Definition
A footprint chart is an advanced market visualization that embeds detailed trade information directly inside each price bar or candle. Instead of showing only open, high, low, and close, it breaks the candle into individual price levels and displays how much volume actually traded there. The chart typically shows executed volume separated by side, such as bid versus ask, and may highlight net buying or selling pressure as a delta value. In crypto markets, it is used to inspect the internal structure of price movement through granular order flow data.
As a concept, a footprint chart belongs to the broader family of order flow analysis tools. It focuses on completed trades rather than resting orders, revealing where aggressive buyers or sellers interacted with liquidity at specific prices. Different footprint modes can emphasize total volume, bid–ask imbalance, or delta, but all share the core idea of mapping traded volume to precise price levels within each bar. This makes the chart a dense representation of how market activity was distributed across the price range of each period.
Context and Usage
In the context of crypto trading, a footprint chart is used to interpret order flow by visualizing how volume is absorbed or rejected at key prices. It is commonly paired with related tools such as Order Flow views and cumulative volume metrics like CVD, which summarize buying and selling pressure over time. While a standard candlestick shows only the outcome of a time period, the footprint reveals the internal composition of that outcome in terms of executed trades.
Because it encodes multiple data dimensions—price, time, volume, side, and sometimes delta—a footprint chart is considered an advanced visualization. It is typically applied on lower timeframes or for high-resolution analysis of specific moves, where the distribution of trades within each bar matters. Across both centralized and on-chain venues, the concept remains the same: a footprint chart is a structured way to read detailed transaction activity at each price level inside a bar.