How to read a footprint chart

The layout

Each candle becomes a column of rows, one row per price level (or per group of prices). Each row shows the volume that traded at that price. Depending on the mode, that is split into sell volume (trades that hit the bid) and buy volume (trades that lifted the ask), or shown as one number: delta.

Colour shows which side was stronger. Under the chart, Bar Stats in DM Charts sum up each candle: bought, sold, total and delta.

Delta

Delta is buy volume minus sell volume, using the aggressor side. A row with delta +150 means 150 more coins were bought with market orders than sold at that price.

Bar delta is the same for the whole candle. A green candle with strongly negative delta is worth noticing: sellers were aggressive but price still rose, so passive buyers took everything they sold.

Point of control inside the candle

The row with the most volume is the candle's point of control. If it sits at the top of an up candle, buyers did most of their trading at the highs, which can mean late buying. If it sits low in the candle, most of the business was done before the move up.

Imbalances

Footprint traders compare buying at one price with selling one level below it, because that is how the two sides of the book meet. When one side is several times bigger (300% is a common setting), that is an imbalance. Several imbalances stacked on consecutive prices show one side taking over, and those zones often act as support or resistance later.

Absorption and exhaustion

• Absorption: large aggressive volume at a price, but price does not move through it. At a low, heavy selling that fails to push lower often means a buyer is absorbing it.
• Exhaustion: at the end of a move, volume at the extreme prices gets thin. Nobody is left to keep pushing.
• Unfinished auction: a candle's high or low has volume on both sides. Price often comes back to finish trading there.

A simple way to start

Pick one market and one timeframe, such as Bitcoin on 5 minutes. Watch the bar delta at swing highs and lows for a few days. Then add CVD, and look for moments where price and delta disagree. Replay helps: you can play past sessions bar by bar and read each footprint as it forms.

Open a free footprint chart to follow along.