Placement Flow & the core line

Placement Flow

Passive Flow is the change in the resting book. A trade removes resting size, so Passive Flow already contains the executions. Placement Flow takes them out:

Placement Flow = Passive Flow − Aggressive Flow

What is left is what traders placed and cancelled. It is the fourth line of the Flow mode and is hidden by default, so nothing changes until you switch it on.

One limit: a trade is added back at its full size. Size that traded from an iceberg or hidden order never showed in the book, so Placement Flow over-credits it by that amount.

Placement Flow is new in 3.0. Treat it as a way of looking at the book: context for your own judgement, not a signal to trade.

The core line

The core line is the line you trade from. Choose Total Flow (the default), Passive Flow or Placement Flow. Four things follow it:

• the Flow Resistance / Flow Support band, sized from that line's own variability,
• the price-chart arrows,
• the console headline, the four-window ladder and the per-window alerts,
• the global notifications.

The last two follow it whenever the console reads Flow: on a Flow chart with Console Mode Same as chart, or with Console Mode set to Flow, even on a Buy / Sell chart. See line modes.

The console tile names the line it is reading, so you always know which line a σ figure refers to.

Why each line has its own band: the lines move by different amounts. Placement Flow can move much less than Total Flow, so read against Total Flow's band it may rarely reach either edge. Read against its own band, a σ figure is on the same scale whichever line you trade from.

Aggressive Flow is not offered as a core line.

Changing the core line

Set Core Line (Flow mode) in the study's settings and click Apply. It is used in every line mode, because a Flow console reads it on a Buy / Sell chart too. The band is redrawn over the history the study has kept, sized from the new line, so it does not step where you made the change. If the line you choose is hidden (Placement Flow starts hidden), the same Apply shows it: its Show input turns to Yes, so the band and the arrows are on the chart for the line the console and the alerts read.

Showing and hiding lines

Set Show Total Flow, Show Passive Flow, Show Aggressive Flow or Show Placement Flow to Yes or No and click Apply. The line leaves or comes back on the chart at once, and the input keeps the value you set. Placement Flow starts hidden. A hidden line keeps its history and comes back whole when you show it again. If you set a line's Draw Style to Ignore on the Subgraphs tab, the indicator leaves it that way: the line is hidden, and for Total, Passive, Aggressive and Placement Flow (and the Delta line) its Show input turns to No, so the input never says Yes for a line that is not drawn. Setting the Show input to Yes again draws the line again. The bands and the Buy and Sell lines have no Show input: set to Ignore they stay hidden until you set their Draw Style back (or until the indicator hides and shows them itself, for example when Line Mode changes). If you hide the core line this way, its band and arrows go with it, while the console and the alerts still read it.

If you hide the core line, its band is hidden too and it draws no arrows.

In Buy / Sell mode

The Buy / Sell mode has its own choice, Buy / Sell Lines: With executions (the classic lines) or Placement only, where each trade is added back to the side it consumed. Buy Line minus Sell Line is Passive Flow for the first and Placement Flow for the second.

Next: line modes