Published
The principle
Not every execution carries the same weight: a 200-lot print doesn't mean the same thing as a handful of retail trades. Spotting large activity — the players who actually move the market — is at the heart of reading order flow.
What DeepCharts does better
Deep Trades (introduced in v15.6) uses MBO data to isolate large activity and classify it directly on the chart via four symbol types (open circle, filled circle, square, diamond). That fine classification requires tracking each order individually: it's out of reach for the aggregated data many tools display.
Using it day to day
Day to day, let it mark large activity and watch where the symbols cluster. It's most meaningful on liquid institutional futures — NQ, ES, FDAX, Bund — where large activity is frequent and significant.
Example: a knot of large symbols appears at an ES low, against a liquidity wall visible on the heatmap. Price fails to break and bounces: big buyers came to absorb the decline. The Deep Trades cluster materialized an institutional entry live.
⚠ The trap to avoid
The trap: following every big trade as a directional signal. A large execution can be an initiation (price follows) or an absorption (price stalls). It's how price reacts around the trade, not its size alone, that gives the direction.
Combine it with
Combine it with the heatmap (the wall receiving the large activity), the footprint and delta: Deep Trades tells who's hitting hard, the others tell whether the level holds.
FAQ
What is the Deep Trades indicator?+
A DeepCharts indicator (v15.6) based on MBO data that isolates and classifies large market activity on the chart, via four symbol types (open circle, filled circle, square, diamond).
How is it different from the Big Trades view?+
In v15.6, the old 'Deep Trades' was renamed 'Big Trades' (functionality unchanged), and Deep Trades now refers to this new MBO indicator that classifies large activity.
Why does it need MBO data?+
Because classifying large executions cleanly requires tracking each order individually. On aggregated data, the needed resolution is lost.
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