Volume dots, or spheres, are a representation of the transactions that have taken place on the best bid and ask. They are shown across the chart. The color of each dot corresponds to the aggressor side: red is for sell side, and green is for buy side.
When a volume dot resembles a pie chart, it means that the volume accumulated for this dot contains both buy and sell aggressor side trades. Zoom in onto this dot to see individual trades for both sides. This will also work for a single-color dot: in this case, zooming in onto it will display individual trades of the same side.
The size of each dot is proportionate to the cumulative volume of all trades this dot consists of. You can proportionally change the size of each volume dot by using the Volume dots slider above the chart.
To customize volume dots:
1. Right-click on a volume bar and choose Volume Settings. This will open the Studies configuration menu with the Volume dots tab active.
2. In the Volume display options area, you can specify the following:
- Coloring mode. Choose 2D Dots to display the relative size of buy and sell aggressor trades as a pie chart of two solid colors. Choose 3D Bubbles to use a gradient scale for the relative size of buy and sell aggressor sides.
- Calculation mode. Choose Total volume to display the total volume traded during the aggregation period. Choose Volume delta to display the difference between buy and sell order sizes.
3. Select the desirable dot using the Size slider. You can also do this by using the slider above the chart as long as Display slider on the toolbar is activated.
4. Use the Transparency slider to set the desirable transparency for your volume dots.
5. In the Clustering dropdown, select the desirable mode of volume dot clustering:
- Smart. Using a proprietary Bookmap algorithm, the system aggregates several adjacent dots into a single one. This algorithm takes into account both VWAP and time of execution. Drag the slider on the right to make this clustering more or less pronounced.
- Time. The dots are shown in equal intervals with their size being proportionate to the aggregated transaction volume. You can select the desirable aggregation period from the dropdown to the right.
- Volume. The system shows a new volume dot after a specified volume accumulates. You can specify the desirable cumulative volume using the combo-box on the right.
Note: A dot may cumulate more contracts than the specified value. This happens when the size of the last trade exceeds the limit value. For example, if the specified volume limit is 100 and the volume dot consists of two single sequential trades of 50 and 100 in size, the volume dot will show 150 contracts traded, not 100. - Aggregation by price. All trades are accumulated in a single volume dot as long as they happen at the same price level, regardless of the aggressor side.
5. You can have both volume dots and volume bars use the same clustering mode. To do so, either click Inherit from bars so that dots inherit the mode from the bars or click Apply to bars to make the bars use the same mode as the dots do.
6. To restore volume dot settings to factory defaults, click Restore.
7. To hide volume dots, deactivate the checkbox to the left of Volume dots on the left-hand panel. To make it visible again, activate this checkbox.