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What is Deep Liquidity Scan?
The order book holds two different pieces of information: where the resting orders sit, and how much size they carry in total. The heatmap answers the first question beautifully and the second one poorly, because the eye is bad at comparing two clouds of colour. Deep Liquidity Scan aggregates the passive liquidity resting on the bid and on the ask across a chosen depth, plots both as curves, and adds their net difference. You move from a picture to a measurement.
What DeepCharts does better
The depth analysed is a setting, not a constraint: the Num Lev Depth field runs from a handful of levels glued to price up to two hundred levels, something only order-by-order data can sustain. The calculation mode changes the question asked: in Normal every level counts the same, in Exponential the levels near price count more, with an Exp Half-Weight Lev parameter setting how fast the weight decays. Two filters then decide what counts: Value Reference compares the reading to the last one or to its historical peak, and Level Mode isolates fresh liquidity, persistent liquidity, or keeps everything. Finally the bid, ask and delta axes are configured separately, otherwise the widest curve flattens the others.
Using it day to day
Start in Normal mode, no smoothing, with a wide depth to see the underlying structure, then drop to twenty levels when you are working an entry: those are not the same markets. Fresh Only is there to watch intent building during a level test, Persistent Only to tell a real wall from a stack of orders that come and go. Smoothing up to one minute helps on liquid futures like NQ or ES, where the raw reading flickers too fast to be read live.
Typical case: price comes back to test the session high. On the heatmap everything looks normal. On the Liquidity Scan the ask curve collapses while the bid curve rises, and the delta swings clearly positive. Nobody is defending the level above any more: the book has gone thin, and the break will cost very few contracts to whoever attempts it.
⚠ The trap to avoid
The trap is reading that delta as a directional signal. Passive liquidity is an intention, not a commitment: it cancels in one click, and a large displayed bid sometimes exists precisely to be seen. A liquidity reading is context, never an entry. The second trap is comparing two different settings without realising it: the same session in Normal mode over two hundred levels and in Exponential mode over twenty tells two different stories.
Combine it with
The Liquidity Scan measures, the heatmap locates, the footprint executes. The combination that pays is simple: the Scan tells you one side of the book is emptying, the heatmap tells you at exactly which price, and the footprint tells you whether the incoming aggression goes through or gets absorbed. Deep Reload completes the picture by flagging the moment the vanished liquidity comes back.
FAQ
How is it different from the liquidity heatmap?+
The heatmap is spatial: it shows at which prices resting orders sit. Deep Liquidity Scan is quantitative: it sums that liquidity on the bid and the ask across the chosen depth and plots their difference. One answers where, the other answers how much.
Normal mode or Exponential mode?+
Normal mode gives every analysed level the same weight, which suits a background reading. Exponential mode gives more weight to levels near price, which fits an entry decision better since distant liquidity is unlikely to be touched within the minute.
What do Fresh Only and Persistent Only change?+
Fresh Only counts only recently posted liquidity, useful to watch intent appear during a test. Persistent Only keeps the liquidity that lasts, useful to tell a genuine wall from an unstable stack.
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