Order flow: Tape Pulse and Whales

Two indicators that read the tape (the trade flow scrolling in real time) to surface the moments that matter.

Tape Pulse (tape speed)

Measures how many trades per minute are going through, as a histogram.

• How to read it: the bar is tall when the tape is fast (breakouts, stop runs, excesses); the colour/sign shows the dominant side (green = buys, red = sells). A fast, one-way tape stands out from the “flat” phase.
• Note: it uses the trade count the server stamps on live bars; reconstructed bars show a gap.

Whales (large trades)

Draws individual large aggressive orders on the chart as bubbles (the big players, the “whales”).

• How to read it: the bubble size is proportional to the trade size, the colour to the aggressor side.
• Parameters: the threshold beyond which a trade is “large” (a fixed volume, or automatic = a multiple of the average trade size).