What is a footprint chart?
A footprint opens every candle up by price level. Where a normal candle tells you the range, the footprint shows what happened inside: at each price, how much was sold into bids and bought into offers. It is the only chart type that shows exactly where the fight happened and who won it.
How to read the cells
Each cell prints sell × buy volume by taker side, and the compact candle to the left of every column is the bar itself — body, wick and direction at a glance. Background tint shows the level's net delta — blue when buyers dominated, red when sellers did. The dark pill marks the bar's POC, the violet band shades the 70% value area, and colored numbers flag imbalances: one side at least 3× stronger than the opposing side one level diagonally. The footer under each column shows bar time, total volume and net delta.
Timeframe and price step
The timeframe buttons set candle duration (5m / 15m / 30m); the dollar buttons set the price bucket. Finer steps show more structure but thinner cells; coarser steps aggregate. The right setting is the coarsest one that still shows the levels you care about.
What to look for
Stacked same-side imbalances are initiative — someone lifting through the book with intent. Huge one-sided delta on a candle that goes nowhere is absorption: the passive side is winning. A delta flip right at a level, with price holding, often marks the end of the fight. All three patterns are illustrated in the footprint playbook.
FAQ
What do the two numbers in each cell mean?
Sell volume × buy volume by taker side at that exact price. The left red-leaning number is market selling into bids, the right green-leaning number is market buying into offers.
What is the POC?
Point of control — the price where the bar traded the most volume, marked with a dark pill behind the numbers. A POC stepping steadily higher bar after bar means value is being accepted higher.
Why does my chart look sparse?
Your price step is probably too fine for current volatility. Switch to a coarser bucket ($20–50 on BTC) until cells hold meaningful volume — a footprint of single trades is noise.
Is the footprint free?
Yes, at every timeframe and price step, with no account. Data comes live from the Binance futures trade stream.