# Flow zones

Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/flow-zones · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31

Flow zones mark stacks of same-side footprint imbalances inside one candle: where executed aggression piled up on one side.

A flow zone marks where one side dominated inside a candle, price level by price level. It answers: *where did buyers or sellers win the fight clearly?* Turn it on with **Indicators → Executed flow → Flow zones**. It shares its row size with the footprint, so the two always agree.

![A 15-minute BTC chart from 30 October to 1 November with flow zones: one red band labelled Flow sell from about 78,350 to 78,450 above price, and five teal bands labelled Flow buy below price, from about 76,700 up to about 78,050, just under price.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/flow-zones.webp)

*BTC perp, 15m, 31 Oct–1 Nov 2026: teal buy-stack zones left by the climb, one red sell-stack zone above price.*

- **What you see:** Thin bands labelled *Flow sell* (red) or *Flow buy* (teal). Each starts at the candle that made it and runs right until a candle closes through it. In the picture, the climb of 31 October and 1 November left a ladder of teal buy zones under price (about 76,700, 77,650, 77,850, 78,000 and 78,050). The only red zone, about 78,350 to 78,450, sits above price.
- **How to read it:**
  - **A buy zone below price:** buyers lifted offers at several prices in a row there. A fresh zone is a place where they may defend again.
  - **A sell zone above price:** the same for sellers.
  - **Many zones of one colour stacked up** show which side drove the recent move, here the buyers.
  - **A close back through a zone** means the side that made it lost control. The zone ends.
- **What it tells you:** Where one side won clearly by *ratio* (3 to 1 or more, row after row). It does **not** tell you the size (a heavy zone does) or that price will turn there.
- **How to use it:** If price rallies into the red zone (about 78,350 to 78,450 in the picture), watch the footprint there. Sellers show up again (red imbalances, negative delta, price stalls): it is a place to avoid buying, or to consider a short with a stop above the zone. Price closes above it with buyers in control: the zone is gone and the next red zone above is the next place to watch.
- **Common mistakes:**
  - Treating every thin line as a wall. Most zones are small; the ones next to a heavy zone or a level matter more.
  - Forgetting that a zone needs every trade of its candle: a candle with missing trades gets no zone, which is not the same as no aggression.
  - Expecting a bounce at each zone. Tactiq's study found no measurable edge from revisits to flow zones.

### How a zone is made

1. **Footprint.** For each candle, Tactiq counts the volume that bought and the volume that sold at every price row.
2. **Imbalance.** A buy imbalance is a row where buying is at least **3 times** the selling one row lower. A sell imbalance is a row where selling is at least 3 times the buying one row higher. This is the standard diagonal footprint rule.
3. **Stack.** Three or more imbalances in a row, on the same side, in one candle, are a *stack*.
4. **Zone.** A stack becomes a zone, clipped to the candle that made it, drawn forward in time until a candle *closes* through it. They are built on the 15-minute, 30-minute and 1-hour candles.

**Flow zone beside a heavy zone:** heavy zones show *size*, flow zones show *ratio*. When both sit at one price, they confirm each other. Tactiq calls that a **prime** Area.

> Flow zones are scored by the same forward study as heavy zones, so the two can be compared. The historical study found no measurable edge for flow zones either: a flow zone is a place to watch, not an edge.