have stronger underlying support from the reality outside markets.
To traders who will ask why I publish an indicator designed for small timeframes, let me say that my main purpose here is to showcase what can be done with Pine. I often see comments by coders who are obviously not aware of what Pine is capable of in 2021. Since its humble beginnings seven years ago, Pine has grown and become a serious programming language. TradingView's growing popularity and its ongoing commitment to keep Pine accessible to newcomers to programming is gradually making Pine more and more of a standard in indicator and strategy programming. The technical barriers to entry for traders interested in owning their trading practice by developing their personal tools to trade have never been so low. I am also publishing this script because I value volume delta information, and I present here what I think is an original way of analyzing it.
Performance
The script puts a heavy load on the Pine runtime and the charting engine. After running the script for a while, you will often notice your chart becoming less responsive, and your chart tab can take longer to activate when you go back to it after using other tabs. That is the reason I encourage you to set the number of historical values displayed on bars to the minimum that meets your needs. When your chart becomes less responsive because the script has been running on it for many hours, refreshing the browser tab will restart everything and bring the chart's speed back up. You will then lose the information displayed on elapsed bars.
Neutral Volume
This script represents a departure from the way I have previously calculated volume delta in my scripts. I used the notion of "neutral volume" when inspecting intrabar timeframes, for bars where price did not move. No longer. While this had little impact when using intrabar inspection because the minimum usable timeframe was 1min (where bars with zero movement are relatively infrequent), a more precise way was required to handle realtime updates, where multiple consecutive prices often have the same value. This will usually happen whenever orders are unable to move across the bid/ask levels, either because of slow action or because a large-volume bid/ask level is taking time to breach. In either case, the proper way to calculate the polarity of volume delta for those updates is to use the last known polarity, which is how I calculate now.
The Order Book
Without access to the order book's levels (the depth of market), we are limited to analyzing transactions that come in the TradingView feed for the chart. That does not mean the volume delta information calculated this way is irrelevant; on the contrary, much of the information calculated here is not available in trading consoles supplied by exchanges/brokers. Yet it's important to realize that without access to the order book, you are forfeiting the valuable information that can be gleaned from it. The order book's levels are always in movement, of course, and some of the information they contain is mere posturing, i.e., attempts to influence the behavior of other players in the market by traders/systems who will often remove their orders when price comes near their order levels. Nonetheless, the order book is an essential tool for serious traders operating at intraday timeframes. It can be used to time entries/exits, to explain the causes of particular price movements, to determine optimal stop levels, to get to know the traders/systems you are betting against (they tend to exhibit behavioral patterns only recognizable through the order book), etc. This tool in no way makes the order book less useful; I encourage all intraday traders to become familiar with it and avoid trading without one.
