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The FDAX trades in full points at EUR 25 a tick, where the Nasdaq trades in quarter points at USD 5. The same economic volume therefore spreads across nearly five times fewer price levels: the book is compressed, each step carries more size, and absorption becomes unambiguous because a participant no longer has enough levels to hide in. The obstacle is not the market, it is access to Eurex depth.
Level 2, from the EMDI feed, gives aggregated depth per price level: "340 lots at 26,350". MBO, from the T7 EOBI feed, gives the book order by order: how many orders make up those 340 lots, which one was just cancelled, which one was refilled. Icebergs, pulls and refills are invisible in aggregate, so a heatmap fed with Level 2 carries no real informational value.
It is a loss floor that rises with your gains and never comes back down. In its intraday form it recalculates off the peak unrealized balance: open profit alone permanently raises the level at which the account closes. The consequence for order flow, whose edge is entering early: favourable excursion gets billed, so the early entry costs you room. In the end-of-day form, only the settled balance counts.
Yes, and it is the typical scenario under intraday trailing. On a $50,000 account with a $2,500 threshold, an entry that runs to $1,000 of open profit fixes the floor at $48,500 permanently; a disciplined exit at +$160 leaves $1,660 of room instead of $2,500. Every dollar banked cost five dollars of lifespan. Repeated four times, the account closes with a rising balance.
Divide the remaining room by the number of contracts times the point value. With $1,660 of room on 2 NQ at $20 per point: 1,660 ÷ 40 = 41.5 points below the entry price. That is the real hard stop, the one the firm chose. With 2 MNQ at $2 per point, the same room gives 415 points. The level recalculates after every closed trade and gets drawn on the chart.
Because SPX options are cash-settled: their underlying is not deliverable. The market maker who sells them must hedge delta in an instrument tracking the same index, deep and margin-efficient, the ES future. The arithmetic is exact: an SPX option's multiplier is $100 per point versus $50 for the ES, so an option hedged at delta 1.00 corresponds to two ES contracts.
It is the price at which estimated net dealer gamma changes sign. Above it, their hedging is counter-trend and compresses volatility; below it, it is pro-trend and amplifies it. It is the most useful level of the day because it determines whether a mean-reversion or a continuation approach has flow on its side, and therefore whether absorption spotted in the book will hold or get run over.
The timescale. Same-day options represent around 65% of SPX volume, nearly 3.1 million contracts a day (Cboe, as of May 2026). Their gamma concentrates violently near the money then disappears into the close: the resulting hedging plays out inside the session, on the same timescale as order flow, instead of spreading over weeks like a monthly expiry.
Yes. Partner code OFF applies the best discount available on the DeepCharts platform license: up to -25% depending on the plan during launch season. You enter it when activating the license, on DeepChart as well as DeepDom. The discount applies to the software license, not to the data feed or MBO depth, which are billed separately.
DeepCharts is a futures order-flow platform published by deepcharts.com. It combines a footprint chart (DeepChart) and an order-book liquidity heatmap (DeepDom), both fed by order-by-order MBO data. It covers the CME complex and Eurex, connecting through Rithmic, CQG or dxFeed.
The budget splits into three parts: the platform license, discounted up to 25% with code OFF; the data feed, from $19/month with dxFeed or $57/month with Rithmic; and MBO depth, $39/month on the CME plus $65/month for Eurex. Pricing is indicative.
DeepGamma is the gamma-exposure and option-flow module of DeepCharts. It renders market-maker gamma exposure (GEX Profile, GEX Heatmap, Gamma Bands) and option flow inside the same chart as futures order flow. Classic ships with the Full Advanced plan, the full suite with the Pro plan.
GEX is the net gamma exposure of market makers on an index's options. In positive GEX they buy dips and sell rallies, dampening volatility; in negative GEX they do the opposite and amplify moves. That hedging spills into the ES future.
DeepGamma comes in two tiers: Classic ships with the DeepChart Full Advanced plan (around $67/month billed annually), and the full suite (GEX Heatmap, large option flows, replayable Cboe history) with the Pro plan, from $94/month. The Orderflow plan ($50/mo) does not include the gamma tools. DeepCharts advertises a lower teaser price in places without stating its conditions. Checked 17 August 2026.
Yes, as context. Market makers selling SPX options hedge in the ES future: that flow is obligatory and lands on the contract. GEX shows where it should concentrate, not price direction: the entry is still decided by reading order flow.
DeepDom is the order-book and heatmap module of DeepCharts. It shows resting liquidity order by order (MBO), refreshed every 0.01 second, with iceberg detection and stop-run detection. It is the tool we use to read liquidity walls before they move.
In MBP (Market By Price) you see a total per price level: 300 lots, with no idea who makes them up. In MBO (Market By Order) every order in the book is visible individually, so one large player is distinguishable from thirty small ones. That is what DeepCharts shows.
You read three things: dense zones, where liquidity piles up and slows price; walls that keep refilling, a sign of genuine absorption; and walls that vanish as price approaches, a sign of spoofing. Colour encodes size, the horizontal axis encodes time.
A footprint opens each candle price by price and splits volume executed at market on the bid from volume executed on the ask. You read delta, imbalances and absorption points: who attacks and who absorbs, where a classic candle only shows the outcome.
Start with a single liquid instrument, NQ or ES, and a single read: delta and absorption at range extremes. Add the liquidity heatmap only once you read the footprint correctly. Tick-by-tick replay lets you train on real sessions without putting capital at risk.
Yes. Eurex publishes MBO depth on the FDAX, which allows the same order-by-order read as on the CME. DeepCharts displays it with a Eurex depth subscription, billed around $65/month on top of the base feed. Few platforms offer it.
Not for everything. The build a prop firm bundles does not unlock the full indicator set of the complete license. To get every tool, including full MBO depth on the order book, you need your own license, discounted up to 25% with code OFF.
The decisive criterion is not the evaluation price but platform compatibility and drawdown rules. You need a firm that allows a DeepCharts connector (Rithmic or CQG) and a drawdown wide enough to hold a flow scalp. Our comparison details those rules firm by firm.
An iceberg is a large order sliced into small pieces: the book shows 20 lots, yet 500 trade at that price without the level giving way. In MBO you see the slice refill after each execution. DeepDom isolates that behavior automatically.
Absorption is aggressive volume executing without moving price: buyers hit the offer, the offer takes it and the level holds. It is a more reliable reversal signal than high volume alone, because it shows a passive player accepting the entire flow.
Delta is the difference between volume executed at market on the ask and on the bid over a period. Cumulated, it gives CVD. A divergence, price rising while CVD falls, signals the move is carried by passive orders, not by buy aggression.
Few tools read the book order by order: Bookmap, Sierra Chart with the right module, Quantower and DeepCharts. We work on DeepCharts for the footprint-plus-heatmap combination in a single license and for Eurex MBO depth, which is rare on the FDAX.
DeepCharts connects through Rithmic, CQG or dxFeed. The base feed provides executions; an MBO read additionally requires a depth subscription billed by the exchange: about $39/month for the CME and $65/month for Eurex. Without depth there is no order-by-order heatmap.
OFF is the OrderFlowFutures partner code. It unlocks two independent discounts: at prop firm Phidias, up to -80% depending on the account type; at DeepCharts, the best discount available on the platform license (up to -25%). One code to remember for both costs a futures trader faces.
At Phidias, code OFF automatically applies the best current discount: -60% on monthly challenges, -50% on Express to Live, -80% on one-time-payment accounts. Other firms run their own codes, which we keep up to date on our dedicated page.
Three levers, in this order: apply a promo code at checkout, which often cuts 50 to 80% of the price; pick a one-time-payment account over a monthly subscription if the evaluation may drag on; and size your risk to avoid paying for a reset.
A prop firm funds traders: you pay for an evaluation, prove you can hit profit targets without breaching a drawdown, then trade a funded account and keep 80 to 90% of the profits. The capital at risk stays the firm's, not yours.
An EOD drawdown recomputes on the closing balance: intraday gains do not lift the limit, so giving back a winner will not eliminate you. An intraday trailing drawdown follows the session high and punishes any pullback. For flow scalping, EOD is far more workable.
The evaluation is a real cost, not refunded if you fail, and most candidates do fail. The upside is still real: a few dozen euros buy access to capital you would not put up yourself. Treat it as a risky investment, not as guaranteed income.
OrderFlowFutures publishes free French guides on footprint charts, liquidity heatmaps and prop firms, a journal of annotated NQ, ES and FDAX sessions, and runs a French-speaking Discord community. Every read is done on DeepCharts and DeepDom.
For a futures trader who reads order flow, yes, with two caveats. DeepCharts bundles the footprint, the MBO liquidity heatmap and a gamma module in one license, discounted up to 25% with code OFF. The caveats: Windows only, and a three-part budget (license, data feed, MBO depth) to count in full. Checked 17 August 2026.
Both display a liquidity heatmap. Bookmap remains the historical reference; DeepCharts bundles the footprint (DeepChart) and the MBO order book (DeepDom) in a single license, and covers Eurex depth on the FDAX, which few tools do. Our community works on DeepCharts, with the license discounted up to 25% with code OFF.
Spoofing means posting large orders with no intention of executing them, to fake pressure, then canceling as price approaches. The practice is banned on regulated markets. On an MBO heatmap, a wall that repeatedly vanishes as price gets close betrays that behavior: the opposite of genuine absorption.
A stop run is a fast push into a zone where stops cluster, below an obvious low, above a high, to trigger their execution and take the liquidity. Price often snaps straight back into the range. On the heatmap, the targeted zone shows up as the liquidity resting around those levels.
For learning, yes: OrderFlowFutures publishes a free interactive heatmap demo that simulates order walls, icebergs, spoofing and stop runs to practise the read. In live conditions MBO data is paid: the exchange bills it (about $39/month on the CME), whatever software you use.
A standard candle tells you four things: open, high, low, close. The footprint opens the candle and shows the volume actually traded at each price, split between aggressive buying (at the ask) and aggressive selling (at the bid). It's the difference between seeing that price moved and seeing why it moved.
The footprint shows what was executed; the heatmap shows what is waiting to be. It turns the book into a picture: every resting limit order, colored by size, stacked over time. You see liquidity walls form, hold or vanish before price reacts to them.
Delta is the difference between volume executed as aggressive buying (at the ask) and aggressive selling (at the bid) over a period. Positive, buyers dominate; negative, sellers. CVD (cumulative delta) sums that balance over time into a pressure curve.
An iceberg order is a large order a player doesn't want to show: it's displayed in small slices that reload on each fill, to hide its true size. To the naked eye you only see a small order that 'refuses to disappear.'
An imbalance appears when aggressive volume on one side vastly outweighs the opposite side at the adjacent price: typically a 3-to-1 ratio or more, diagonally. It signals one side taking control with force; stacked, they form a 'stacked imbalance,' a continuation signal.
The tape is the stream of trades scrolling by. Speed of Tape measures its pace: how many executions per second, and at what intensity. A calm market ticks trades off; a market under tension fires them in bursts. Volume says how much; speed says with what urgency.
Not every execution carries the same weight: a 200-lot print doesn't mean the same thing as a handful of retail trades. Spotting large activity, the players who actually move the market, is at the heart of reading order flow.
The DOM (Depth of Market, or order book) is the vertical price ladder that shows, at each level, the size of resting limit orders on the buy and sell sides. It's the rawest view of liquidity: the one where tick-precise timing plays out.
A Fair Value Gap (FVG) is a 'skipped' price zone: when the market moves so fast it leaves a hole in the structure, typically an impulse candle whose body creates a gap between the preceding and following candles. It's a price where trading was lopsided, an inefficiency.
Most trend indicators are computed on past price and lag the market. The idea behind Deep-M Effort is to judge trend by the real effort injected into the flow, the aggression that pushes (or doesn't) price, to tell a genuine impulse from a mere drift.
The volume profile flips the view: instead of volume over time, it shows volume by price. It surfaces the POC (point of control, the most-traded price), the value area (where most trading happened) and low-volume gaps. These are the reference levels the market likes to revisit.
You don't improve at order flow without repetition. Deep Replay replays past market exactly as it happened, every order and every liquidity change, to the tick and the second, to train your reading of the flow without risking a cent.
Every trader ends up spotting recurring setups ('when X and Y happen together, price does Z'). The hard part is objectifying them: is it a real edge or an illusion? Deep Pattern Builder is for turning those intuitions into rules and testing them on history.
A stop run (or stop hunt) is a fast sweep of liquidity beyond an obvious level, designed to trigger the stops piled there, then often reverse. Retail gets stopped out at the worst moment; big players collect the liquidity thus released.
The Opening Range Breakout rests on a simple idea: the first minutes of the regular session set a range, and leaving that range often sets the tone for the day. The concept was never the problem, measurement was. Where do you put the target, when is a break credible, when do you give up? Deep-M IVB answers those with historical statistics instead of an invented rule.
Aggression at market says nothing on its own. What matters is its rhythm: is it accelerating, slowing, exhausting itself?, and what it runs into. Deep V-Tracker splits those two questions into two explicit modules instead of blending them into a single indicator.
A liquidity wall is passive size resting at a price that refuses to move despite the aggression hitting it. When that refusal is clean and repeated, it often gives away an iceberg: a large order of which only a fraction is visible in the book. Deep Wall looks for exactly that signature: the rejection, not the displayed size.
The volume profile answers one question: at which prices did the market actually trade? But its histogram eats part of the chart, and intraday you really only use a handful of its values. Deep Profile Values sorts that out: it plots the levels and drops the drawing.
A volume profile tells you at which prices the market traded. It does not tell you who was aggressive. Deep Profile fixes that by offering several profiles on the same axis: total volume, ask against bid, delta, or delta and volume side by side. You move from a question of participation to a question of conviction.
A volume profile cut by day or by hour imposes a rhythm on the market that is not its own. A move does not start at midnight: it starts when it starts. Deep Profile Swing anchors the profile to the swing rather than the calendar, and gives you volume distribution inside the move itself.
Options do not spread evenly: activity concentrates on a few strikes, and those strikes become reference points because market makers have to hedge around them. The Option Profile puts that distribution next to price, like a volume profile but built on options activity rather than futures transactions.
When a market maker sells an option they aren't betting on direction: they hedge by buying or selling futures. Gamma measures how fast that hedge must be readjusted. The GEX Profile stacks this exposure strike by strike, like a volume profile: the call wall above, the put wall below, and the zero-gamma level separating the two regimes.
The GEX Profile is a photograph: exposure at one moment. The heatmap is the film. It paints colored blocks on the price chart at each level: cool tones where dealers are long gamma at that price, their hedging dampens the move, warm tones where they are short gamma, their hedging amplifies it. Color intensity gives the strength of the exposure.
Gamma Bands turn gamma exposure into a pair of boundaries drawn around price. While the market trades inside them, dealer hedging works against the move: it absorbs. When a boundary gives way, the same mechanic flips and starts pushing in the direction of the break. The band isn't a magic level: it's the frontier between two volatility regimes.
A large option flow leaves a trace before the index moves. Option Big Flows marks trades whose premium exceeds a threshold you set, one million dollars by default, with a simple visual language: shape says call or put, fill says opening or closing a position, color says buy or sell. You watch institutional tickets print alongside your futures order flow.
Option prices contain a forecast: the move the market expects out to a given expiration. Expected Move turns it into a band around price. It isn't a direction call, it's an order of magnitude: the distance the market currently considers normal, beyond which a move becomes statistically unusual.
The order book holds two different pieces of information: where the resting orders sit, and how much size they carry in total. The heatmap answers the first question beautifully and the second one poorly, because the eye is bad at comparing two clouds of colour. Deep Liquidity Scan aggregates the passive liquidity resting on the bid and on the ask across a chosen depth, plots both as curves, and adds their net difference. You move from a picture to a measurement.
In an order book, large resting orders move constantly: posted, pulled, posted again. That back and forth is invisible on a standard chart and unreadable by eye on a scrolling DOM. Deep Reload watches the book in real time and marks the moments when a significant amount of fresh liquidity reappears in a narrow price band around the market after being pulled. That is the signature of a participant holding a view and redeploying rather than abandoning the level.
Reading the tape in a scrolling window takes a level of focus nobody holds for six hours. The problem is not the data, it is the format: a chronological list forces you to remember where each execution happened. Volume Bubbles put every execution back in its place on the chart, sized to its volume and coloured by the side that was aggressed, blue for a market buy executed at the ask, pink for a market sell executed at the bid. Reading becomes spatial instead of sequential.
The Initial Balance is one of the rare session structures that has held for decades: the first hour of the regular session concentrates a large share of the volume, and the boundaries it leaves become reference points the market revisits. Session Imbalance plots those boundaries automatically, the high and low of the initial period, their midpoint, then extensions at fifty and one hundred percent above and below. You get seven lines that structure the rest of the day without measuring anything by hand.
A standard average treats every candle equally, including the ones where almost nothing traded. VWAP weights each price by the volume traded at that price: it gives the real average price of activity, the one executions clustered around. Envelopes add dispersion: bands computed in standard deviations around the line, turning a vague question, is price expensive, into a measurement, price is this many standard deviations from its volume weighted mean.
Almost every blown account is blown after the limit, not before: the day goes badly, the personal rule breaks, and size doubles to make it back. A risk manager moves the decision out of the moment when you are least able to make it. The DeepDom one watches your positions continuously and, if a rule you set is broken, locks the account for the day. Unlocking happens at six in the evening New York time, or through support.
Codes in force, checked on this page's update date: Phidias Propfirm → code OFF. The code applies when buying the evaluation, on the firm's own site. For the order-flow platform, code OFF gives -25% off the DeepCharts license.
DeepCharts is included at Phidias Propfirm. It can be used as an option, with your own license, at MyFundedFutures. Careful: the build a firm bundles does not unlock every indicator, the full license is bought separately, with -25% via code OFF.
Few firms open Eurex: in our catalogue, Phidias Propfirm. The rest stop at the CME. It is a decisive criterion if you want to trade the FDAX, whose MBO depth is read with DeepCharts through the Eurex subscription, around $65 a month.
At entry level: Phidias Propfirm from $30 and MyFundedFutures from $80. The sticker price matters less than the real cost: a promo code can cut 50 to 80%, and a drawdown rule that is too tight makes you pay for resets that quickly exceed the initial saving.
Phidias Propfirm splits profits at 80% (up to 100% on Premium), with a end-of-day or static, never intraday trailing drawdown, from 30 $ per evaluation. Access to the DeepCharts order-flow platform is included there. Markets available: CME, Eurex. Promo code in force: jusqu'à -80 % avec le code OFF.
MyFundedFutures splits profits at 80/20 (up to 90/10 on Rapid), with a trailing / EOD (plan-dependent) drawdown, from 80 $ per evaluation. Access to the DeepCharts order-flow platform is available as an option there. Markets available: CME. No promo code running at this firm right now.
Pricing is indicative and set by third parties (software publisher, exchanges); check before subscribing. Partner links: we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Trading futures involves a risk of loss.