Author: AlphaTrade

Last Updated: October 16, 2023

Disclaimer:
It's essential to recognize that the information provided here has been analyzed or gathered
from Lewis's periodic educational content across various channels, trade chats, or YouTube
videos. There may be inaccuracies or omissions, and we welcome any corrections or
clarifications. We owe a profound debt of gratitude to Lewis for his invaluable contributions to
the community. Thank you, Lewis, for everything.

Reference:
221103 морской конек Footprint Trading Examples
LIVE Scalping with Sierra Chart and Footprint Order Flow with Lewis De Payne.
Goal
- Explain different parts and components of the active trading panel
- How to use each of the panel
- Identify signals that indicate a potential trade is forming from different panel
- Common practice to glue multiple component’s signals to make a trade
Trading Panel

There are four primary sections within an active trading day. These are:
1. Bigfoot Algo
2. Old Faithful
3. Compass Tooling
4. Zone Overlaps

Throughout this document, we will delve into each panel, detailing its components and the
purpose of those elements. It's important to understand that these elements might evolve over
time. I'll endeavor to keep the information updated as changes occur.

Bigfoot Algo

Why
We want to analyze the market based on price rather than time. If the price doesn’t change,
then time holds no value. 'Bigfoot' is represented by a 3.5 Range chart. This means that when a
new candle appears, the price has shifted by 3.5 units. Price doesn’t move on its own; it moves
due to liquidity. This 3.5 Range chart will help us understand why the price shifted. We can
determine who's in control of the movement, whether it's the buyers or sellers, and identify who
might be trapped or exhausted. All this information should be derived from this chart.
Basic
This features a 3.5 Range footprint chart. Lewis is the mastermind behind these algorithms,
possessing intricate knowledge of the nuances and intricacies involved. Several components
make up this panel, and we will explore them:
- Footprint Chat
- Daily VWAP with +/- 2.5 STD (referred to as zone STD)
- On the right side of the panel, the LOB stack is displayed (filter specifics are currently
uncertain).
- Green and yellow shaded circles represent large orders.

Details
The footprint chart is a topic of substantial discussion and is an immensely powerful tool for
indicating scalps or reversals. Lewis provided some clarifications on its features:

Left Volume: This

shows the volume on
the left side.

Middle: Represents - Red spine is

the candle or the the candle
spine of the chart.
Right Buyer/Seller - Green buyer
Delta: Shows the - Red seller
difference between
buyers and sellers.

POC (Point of - Sometimes

Control): Denoted by you can see
a white dot in the probe failed
with yellow
middle.
circle and
yellow line
extension
- That’s a very
strong signal

Gray Dash:
Secondary point of
control

High COT: Numbers

enclosed within a red
rectangle or with a
yellow shaded zero
on top.

Low COT: Numbers

within a green
rectangle or gray
shaded zero at the
bottom.
Yellow Rectangle on impulsive buy in
Volume or general. it looks like
Buyer/Seller Delta: this on the footprint.
Indicate top or usually indicating
sometimes double buyers ran out of
top which indicate gas when the
buyer or seller candle ends in red;
trapped in FOMO or put in other
words, lack of
initiation

Delta Top (DT):

Represented by a
yellow line at the top
of the chart.

Delta Bottom (DB):

Indicated by a yellow
line at the bottom.

STO with Shaded

Background: When
found at the top, this
is a crucial signal for
going short,
especially when
paired with the
"морской конек"
chart, which we will
explore further later.
BTO: Located at the
bottom of the
"морской конек"
chart, it is a vital
signal for buying.

Yellow Circle at
POC: Indicates a
failed probe.

Yellow and Orange

POC Extensions:
Act as support or
resistance markers,
hinting at potential
zones for future
trades or reactions.

Additional Numbers
at the Bottom: Their
significance remains
unknown at this time.

Major signals
- морской конек chart (make sure you understand that)
- BTO / STO
- Delta Top (DT) / Delta Bottom (DB)
Examples
The basics behind my footprint bars. Make sure you are interpreting "strong" and "weak" delta
properly, by looking at the volume column - weak volume plus strong delta still equates to weak
delta.
Here is how you can read:
- Green arrow is the long signal
- Fat buyer and asorved seller
- Top blue line is the DELTA TOP to short
- When Spine is green and FAT volume absorbtion happen then buyer in control and high
possibility of the bottom reversal and vice versa for short at the top
Trade signal use case:
- Sea horse
- BTO with Delta bottom (yellow)
One trick:
- note how that [STO] has the outline of a red candle, and not every bar does. The outline
only appears when a bar meets certain criteria.
- Combine that with other signals, and it's a stronger probability trade. Combine that with a
zone (including VWAP, Std Dev, LOB, B6, or retests) and you have an even stronger
trade.
This is just chop city. My rules: Do not trade within the cluster of lines. If scalp, do so only from
an outer edge inward. Simplified: Don't diddle in the middle.
Double-tap off +2.5 VWAP (red band), among other conditions exhibiting confluence. Same
showed on Compass Tooling chart, with a yellow diamond at top of bar.
Comparing the BTO signals, you can guess that bars with red (see STO bar) or green (see last
BTO bar) solid circle above are important. Look at all the other indicators on the valid BTO bar,
compared to the failed BTO bars.
Old Faithful

Why
At any given time, we want to understand how ES is trending, identify its support and
resistance levels, and see how it aligns with the major six tickers of SPY. We're also
interested in stacked liquidity and the activities of market makers (MM). Old faithful will
give a snapshot of the bigger picture.

Basic
These annotations describe the various nuances of the Old Faithful chart (usually the
upper left chart in the chartbook). This is a 3.75 range chart. Note that this is subject to
change without notice. A few updates since this illustration:
- [B6] = Big-6 Confluence indicator ("C" in this old edition)
- [LOB] = Limit Order Book Imbalance ("-213" in this old edition)
- [PVT] = Price Volume Trend (not shown at all here)
- [CDV] = Cumulative Delta Value (if shown) (edited)
Major signals
- B6 is the trend change
- Matrix long or short (Yellow dot)

Examples
Now, below is an attempt at catching the bottom of that free-fall.
- In [A] (which was good for my usual T1 scalp of 2.00P), you can see LOB pull/stack
begin to rearrange, yet Big-6 confluence continues its price decline.
- In [B], you see similar (with a lot of chop and absorption)... pull/stack turns around but
Big-6 price confluence just flattens out. These are false bottoms!
Compass Tooling

It’s a 1.75 range chart which mean very fast reacting. It’s composed with B6, LOB and 2.5
VWAP along with voltic indicator.

VOLITIC SIGNALS: Smart volitic signals have nothing to do with large trades or icebergs. Lew
has taken Ray's concept and applied it to a three-dimensional study of flows. He's not done
coding all of it yet, so there are still setup opportunities it is blind to. In addition, it does not "see"
other studies so you still need to determine confluence.

Volitic 3 Dimensional: 1st derivative of incoming buys, 1st derivative of incoming sells, ratio of
the derivative (with limits). 2nd derivative of volume. Effort first (how much delta required for
price to step outside the band). Followed by 3rd derivative which is analysis of correlation
between these. Like Lew mentioned, it's not optimum yet... he's only coded shortcuts and
estimates to the actual math.

- 1st derivative - The derivative of incoming buys is: how much the buys are changing? So
you are actually splitting the delta into its two components - buys and sells and see how
they are changing respectively (1st derivative of buys, 1st derivative of sells)

- 2nd derivative - The 2nd derivative of volume would be the acceleration/deceleration of

volume. But it's easy to pick up outliers and skew the results, so a data normalization
routine must be used.

- 3rd derivative - Analysis of correlation between these two.

LARGE TRADES TEND TO SKEW RESULTS....There's a way to tell if they are relevant or not,
by using a mirror study of the data... but that's more than he cares to code right now.

Squares... red above (short)

or green below (long), along
with audio alerts (volitic long,
volitic short).

Red candle with Yellow line

signals (Buyers Exhausted)
barflow friction

Red candle with Red line

signal, (bar orderflow
reversal)
Green candle with Yellow line
signals (Seller Exhausted)
barflow friction

Green candle with Red line

signal (bar orderflow reversal)

Big yellow DIAMOND is

double auction bottoms/tops

Big yellow TRIANGLE is

long/short delta threshold
shift

BLUE DOT indicates

completed auction
top/bottom, usually a line
forms if additional criteria is
met

PLUS signs in candles

indicates a shift in orderflows
Zone Overlaps

Why
Price move towards liquidity and knowing where is the liquidity is one of the key on your trading
edge. Looking at it will provide where is the liquidity and if liquidity is in your direction stacked
that mean you have higher % to be the winner.

Basic
It’s 5 min chart along with stacked liquidity node presenting real time.
Trade execution
How to take the trade will be completely unique person to person. At this moment this what I’m
trying:

From Lewis:

“You consider looking at a

possible trade when a signal
is given. You use B6 and
LOB as confluence indicators
for that trade, not the other
way around. In other words,
you do not use B6 and LOB
as signals.”

“Smart Voltic is an extremely

powerful signal when
combined with confluence
indicators. However, the
Compass Tooling chart that
displays it is meant for much
smaller scalps.”

Signals
- Wait for price to go some major levels (S/R, VWAP, +/-STD cloud)
- Wait for морской конек to form (long or short side)
- Wait for buyer / seller exhaustion / BTO / STO / DT / DB etc that indicate it’s ready to
reverse
- Remember, the more you have the stronger your probability
- BTO
- Circles or square above or bottom
- Along with морской конек
- B6 aligned
 - Liquidity stacked on your direction

Trade:
- When морской конек comple, take the trade on next new candle with 2.5 SL and T1 2
and T2 4 or more
- (I’m trying exactly how Lewis is doing)
Use cases
- Voltic short
- Matrix short
- Delta Top
- Prob failed at the top
- Red spine and buyer at the wick
- Buyer delta > Seller delta
- Low COT positive to High COT big negative
Think in terms of zones, not lines. Each line is a zone of perhaps +/- 2 points, depending on
formations. When two colors are nearby, there is likely to be contention and sideways action as
buyer/seller push/pull unfolds until exhaustion from one or the other.
Analysis:

Weekend thoughts: Oct 14, 2023

Bigfoot plays a significant role in determining entry and exit points, as it generates trade alerts.
However, whether you want to convert that alert into a trade might not be clear at that moment.
This means Bigfoot is utilized for trade execution, not for trade signals. The difference between
signals and alerts is that signals indicate something is primed for a certain direction, or the
market is ready to move, whereas an alert communicates that, yes, we can execute the trade
now. Bigfoot might generate an alert for a short position while the market sentiment at that time
is actually long, which could reduce the probability of the alert being successful. The question
then becomes: How can we first obtain the signals so that our probability of winning is high?

To address this problem, Old Faithful (OF) enters the picture. I believe OF is the key area for
signals, priming us for the next alert. Only execute trades that align with OF signals. There are
many components in OF that can be combined to generate the signals. I'd like to know how
everyone is using OF to increase the probability for Bigfoot.