Line modes

The chart plots one of two families of lines. By default the console, the ladder and every alert follow the line the chart is set to: the core line in Flow mode, the Buy and Sell lines in Buy / Sell mode. Console Mode lets the console read the other family instead (see below).

Resistance and Support lines are always drawn.

Why modes rather than toggles: the two families live on very different scales. The buy and sell lines are running totals of one side of the book, which on a busy instrument can reach tens of thousands of contracts, while Total Flow is their difference, often a few thousand. Plotting them together squashed the flow lines flat. One family per panel keeps every line readable.

The Delta line

Earlier versions had a separate Delta line: buy-side flow minus sell-side flow. In Flow mode it is the Passive Flow line. The Buy / Sell mode has it too, as the Delta Line, so a 2.x layout with Buy, Sell and Delta can be set up again. See buy & sell lines.

Switching modes

Choose Line Mode on the Indicator Settings tab of the study's settings and click Update. The lines already drawn are kept and redrawn in the new mode.

Switching modes does not restart the warm-up of the flow lines: the flow engine keeps its history and the chart is redrawn in the new mode. The Buy / Sell band is kept only while a chart is in Buy / Sell mode or its console reads Buy / Sell (Console Mode), so it starts when you switch to that mode and warms up over its full lookback (25 minutes at the defaults). Over the bars before the switch it shows as a dashed grey line at zero.

Console Mode

The console tile and the chart can read different families of lines. For example, a chart in Buy / Sell mode gives you the precise side-by-side picture of the book, while a console in Flow mode gives you the broader reading of the core line. The two show different information, and some traders may find them useful together.

What follows which setting:

The tile always says what it reads. When Console Mode makes the console read a different family from the chart, the tile names both, for example Total Flow (chart: Buy / Sell), and the headline names the line itself (Total Flow +1.2σ (5m)), so a Flow reading is never taken for a Buy / Sell one. The badge colours keep their meaning: green bullish, red bearish, grey for 0.0σ, with a Sell badge's sign read the other way round as usual.

The Flow readings are always computed, so a Flow console on a Buy / Sell chart is live straight away (subject to the usual warm-up). A Buy / Sell console on a Flow chart starts its Buy / Sell band when you choose it, so it warms up first, over its full lookback (25 minutes at the defaults). Changing Console Mode starts the console's alerts afresh for the new line.

Choose Console Mode (Same as chart, Flow or Buy / Sell) on the Indicator Settings tab and click Update. Where several charts of one instrument share a console tile, the tile follows the Console Mode of the first chart that loaded the indicator for it. On the other charts Console Mode has no effect, although it is not greyed out and you can still change it; their setting takes effect if that first chart's indicator is removed. To change what the tile reads, change Console Mode on that first chart.

Hiding an individual line

Tick or untick the line's Show setting on the Lines tab (for example Show Placement Flow, or Show Delta Line in Buy / Sell mode) and click Update. See Placement Flow & the core line.

Next: buy & sell lines