# Tactiq documentation > Tactiq reads order flow, positioning, liquidity and structure across markets (BTC, ETH and gold today) and says, in plain words, what the market is doing now and what history measured. It describes; it does not forecast and it does not trade for you. Updated 2026-10-31. Pages: https://tactiq.pro/docs ## What Tactiq is Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/what-tactiq-is · Start here · updated 2026-10-31 Tactiq is a market workstation (BTC, ETH and gold today): it collects public data, calculates what it means and shows it in one place. It informs; it does not trade. Tactiq is a market workstation for Bitcoin, Ether and gold on Binance. It collects public market data all the time, calculates what the data means, and shows the result in one place. It has four jobs: - **Show where trading concentrated:** heavy aggression zones, flow zones and the liquidity heatmap, on one chart. - **Say what the market is doing:** the Tactiq Flag reads six angles into one plain state per timeframe. - **Raise trade ideas with a plan,** and follow every one to its end. - **Learn from the record,** every day, under your control. Tactiq does not trade for you. It does not place orders and it does not need your exchange keys. You make every decision. ### What Tactiq promises, and what it does not - It promises to show how each number is made, to score its own ideas after costs, and to tell you when a tool does not predict. - It does not promise profit. Several of its readings were measured and found *not* to predict price. Those are marked. > Tactiq shows information only. It is not financial advice. Trading is risky. You trade at your own risk. --- ## Getting started Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/getting-started · Start here · updated 2026-10-31 Create an account, pick an instrument and timeframe, and learn the pages: Overview, Chart, Signals, Learning, Positioning, Macro, Alerts, Journal, Settings and System. 1. Create an account with Google, or with your email and a password. 2. Open the Overview. It shows the market in one view. 3. Open the Chart. Use the Indicators menu to show or hide each layer and pane. 4. Open Account and connect Telegram if you want alerts on your phone. ### The pages - **Overview:** the Tactiq Flag on every timeframe, the verdict, evidence on both sides, key levels. - **Chart:** price with all layers, the footprint, the panes and the Flag. - **Signals:** trade ideas with entry, stop and targets, the analyst's review, and how past ideas ended. - **Learning (owner only):** the analyst's playbook and Tactiq's market knowledge, with scorecards. - **Positioning:** open interest, funding, basis and spot ETF flows. - **Macro:** global markets, the dollar index, Bitcoin dominance and the economic calendar. - **Alerts:** what Tactiq noticed, in time order. - **Journal:** your own trade notes. Only you can see them. - **System:** the health of every data stream. - **Settings:** your workspace, indicator parameters and alerts. Reference pages show the rules Tactiq runs on. - **Learn & Connect:** short videos on using Tactiq, and links to the Tactiq Traders community. - **Account:** your name, avatar and title, Telegram alerts and password. - **Docs:** this documentation. The speech-bubble button at the top right sends feedback to the Tactiq team. Once a day, after a few minutes of use, Tactiq may ask how it is working for you. ### Instruments Pick the instrument beside the timeframe: BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT (perpetual and spot) or XAUUSDT (gold, perpetual only). Each has its own data, thresholds and signals. The Overview, Signals, Learning and Alerts pages show all of them on one desk. ### Keyboard Press `?` to see all shortcuts. Press `Ctrl`+`K` to search. Press `1` to `8` to change the timeframe on the Chart. Press `g` and then a letter to go to a page. --- ## The chart, layer by layer Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart-layers · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31 What a first visit shows, how to read the chart in four steps, and the question each layer answers. Every layer can be shown or hidden. The Chart draws Tactiq's layers on one price scale and one time axis. Each layer answers one question. Open the **Indicators** menu to show or hide each one. Almost every picture in these docs is the BTC perpetual with one layer on the candles, so you can see what that layer adds. Click a picture to open it full size. ### Reading the chart in four steps When you first open the Chart, one layer is on: heavy aggression zones. Turn on what you want in the **Indicators** menu; the chart remembers your choice for the next visit. A good set to start with: levels, volume profile, flow zones, the footprint, VWAP, the Tactiq Flag and the delta pane, plus, on BTC and ETH, two options layers: gamma envelopes and big option flows. The picture below shows only those two options layers, so they are easy to see. ![A 30-minute BTC chart from 28 to 31 October with two options layers: a teal line tagged +γ wall 78,830 · slows price above price, a yellow line tagged Zero γ 76,570 · calm above / fast below and a magenta line tagged −γ wall 76,320 · speeds price below it, with magenta diamonds near 80,000 and 82,000 and teal squares near 76,000 and 78,000 for big option trades.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-default.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: two options layers turned on: the three gamma envelope lines and the big option flows.* 1. **Read the top-left line first.** It describes the bar under your pointer (or the forming bar): timeframe, open, high, low, close, volume, delta and taker-buy share. In the picture: *30m · forming bar … Vol 80.78 BTC, Delta −2.37 BTC, Taker buy 49 %*: buyers and sellers were about even in that bar. 2. **Read the yellow tag: it says which side is calm.** Here it reads *Zero γ 76,570 · calm above / fast below*, and price (77,439) is above it, so price is on the calm side. The tag can also read *calm below / fast above*, or *No flip near price · all calm* (or *· all fast*) when there is no switch close to price. Then look at the teal *+γ wall 78,830 · slows price*, where rallies may slow, and the magenta *−γ wall 76,320 · speeds price*, where a fall could speed up. Look left: on the evening of 29 October price fell through the yellow line and kept falling, about 4,000 USD in a few hours; hover any past bar to read which side was calm then. 3. **Look at the big option trades.** A diamond is a call, a square is a put; teal means the customer bought, magenta sold. In the picture, calls were sold at 80,000 and 82,000 (magenta diamonds) and puts were bought near 76,000 and 78,000 (teal squares). Hover one for its premium and expiry. Small triangles at the top and bottom edge are trades whose strike is off the chart. 4. **Confirm with flow, then wait for a closed bar.** The lines and markers are places to watch, not signals. Look at the zones, the footprint and the panes (turn them on in **Indicators**) to see what traders actually do at those prices, and decide on a closed bar, never on a wick. More in [Options gamma in 2 minutes](https://tactiq.pro/docs/options-gamma). | Layer | The question it answers | Made from | Key | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Heavy aggression](https://tactiq.pro/docs/heavy-aggression) | Where did one side take unusual size, and what did price do next? | Executed trades, per second | menu | | [Iceberg zones](https://tactiq.pro/docs/iceberg-zones) | Where did a resting order absorb more than it showed? (estimated) | Best bid and ask, trades | menu | | [Flow zones](https://tactiq.pro/docs/flow-zones) | Where did one side dominate, level by level? | Footprint imbalances | menu | | [Liquidity heatmap](https://tactiq.pro/docs/liquidity-heatmap) | Where is size resting, and has it stayed? | Order book | `h` | | [Liquidation heatmap](https://tactiq.pro/docs/liquidation-heatmap) | Where would leveraged positions be forced out? (estimated) | Open interest, modelled | `j` | | [Tactiq Flag](https://tactiq.pro/docs/tactiq-flag) | What is the market doing on this timeframe? | Six lanes on closed bars | `q` | | [Supporting layers](https://tactiq.pro/docs/supporting-layers) | Where did the auction accept or reject price? | Levels, profile, VWAP, order blocks, footprint, big trades | menu | | [Options gamma](https://tactiq.pro/docs/options-gamma) | Where may option dealers' hedging calm or speed price? (estimated, BTC and ETH) | Deribit options trades | menu | ### Three rules that hold for every layer - **Executed is not resting.** Heavy aggression and flow zones come from trades that happened. The heatmap comes from orders that are waiting and can leave. Tactiq never mixes the two. - **Closed bars decide.** A zone ends when a bar *closes* through it. A wick through a zone does not end it. - **Each layer says what it is not.** A zone is a place to watch, not an order. Check whether flow agrees. ### Zone colours teal: buyers were aggressive. coral (red): sellers were aggressive. A zone that price has closed through fades and then disappears. --- ## Heavy aggression zones Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/heavy-aggression · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31 Heavy aggression zones mark prices where one side of the market took an unusually large amount of size within seconds, and how price responded two minutes later. A heavy-aggression zone marks the prices where one side took far more size than the market usually sees, in a very short time. It answers: *where did size hit the market, and did price follow it?* Turn it on with **Indicators → Executed flow → Heavy aggression**. ![A 15-minute BTC chart of 31 October and 1 November with heavy zones: a stack of teal boxes under price, among them Heavy buy 442 BTC ×2 · price followed near 77,420, Heavy buy 720 BTC ×14 · no clear follow-through near 77,650 and Heavy buy 166 BTC ×3 · price followed near 77,950, and two red boxes, Heavy sell 149 BTC · price followed near 78,200 and Heavy sell 643 BTC ×9 · price followed at price.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/heavy-zones.webp) *BTC perp, 15m, 31 Oct–1 Nov 2026: heavy buy zones (teal) stacked under price, heavy sell zones (red) at and above it, each with its size and what price did next.* - **What you see:** Thin boxes that start where the burst traded and run to the right edge. Each label says the side, the total size, the number of bursts (*×2* = two bursts joined) and the response. At the low of the evening of 31 October (about 21:00), *Heavy buy 442 BTC ×2 · price followed*: buyers hit hard and price rose after. Just before 01:00 on 1 November, *Heavy buy 720 BTC ×14 · no clear follow-through*: fourteen bursts joined, but price did not move on at once. At the 09:00 high, *Heavy sell 149 BTC · price followed*: sellers hit and price fell after. - **How to read it:** - **Teal below price** is where buyers were forceful before. **Red above price** is where sellers were. - **"price followed"** means the aggressive side was in control then. **"absorbed"** means it ran into resting orders and stalled. - **Bigger size and more bursts** make a zone more notable, not more certain. - **A zone that price closes through** is broken and fades away. - **What it tells you:** Where size really traded, and how price answered within two minutes. It does **not** tell you who traded (a burst can be a stop run, a liquidation or a hedge) or that price will react there next time. - **How to use it:** When price comes back to a teal zone, zoom in (1m to 5m) and watch the footprint and delta at the zone. Buyers defend it (positive delta, lower wicks, price holds above the box): it is a place for a long idea with the stop below the box. No defence, or a close below it: do not buy; the zone is done. Mirror it for red zones. - **Common mistakes:** - Buying the first touch because the box is teal. A zone is a place to look, not a buy signal. - Calling a zone broken on a wick. Only a close through it ends it. - Reading "no clear follow-through" as weakness of that side: it only means price did not move enough either way. ### How a zone is made 1. **Sum per second.** Tactiq adds up taker buying and taker selling for each second. (In Binance data, a trade where the buyer was the maker means the *seller* was the aggressor.) 2. **Rank against the last 24 hours.** A second is *heavy* when its side reaches the 99.9th percentile of that side's active seconds over the trailing 24 hours, and also a fixed minimum size. The threshold for each hour is set from data before that hour, so it never uses the future. 3. **Merge into a burst.** Heavy seconds of one side that are up to 3 seconds apart are one burst. 4. **Draw a zone.** A zone covers the prices where the burst traded. Overlapping bursts of the same side join into one zone while the older zone is still alive and the joined box stays within 2 ATR. The zone shows the total size and the number of bursts. 5. **Show it only if it is big enough.** A zone appears once its bursts add up to the minimum for the instrument. Smaller ones are noise. | Instrument | Heavy second (default minimum) | Zone total (default minimum) | | --- | --- | --- | | BTCUSDT perpetual | 25 BTC | 90 BTC | | BTCUSDT spot | 8 BTC | 10 BTC | | ETHUSDT perpetual | 600 ETH | 2,200 ETH | | ETHUSDT spot | 160 ETH | 190 ETH | | XAUUSDT perpetual (gold) | 87 oz | 270 oz | The minimums are set by equal rarity: each is the size that is just as unusual in that market. A zone needs about 12 hours of recorded trades before it can show, because a 99.9th percentile of a few thousand values moves with every hour. ### The response label Two minutes after a burst ends, Tactiq compares price with the burst's average price, in units of a normal one-minute move (the median range of the day before). The zone gets one label: | Label on the chart | What happened | What it suggests | | --- | --- | --- | | price followed | Price is beyond the burst's average price, in its direction, by more than half a normal one-minute move. | The aggressive side was in control. | | absorbed | Price is back on the other side of the burst's average price by that much. | The aggression met resting orders and stalled. | | no clear follow-through | Neither. | No clear result. Also shown when Tactiq has less than an hour of price history to judge a normal move by. | | reading… | The two minutes have not passed. | Wait. | ### More ways to read it - **A fresh zone, price far away:** watch it on its *first return*. Tactiq's own study found price reacted there no more often than at random levels, so treat it as a place to look, not an edge. - **An absorbed buy zone:** buyers hit a wall. It marks where a rally ran into supply. - **Stacked with a flow zone or a level:** two independent measurements at one price. Tactiq marks such a place as an Area (see [Strategies](https://tactiq.pro/docs/strategies)). > A taker burst is not "an institution". It can be a stop run, a liquidation, an algorithm slicing an order, or a hedge. The size rule and the followed or absorbed rule come from first principles. Tactiq's historical study of zone revisits (1,728 tests) found no measurable edge over random levels. Tactiq keeps measuring forward, and it does not change the zones unless that evidence says so. --- ## Iceberg zones Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/iceberg-zones · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31 Iceberg zones mark prices where a resting buyer or seller absorbed more than the order book ever showed: hidden size, estimated. An iceberg zone marks a price where a resting buyer or seller absorbed far more than the order book ever showed there: the shown size was eaten and came back at the same price, or one trade took much more than was on display. It answers: *where is someone quietly defending a price?* Turn it on with **Indicators → Executed flow → Iceberg zones** (off by default). ![A 30-minute BTC spot chart of 1 and 2 November with one iceberg zone: a red line at about 78,280 from the bar where it formed to the right edge, labelled Iceberg ask · ≈1 BTC hidden · 1 refill · refilling, with a dot at its right end, just under the last price of 78,590.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/iceberg-zones.webp) *BTC spot, 30m, 1–2 Nov 2026: a hidden seller refilling the ask near 78,280 while price pushed up through the day. The dot at the right end means it is still refilling.* - **What you see:** A thin line at the exact price that was defended, from where the zone formed to the right edge (the current price), like the other zones. Teal is a hidden buyer on the bid, red a hidden seller on the ask. The label reads, for example, *Iceberg bid · ≈41 BTC hidden · 9 refills*: a buyer kept refilling the bid nine times and traded at least about 41 BTC more than the book ever showed there. A brighter line means more hidden size; a dot means it is still refilling now. - **How to read it:** - **Iceberg bid** (teal): a passive buyer absorbed selling at that price. **Iceberg ask** (red): a passive seller absorbed buying. - **≈ hidden** is a lower bound: what traded there minus the most the book ever showed and minus anyone who joined. The real order may be bigger. - **refills** counts how often the shown size was eaten and came back within a second. - **refilling** = still active now; **broken** = price traded through it with more size than it ever showed, or a bar closed beyond it: it is no longer a level and disappears from the chart. A zone with no fill for 24 hours fades and then shows only its size (≈30 BTC), so a week of them does not cover the candles. - **What it tells you:** That more size traded at one price than the book displayed, so part of the order was hidden. It is **estimated** from the best bid and ask and the trades. It does **not** tell you who it is, how much is left, whether one trader or several held the price, or that price will bounce there. Whether these prices hold more often than others has not been measured yet. - **How to use it:** Treat it like a level someone cared about. When price comes back, zoom in (1m) and watch the footprint and the tape at the price: fills that keep getting absorbed with price not moving through say the order may still be there; a close through it says it is gone (the zone turns *broken*). - **Common mistakes:** - Assuming the order is still there. The zone shows what happened; the order can be cancelled at any moment. - Reading the hidden size as the full order. It is a floor, not the total. - Trading every zone. Most are small; one next to a heavy zone or a level matters more. ### How a zone is made 1. **Watch the best price.** Tactiq follows the best bid and ask with their sizes and every trade. Trades only happen at the best price, so deeper levels are not needed. 2. **Open an episode** on the first passive fill at a price while it is the best on that side. 3. **Count refills and hidden size.** A refill is the shown size eaten to 10 % or less and shown again within 1 second. Size added while size still rested is someone joining, never hidden size. A price that leaves the best without a fill and comes back is a market maker re-quoting, not a refill. 4. **Call it an iceberg** when it refilled often enough, traded well above the most it showed, and the hidden size passes a minimum for the market. 5. **Merge into a zone.** Iceberg episodes on one side within 2 ticks are one zone. | Market | Refills (min) | Traded ÷ most shown (min) | Hidden (min) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | BTCUSDT spot | 1 | 2.5 | 1 BTC | | BTCUSDT perpetual | 3 | 2.0 | 2 BTC | Spot needs only one refill because the exchange's own iceberg orders refill *inside* one taker order, so the quotes never show the refill: one fill far above the shown size is the sign. Perpetuals have no native icebergs and can hide retail-priced orders, so they need refills the quotes show. These minimums are provisional: they come from a few days of recordings and will be recalibrated. > An iceberg is patient liquidity, not proof of informed money. Studies of equity markets find icebergs are mostly traders who want to buy or sell without moving price. Tactiq keeps every episode so a forward study can measure whether these prices hold more often than others. --- ## 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. --- ## Liquidity heatmap Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/liquidity-heatmap · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31 The liquidity heatmap shows resting order-book liquidity over time near price: where size sat, was pulled or came back. The liquidity heatmap draws the orders resting in the book, over time, to 6 % either side of price. It answers: *where is size waiting, did it stay, and was it pulled?* Turn it on with **Indicators → Resting liquidity** or press `h`. ![A 5-minute BTC chart of 1 November covered by the liquidity heatmap: purple far from price, bright green and yellow bands just above and below price, thin yellow streaks lower down near 75,500, 74,500 and 73,500, black vertical gaps, a depth histogram at the right edge and the legend at the bottom.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/liquidity-heatmap.webp) *BTC perp, 5m, 1 Nov 2026: resting orders from about 73,000 to 83,000; bright = more size waiting.* - **What you see:** Colour is resting size: deep purple is little, then blue and green, and yellow is a wall. The candles run through the middle. In the picture, the thickest liquidity sits in bands just above (about 78,900) and below (about 77,200) price, and thin yellow streaks near 75,500, 74,500 and 73,500 stayed all day. The black columns are times Tactiq has no book record for. The bars at the right edge are the depth of the forming bar. The legend says the book is complete within ±0.19 % here and how long the wider range has been watched (37 minutes in this shot, so the far range is still filling in). - **How to read it:** - **A long yellow streak** is a wall that stayed. A streak that ends just before price reaches it was pulled. - **A wall that stays while price trades into it** may be absorbing. Price can slow or turn there. - **Thin purple within the complete range** (the legend says how far) is a clear path: price can move fast through it. Further out, thin purple can simply mean not seen yet. - **Hover** for the price range, the resting size and its value in USD. - **What it tells you:** Where orders are waiting now, and whether they stayed. It does **not** tell you they will be there when price arrives: resting orders can be cancelled at any moment. - **How to use it:** Before you place a stop or a target, look for walls and thin paths. A target just in front of a big wall that has stayed for hours is more realistic than one past it. When price reaches the wall, check delta and the footprint: trades into it with no progress means it is absorbing. The wall vanishes as price arrives: do not rely on it. - **Common mistakes:** - Treating a wall as a promise. Walls are often pulled; trades are facts, orders are not. - Reading black columns as an empty book. They are times with no record. - Judging the far range right after a restart: it fills in over hours, as the legend says. ### What it can and cannot see - **Recorded live.** Binance publishes no history of the order book, so Tactiq collects it. Before Tactiq started watching, there is nothing. - **Complete near price, a lower bound further out.** Binance's snapshot covers about ±0.15 % on the perpetual. Beyond it, Tactiq shows the orders its live feed has reported since it last watched without a break. A large order that has not changed since then is missing until it does. The hover readout says which range is complete, and the legend says for how long the book has been watched. - **Recovery is measured.** After a restart, Tactiq recovered about 88 % of resting size within 1 minute and 97 % within 5 minutes. The far range is drawn only after a 5-minute warm-up. - **Contrast.** The Threshold slider in the legend (also in Settings) sets how much size turns yellow. > Resting orders can be cancelled at any moment. They are promises. Trades are facts. Read walls together with order flow. --- ## Liquidation heatmap (estimated) Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/liquidation-heatmap · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31 The liquidation heatmap is an estimate from a model of where leveraged positions may be liquidated. It is labelled as an estimate everywhere it appears. The liquidation heatmap estimates the prices where leveraged perpetual positions would be force-closed. It answers: *where would a move trigger forced selling or buying?* Turn it on with **Indicators → Positioning (estimated)** or press `j`. It is available on 5-minute to daily candles. > This layer is a **model**, not data. Nobody publishes where positions sit or at what leverage. Tactiq labels every number from it as *estimated*. ![A 1-hour BTC chart from 26 October to 1 November covered by the estimated liquidation heatmap: bright yellow bands above price near 83,000 and 85,500 and below near 75,000 and 74,000, a dark purple channel hugging the candles, and the legend at the bottom saying estimated.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/liquidation-heatmap.webp) *BTC perp, 1h, 26 Oct–1 Nov 2026: estimated liquidation levels; bright = more positions would be forced out there.* - **What you see:** Bands of colour above and below the candles: bright yellow is where the model puts many liquidations. The dark channel around the candles has few: levels there were used up (price traded through them) or sit closer than even 100x leverage allows. In the picture, the bright band near 79,000 that sat under price for days disappeared in the fall of 29 to 30 October: those long positions were (in the model) liquidated. The legend at the bottom says *estimated* and how well the model checks out so far. - **How to read it:** - **Bright bands below price** are estimated long liquidations (forced selling). **Above price**, estimated short liquidations (forced buying). - **A dense band near price** is where a move can feed on itself. - **A band that vanishes** after price crosses it has been used up. - **What it tells you:** Where a move might trigger forced orders, if the model's guesses about leverage are right. It does **not** show real positions, and price is not "pulled" to a band. - **How to use it:** Use it for risk, not entries. A bright band just past your stop means a move there could speed up and slip your stop. A bright band ahead of a trade in your favour can be a sensible place to take profit. If price runs into a band, check the big-trade squares (real liquidations) to see whether forced flow is really happening. - **Common mistakes:** - Treating the bands as real orders. They are a model built from open interest. - Expecting price to "hunt" every bright band. Tactiq has not measured that. - Ignoring the check line in the legend: early on there is too little data to test the model. ### How the model works 1. **New positions.** When a bar's open interest rises, the model assumes new positions, opened at the bar's typical price. They are split between longs and shorts by the bar's taker-buy share. 2. **Leverage mix.** Each opening is spread over 10x, 25x, 50x and 100x (30 %, 30 %, 25 % and 15 %). A long at leverage L is liquidated near price × (1 − 1/L + maintenance margin). A short is liquidated near price × (1 + 1/L − maintenance margin). 3. **Closing.** When open interest falls, every open estimate shrinks in proportion. 4. **Used up.** A level that price trades through is gone: those positions were liquidated. Tactiq checks the model against the real forced-order stream. That stream is a sample (Binance sends at most one liquidation per second), so the check is a sanity test, not a proof. --- ## The Tactiq Flag Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/tactiq-flag · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31 The Tactiq Flag reads every closed bar six ways and combines the lanes into one plain state per timeframe. It describes the market; it is not a forecast. The Tactiq Flag tells you what the market is doing on one timeframe. It reads every closed bar in six ways (the lanes), then it combines them into one state. It is a description of the market. It is not a trade signal and it is not a forecast: see [What history says](#flag-history). It reads 5m, 15m, 30m, 1h and 4h bars. Each timeframe has its own reading. On the Chart, the Flag follows the timeframe you select. Turn it on with **Indicators → Tactiq → Tactiq Flag** or the `q` key. ![A 15-minute BTC chart of 31 October and 1 November with the Flag: the reading card at the top left says 15m closed bar, Balance, with the event Sellers absorbed, 6 bars ago, and Forming (99 %, provisional), Balance; red pennants above the bars and teal ones below sit on the climb of 1 November; under it the regime ribbon is mostly amber on 31 October, turns teal and hatched teal early on 1 November and grey from about 11:00, above six lane rows named Structure, Auction, Control, Fuel, Energy and Liquidity.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/flag.webp) *BTC perp, 15m, 31 Oct–1 Nov 2026: the regime ribbon went from coiling (amber) to uptrend (teal), uptrend tiring (hatched) and balance (grey).* - **What you see:** The reading card at the top left: *15m closed bar · Balance* with the last event, *Sellers absorbed, 6 bars ago*, and under it the bar still forming, *Forming (99 %, provisional) · Balance*. Small pennants sit on the price chart, red above the bars and teal below, most of them on the climb of 1 November. The top row of the Flag pane is the regime: on 31 October it is mostly amber (coiling) with short grey breaks (balance); early on 1 November it turns teal (uptrend), then teal with diagonal lines (uptrend tiring) from about 07:00, and grey (balance) from about 11:00. The six rows under it are the lanes; the blue *Energy* cells on 31 October mean volatility was low, the amber ones on 1 November that it expanded. - **How to read it:** - Read the ribbon colour first: trend up (teal), trend down (red), tiring (hatched), coiling (amber), balance (grey). - Then the conviction dots on the card: four of four lanes agreeing is a clear read; one of four is weak. - A pennant is an event on that bar (squeeze, flush, failed breakout, absorption, breakout). Tables below. - **What it tells you:** What the market is doing now on this timeframe, in one word. It does **not** predict: Tactiq measured every state and no directional state predicted the next bars. Coiling is followed by *smaller* moves, not a breakout. - **How to use it:** Before a trade, read the Flag on your timeframe and one above. Trading against a clear trend on the higher timeframe needs a stronger reason. In the picture, balance after a tiring uptrend says "no trend to lean on": expect rotation inside the range, keep targets modest, and do not chase a breakout. - **Common mistakes:** - Entering on a pennant. Most pennants mark a move that already happened. - Expecting a breakout from coiling. History says quiet tends to stay quiet for a while. - Reading the faded forming bar as final. Only the closed bar counts. ### Where you see it | Element | Where | What it is | | --- | --- | --- | | Regime ribbon | Top row of the Flag pane, under the price chart | One cell per bar: the slow state of the market (the regime). | | Six lanes | The six rows under the ribbon | One cell per bar per lane: the inputs to the regime. | | Pennants | On the price chart, at a bar | An event on that bar (squeeze, flush, failed breakout, absorption, breakout). | | Reading card | Top left of the chart | The reading in words. Hover a bar to read that bar. The dots next to the regime count the lanes that agree with the regime’s direction. | | Flag stack | Overview page | The regime on every timeframe, side by side. | ### The regime ribbon: colours Each cell is one bar. The colour is the regime on that bar. The regime changes only after two closed bars agree, so it does not flicker. Colours are given for the dark theme; the light theme uses the same hues. | Looks like | Regime | Exact colour | Meaning | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Uptrend | teal #1fc98e, 85 % opacity, solid | Structure trends up (drift and swings) and nothing shows the trend fading. | | | Downtrend | coral #f4505f, 85 %, solid | The same, down. | | | Uptrend tiring | teal 42 % with diagonal lines | Still an uptrend, but losing force: delta divergence, short covering, sellers or OI against it, extreme volatility, or price back below VWAP or value. The diagonal lines mean “fading”. | | | Downtrend tiring | coral 42 % with diagonal lines | The same, for a downtrend. | | | Coiling | amber #f2c14e, 60 %, solid | Volatility in the lowest 20 % of its recent range and almost no drift. | | | Balance | grey #959dac, 30 % | No trend. Price rotates inside or around value. | | | Unclear | grey #848d9f, 12 % (almost empty) | Not enough bars or data yet (the first bars of a series). | ### The six lanes: colours Each lane is one row. A lane value goes from −1 to +1 (directional lanes) or from 0 to 1 (energy, liquidity). The stronger the value, the deeper the colour. Directional lanes: opacity is 12 % at zero and 90 % at ±1. Energy and liquidity: 12 % at the middle (0.5) and about 87 % at either end (0 or 1). | Lane | Question | Colours | | --- | --- | --- | | Structure | Is there a trend, and is it getting faster? | teal: up drift and higher swings. coral: down. | | Auction | Is price accepted above or below value? | Teal: above the prior day’s value area or VWAP (deepest when accepted, 2+ closes). Coral: below. | | Control | Who is aggressive, and does price move with them? | Teal: buyers in control. Coral: sellers. Absorbed or exhausted aggression shows the colour of the side that is winning. | | Fuel | Are traders opening or closing positions? | Deep: OI up (teal price up, coral price down). Pale: OI down (teal price up, coral price down). | | Energy | Is the market coiled or stretched? | blue: compressed (low volatility). amber: expanded or extreme. | | Liquidity | Is the path clear? | Amber: thin book near price. Blue: thick book. Only the newest bar has a book reading. | A cell with grey diagonal lines means that lane had no data at all on that bar (for example, liquidity on any bar without an order-book reading). A lane without data does not vote. Missing trade-level inputs (footprint and big trades, about a day deep) or missing liquidations do not hatch a cell: the lane is read from the inputs it has, and the missing ones simply do not contribute. ### The pennants: events A pennant is a short vertical pole with a small triangle at its end. It sits **below** the bar in teal when the event points up, and **above** the bar in coral when it points down. The code next to it appears when you zoom in far enough; when you zoom far out, pennants are hidden so they do not become noise. | Code | Event | Rule (on the closed bar) | Points | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | SQ | Short squeeze | Up bar of at least 1 ATR with liquidations in the top 10 %, or a sharp drop in open interest (bottom 10 % and 3× the usual change). | Up | | FL | Long flush | The same, down. | Down | | FB | Failed breakout / breakdown | The first close back inside value after a run outside it that reached at least 0.25 ATR beyond. | Against the failed move | | AB | Buyers / sellers absorbed | Heavy one-sided aggression (top 15 %, volume 1.2× normal) with almost no progress, at value’s edge, the recent high or low, or a supply or demand zone. | Against the absorbed side | | BO | Breakout attempt | The first close outside value with control at least 0.3 in that direction. | With the break | ### The reading card - **Collapsed:** the timeframe, the regime name in its colour, the conviction dots and the latest event. - **Conviction dots:** one dot for each direction lane with data (up to four). A filled dot agrees with the regime’s direction. Four of four is a clear read; one of four is weak. In the expanded card, the dots next to the state’s title (an event while it holds) count the lanes that agree with that state’s direction instead. - **Expanded (click):** each lane as a bar with its label, what followed this state in history (or a *Note* from market mechanics where it was not measured), the condition that would change the reading, and the regime one timeframe up. - **Hover a bar** to read that bar. Move the pointer off the chart to return to the current reading. ### When a flag is formed - Every reading is made on a **closed** bar, from data up to that close only. - The bar that is still forming has a **provisional** reading: what the Flag would say if the bar closed now, refreshed every 5 seconds. It is drawn faded, the card shows it as “Forming (x %, provisional)” with the regime it would show, “may become …” when the rules see a different regime not yet confirmed, and any *possible* event, and it never plants a pennant. At the close it is replaced by the real reading, which is the only one recorded. - The chart asks for the Flag as soon as a bar closes, so the new reading appears seconds after the close. - Past readings are not repainted with hindsight: a swing counts only from the bar that confirms it, the value area is the prior day, and recomputing 17,472 past 15-minute bars (January to June 2024) from different start points changed none of them. - One difference from what you saw live: older bars lose inputs that only exist for recent bars (footprint and big trades about a day, liquidations since the system started, the book only now). ### What history says Tactiq measured every state on every timeframe (5m, 15m, 30m, 1h and 4h, 2023 to 2026) against ordinary bars of the same timeframe, with the trade inputs the live Flag has and the number of tests counted (study 004: studies 001 to 003 repeated on the rules as they now run). The results: - **No directional state predicted the next 1, 4 or 16 bars, on any timeframe.** After a trend, squeeze, flush, failed breakout, absorption or breakout, price moved no differently from any other bar. - **Most flags mark a move that already happened.** Before a squeeze, flush or breakout pennant, price had already moved that way 83 % to 93 % of the time. On a chart, “red pennant, then price fell” is mostly the fall that made the pennant. - **Coiling is followed by smaller moves, not larger ones.** On 5m to 1h, the next 4 bars moved about 19 % to 25 % less than from an ordinary bar. On 4h there was no clear difference. Quiet markets tend to stay quiet for a while. The reading card shows the result for the state and the timeframe you are on, marked *measured*. ### How to use the Flag 1. **Use it to describe, not to predict.** It sums up the six lanes at a glance. 2. **Check the higher timeframe.** Know which regime you trade inside. 3. **Use a pennant as a fact about the bar,** not as an entry. A failed breakout or absorption against your trade is information about the auction; decide with your own plan. 4. **When coiling, expect quiet to continue.** Do not expect an immediate breakout. 5. **Use “Changes if”** as the condition that would change your view. --- ## Supporting layers Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/supporting-layers · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31 Levels, volume profile, auction marks, order blocks, VWAP, the footprint and big trades: where the auction did business, with a picture of each. These layers show where the auction did business and what the day's average price is. They give the zones their context. Each one below has a picture of the layer alone on the BTC perpetual. ### Levels ![A 30-minute BTC chart from 29 October to 1 November with three purple level lines close around price: 7d LVN · Asks at 78,335.8 above it, SwH · today VAH at 78,120.9 right at price and SwL · 15m OB · SwH at 77,801.0 below it, with prices tagged on the right axis.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/levels.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 29 Oct–1 Nov 2026: three levels near price, each where two or three references agree.* - **What you see:** Purple lines with short names on the left and their price on the right axis. Only the levels nearest price are drawn. In the picture, three lines sit within about 300 USD of price: *7d LVN · Asks* at 78,336 (a low-volume price of the last 7 days and resting asks in the book), *SwH · today VAH* at 78,121 (a swing high and the top of today's value area) and *SwL · 15m OB · SwH* at 77,801 (swing points and a 15-minute order block). - **How to read it:** - Each level is a price where the market did business before: prior day high, low and close (PDH, PDL, PDC), swing highs and lows (SwH, SwL), VWAP, value area (VAH, VAL), POC and volume nodes (HVN, LVN). - One line with several names is several references at one price: it is stronger than one alone. - The Overview lists the few that matter most, ranked by importance and distance. - **What it tells you:** Where traders watch for reactions (Tactiq has not measured how often they happen there). It does **not** tell you a reaction must happen, or which way. - **How to use it:** Mark the nearest level above and below price before you trade. If price drops to the *PDC · SwL* line in the picture, watch delta and the footprint there: buyers step in and price holds on a close, a bounce is possible; a close below it with sellers in control means the cluster gave way. - **Common mistakes:** - Entering just because price touched a level. Wait for flow to confirm. - Treating all levels alike. A cluster of several references matters more than a single one. ### Volume profile ![A 30-minute BTC chart with a horizontal volume histogram at the right edge: coral and teal rows, a brighter value area labelled VAH near 78,900 and VAL near 76,600, and a white POC row at about 77,500, just below price.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/profile.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 29 Oct–1 Nov 2026: where the visible range traded; value area from VAL to VAH, the white row is the POC.* - **What you see:** A sideways histogram at the right edge: one row per price, longer = more volume traded there. Each row is split into taker selling (coral, outer) and taker buying (teal, inner). The brighter part is the value area (70 % of the volume), from *VAL* (about 76,600) to *VAH* (about 78,900). The white row is the POC, the price with the most volume (about 77,500 in the picture, about 600 USD under the last price). - **How to read it:** - **Price inside value:** the market accepts these prices. - **Price outside value:** it is testing new prices. - **Thin rows** (low volume) were crossed fast; traders expect price to move fast through them again (Tactiq has not measured this). - **What it tells you:** Where the auction agreed on price, for the range on screen. Price that leaves value and is accepted (two closes outside) may move on. Price that comes back inside may return to the POC. It does **not** tell you when. - **How to use it:** Know whether you are inside or outside value before you trade. Inside value, expect rotation and be careful chasing breakouts. In the picture price sits inside value, above the POC and below VAH: not an edge for either side. - **Common mistakes:** - Forgetting that the profile changes when you pan or zoom: it describes the range on screen. - Comparing profiles of two different zoom levels as if they were the same. ### Auction marks ![A 30-minute BTC chart with dashed grey lines labelled Untested POC 10-29 near 79,900 and Untested POC 10-30 near 76,950, and two short dotted lines labelled IB high and IB low near 77,700 and 77,450 on 1 November, under price.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/auction.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 29 Oct–1 Nov 2026: two untested POCs from earlier days and today's initial balance.* - **What you see:** Dashed and dotted grey lines with names. In the picture: *Untested POC 10-29* (about 79,900) and *Untested POC 10-30* (about 76,950), and the initial balance of 1 November (*IB high*, *IB low*), the range of the first hour of the UTC day. - **How to read it:** - **Untested POC:** a prior day's busiest price that price has not touched again. - **Single print:** a price that one 30-minute period crossed fast and no later period revisited. - **Poor high or low:** an extreme that was not rejected clearly. - **IB high and low:** a break of the first hour's range shows which side took the day's initiative. - **What it tells you:** Where the auction left work unfinished. Auction theory says price tends to return to them. Tactiq has not measured that. - **How to use it:** Use them as possible targets and as places to watch, not as entries. For example, an untested POC above price is a reasonable first target for a long that is already working. - **Common mistakes:** - Expecting every untested POC to be filled soon. Some stay open for weeks. - Looking for single prints early in the UTC day: they need at least two completed periods. ### Order blocks ![A 30-minute BTC chart with two red boxes labelled OB with a down arrow above price, a thin one near 80,800 and a tall one from about 78,550 to 79,750 starting at the big drop of 29 October, and two small teal boxes labelled OB with an up arrow just under price on 1 November, near 77,800.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/zones.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 29 Oct–1 Nov 2026: supply order blocks (red, OB ▼) left by the fall of 29 October, demand blocks (teal, OB ▲) under price.* - **What you see:** Boxes labelled *OB*. Red with ▼ is a supply block (it may stop a rally); teal with ▲ is a demand block (it may hold a dip). In the picture, two supply blocks sit above price: the tall box from about 78,550 to 79,750 starts at the up bar inside the fall of 29 October (about 21:00, between the two red legs); the thin block near 80,800 is the one from just before the fall began. Two small demand blocks near 77,800, from the climb of 1 November, sit just under price. - **How to read it:** - An order block is the last opposite bar before a strong move through a swing (5m bars and longer). - A demand block below price can support it. A supply block above price can stop it. - A block that price closes through is broken. - **What it tells you:** Where the last opposite business happened before a strong move. It does **not** tell you that orders still wait there. - **How to use it:** Use blocks as zones for patience, not as entries. If price rallies into the tall supply block in the picture, watch whether sellers appear (flow zones, negative delta); if price closes above the block, the block is broken. Blocks also feed the Areas that strategies use. - **Common mistakes:** - Shorting the first touch of a supply block without any sign from flow. - Assuming blocks are proven. Tactiq has not measured order blocks; at heavy and flow zones, its studies found price reacted no more often than at random levels. ### VWAP ![A 15-minute BTC chart from the evening of 29 October to 31 October with a thin blue VWAP line: it starts near 80,600, drops at the 00:00 UTC reset of 30 October, then runs between about 77,300 and 77,600 with price crossing it several times.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/vwap.webp) *BTC perp, 15m, 30–31 Oct 2026: session VWAP from 00:00 UTC; the drop near the left edge is the daily reset, not a price move.* - **What you see:** One thin blue line: the average price traders paid today, weighted by volume, from 00:00 UTC. In the picture the line falls sharply near the left edge, at the *30* on the time axis: that is the daily reset, when VWAP starts again from the new day's first bar. On 31 October price sits just above it. - **How to read it:** - **Above VWAP**, buyers control the session on average. **Below**, sellers do. - A close back across VWAP against the trend is a sign the trend is fading. - **What it tells you:** Who is "winning" today on average. It does **not** tell you that VWAP will hold as support or resistance. - **How to use it:** In a clear up day, traders often watch pullbacks to VWAP for buyers to return (Tactiq has not measured whether they hold). If price chops back and forth across VWAP, as on 30 October in the picture, there is no trend to lean on. - **Common mistakes:** - Reading the 00:00 UTC reset jump as a price move. - Trading every touch of VWAP in a range day. ### Footprint ![A 5-minute BTC chart from 02:50 to 04:00 UTC, zoomed in: each bar is an outlined box split into price rows, sell volume (red, left) and buy volume (teal, right) written in each row, and the bar's delta under it; the 03:15 bar has 69.7 BTC bought against 14.3 sold near 77,725 (delta +63.7), the 03:10 bar sold 90.5 against 50.3 bought near 77,755 (delta -68.9).](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/footprint.webp) *BTC perp, 5m zoomed in, 1 Nov 2026: executed selling (left) and buying (right) at each price inside each bar, in BTC.* - **What you see:** Zoom in on 1m to 1h bars and each bar becomes an outlined box (its range) split into price rows. Left of the centre: aggressive sells (red). Right: aggressive buys (teal). Zoomed in far enough, each row shows its volume in BTC and *Δ* (the bar's delta, buys minus sells) sits under the bar. A full-colour cell is an imbalance (one side at least three times the other, on the diagonal). In the picture, the 03:15 bar bought 69.7 BTC against 14.3 sold near 77,725 (Δ +63.7): buyers pushed. The 03:10 bar is the opposite at the top, 90.5 sold against 50.3 bought near 77,755 (Δ −68.9): sellers met the push there, and price did not get above it for the next 20 minutes. - **How to read it:** - Three or more bright cells of one side in a row are a stack. A stack makes a flow zone. - Strong delta with no progress in price is absorption: someone took the other side. - Big numbers at the high or low of a bar show where the fight was. - **What it tells you:** Who was aggressive at each price, and whether price moved for them. It does **not** show resting orders: the footprint is executed trades only. - **How to use it:** This is the tool for "did they defend it?". When price reaches a zone or a level, zoom to 1m to 5m: buy imbalances and positive delta at a teal zone mean buyers defend; sell imbalances and price closing through mean they do not. - **Common mistakes:** - Expecting the footprint on high timeframes or zoomed out: zoom in on 1m to 1h. - Reading a bar with missing trades: Tactiq draws a bar only when it has all of its trades. ### Big trades and liquidations ![A 5-minute BTC chart of 1 November, 04:30 to 17:30 UTC, with markers on most bars: teal circles and squares below the bars, red ones above, larger for bigger size, four with numbers: 145 and 137 (red) and 129 and 113 (teal).](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/events.webp) *BTC perp, 5m, 1 Nov 2026: big trades (circles) and sampled liquidations (squares); the largest carry their size in BTC.* - **What you see:** Circles are large aggressive trades (10 BTC and up on the perp by default) and squares are liquidations. Teal below the bar: buys. Red above the bar: sells. Bigger marks mean bigger size, and trades of 100 BTC and more carry their size in BTC. In the picture: a 129 BTC buy at about 08:30 at the start of the run to 78,200, 145 and 137 BTC sells at about 08:35 and 09:05 near its high, and a 113 BTC buy at about 16:10 on a dip. Big trades are kept for one day, so on a longer view the markers start about 24 hours back. - **How to read it:** - A cluster of big sells at a high, with no follow-through, is selling met by buyers. - A cluster of liquidation squares is forced flow: traders were closed out, not choosing to trade. - Compare big buys and big sells at the same price: both sides were active there. - **What it tells you:** Where large or forced trades happened. Forced flow is sometimes read as the end of a move rather than the start; Tactiq has not measured this. - **How to use it:** After a fast drop with many red liquidation squares, do not chase the move short: forced selling may be ending. Wait for the next closed bar and see whether buyers appear. - **Common mistakes:** - On a view longer than a day, reading the empty left part as "no big trades": they are only kept for 24 hours. - Counting liquidations: Binance sends at most one per second, so Tactiq shows a sample. --- ## Panes below the chart Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/panes · Reading the market · updated 2026-10-31 The panes below the chart: delta, open interest, funding and basis, and what each says about aggression and positioning. Panes sit under the price chart and share its time axis. Each has its title and latest value on the right axis. Turn each one on in **Indicators → Panes below the chart**. ### Delta ![A 15-minute BTC chart of 30 and 31 October with two panes: a delta pane of small teal and red bars around zero, the deepest red bars near minus 2,500 BTC around midnight going into 30 October, and an open-interest line labelled OI perp, BTC 96.8k.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/panes-delta-oi.webp) *BTC perp, 15m, 30–31 Oct 2026: delta per bar (middle) and open interest (bottom).* - **What you see:** Bars around a zero line: teal when aggressive buying beat aggressive selling in that bar, red when selling won. In the picture, the deepest red bars (about −2,500 BTC) are the end of the sharp fall, around midnight going into 30 October. - **How to read it:** - Positive: buyers were more aggressive. Negative: sellers were. - Compare with price: strong delta with no price move is absorption. A new high on weaker delta is divergence. - **What it tells you:** Who was aggressive, bar by bar. It does **not** tell you who will win. - **How to use it:** At a zone or a level, look for delta against the move that does not move price: heavy selling at a teal zone while price holds means sellers are being absorbed. - **Common mistakes:** - Treating big delta as a signal to follow. Aggression often stalls. - Comparing delta across instruments: it is in the base asset (BTC or ETH). ### Open interest - **What you see:** A blue line: the number of open perpetual contracts, in the base asset, with the latest value on the right (*OI perp, BTC 96.8k* in the picture above). In the picture, OI rose from about 94k to 97.5k BTC between 00:00 and 03:00 on 30 October, during the bounce after the fall: positions were being opened. - **How to read it:** - Price up, OI up: likely new longs. Price up, OI down: likely shorts closing. - Price down, OI up: likely new shorts. Price down, OI down: likely longs closing. - **What it tells you:** Whether a move is built on new positions or on closing ones. Traders often say moves with new positions last longer (Tactiq has not measured this). OI does **not** tell you which side holds them. - **How to use it:** When price breaks a level, check OI. Breakout with rising OI: new positions back it. Breakout with falling OI: mostly closing, which can fade. - **Common mistakes:** - Reading rising OI as bullish. Every contract has a long and a short. - Ignoring the size of the change: a small wiggle says little. ### Funding ![A 1-hour BTC chart from 26 October to 1 November with two panes: a funding pane of blue bars at each settlement and a white estimate line at 0.0100 %, titled Funding % per interval, and a basis pane with a blue line titled Basis mark vs index, bp, at −3.3 bp.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/panes-funding-basis.webp) *BTC perp, 1h, 26 Oct–1 Nov 2026: funding (middle: bars settled, line live estimate) and basis (bottom).* - **What you see:** Bars at each settlement and a white line. A bar is the rate that was paid: blue when longs paid shorts, amber when shorts paid longs. The line is the live estimate for the next settlement. In the picture, every bar is blue and the estimate sits at 0.0100 % per interval: longs paying a normal amount. The estimate dipped to about 0.0025 % on 29 October and climbed back. A long straight stretch of the line means few estimates were recorded there, not a steady rate. - **How to read it:** - High positive funding: longs are crowded and pay to stay. Negative: shorts are crowded. - On timeframes longer than the interval, bars are summed per bar (the title says so). - **What it tells you:** How crowded and how expensive perp positioning is. Crowded positioning can unwind fast against the crowd. It does **not** tell you when. - **How to use it:** Before a long, check funding: very high funding means you join a crowd that pays to stay in. That is a reason for a smaller size or a better price, not a reason to short. - **Common mistakes:** - Shorting just because funding is high: it can stay high for a long time. - Assuming 8 hours: the interval differs by instrument (gold settles every 4 hours). ### Basis - **What you see:** A blue line: the perpetual mark price against the spot index, in basis points (1 bp = 0.01 %). It is the bottom pane in the picture above, now at −3.3 bp; over the week it moved between about −6 and +2 bp, small as usual. Straight stretches are spans with no recorded points. - **How to read it:** - A high premium: leveraged buyers pay more than spot. A discount: the opposite. - Basis is small most of the time. Watch its change, not its size. - **What it tells you:** Whether the perpetual trades rich or cheap to spot. A move where only the perpetual's premium jumps is driven by leverage; Tactiq has not measured whether such moves are less stable. - **How to use it:** In a fast rally, a basis that jumps means leverage is driving it. Be careful chasing it. - **Common mistakes:** - Reading a few basis points as a signal. - Forgetting that basis and funding move together: they are not two independent confirmations. --- ## Options gamma in 2 minutes Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/options-gamma · Options gamma · updated 2026-10-31 Option dealers hedge: long gamma calms moves, short gamma speeds them. The two layers to start with on BTC and ETH, a beginner routine and the honest limits. BTC and ETH options trade on Deribit. The firms that take the other side of those trades (the dealers) usually do not want to bet on direction, so they hedge by buying or selling the coin. That hedging is real buying and selling. The options layers estimate *where* it may calm price and where it may speed price up. Gold has no options layers: Deribit lists no gold options. ### The one idea: long gamma calms, short gamma speeds **Gamma** is how much a dealer's hedge must change when price moves. What matters is its sign: | Dealers are… | When price rises they… | When price falls they… | Effect on price | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Long gamma | sell | buy | Leans against moves: calmer, more back-and-forth | | Short gamma | buy | sell | Chases moves: faster, moves can run further | An analogy: long gamma is a thermostat. When the room gets hot it cools it, when it gets cold it heats it. Short gamma is a crowd at an exit: when some people run, others run too. The price where dealers switch from one to the other is **zero gamma** (also called the flip). Which side of it is calm is not fixed: it depends on where the options sit, so Tactiq works it out from the data and writes it on the chart. ### The two options layers to start with ![A 30-minute BTC chart from 28 to 31 October with two options layers: a teal line tagged +γ wall 78,830 · slows price above price, a yellow line tagged Zero γ 76,570 · calm above / fast below and a magenta line tagged −γ wall 76,320 · speeds price below it, with magenta diamonds near 80,000 and 82,000 and teal squares near 76,000 and 78,000 for big option trades.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-default.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: gamma envelopes (three lines) and big option flows (markers).* - **Gamma envelopes:** three lines. Yellow *Zero γ*, whose tag says which side is calm (here "calm above / fast below"), teal *+γ wall* ("slows price") and magenta *−γ wall* ("speeds price"). See [Gamma envelopes](https://tactiq.pro/docs/gamma-envelopes). - **Big option flows:** diamonds (calls) and squares (puts) where the largest option trades happened. See [Big option flows](https://tactiq.pro/docs/big-option-flows). These are the only options layers on at first (the rest of the chart has its own defaults, see [The chart, layer by layer](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart-layers)). Every other options layer is in **Indicators → Options (estimated, Deribit)** and explained under [Advanced](https://tactiq.pro/docs/gamma-levels-profiles). The layers that read dealer positions (profile, levels, zones, heatmap, hedging profile, dynamic walls, dealer pressure, sentiment and the net gamma pane) follow one rule. Dealer positions come from your **Gamma model** setting. The default, *taker-flow*, replays every Deribit option trade since listing and assumes the side that did not hit the trade is a dealer. *Classic* assumes dealers are long every call and short every put. Both are estimates. The expected-move bands come from options' implied volatility, not from dealer positions. ### A beginner routine 1. **Read the yellow tag.** It says which side of zero γ is calm (*calm above / fast below* or *calm below / fast above*), or *No flip near price · all calm* / *· all fast*. On the calm side, the model expects more back-and-forth; on the fast side, moves that run further. Tactiq has not measured this in crypto. 2. **Is price near the teal line?** Price may slow there. Be careful buying a breakout straight into it. 3. **Is price near the magenta line?** Moves can speed up through it. Use a wider stop with a smaller size, so the money at risk stays the same. 4. **Confirm with flow.** A gamma line is a place to watch. The footprint, delta and the zones tell you what traders actually do there. ### Honest limits - **Deribit only.** About half of BTC options open interest and most of ETH's (as of October 2026). CME, ETF options and other venues are not seen. - **Dealer positions are estimated.** Nobody publishes who holds which option. A trade's passive side is not always a dealer. - **Places to watch, not signals.** A gamma level does not say price will stop or turn there. - **Unproven in crypto.** That gamma predicts crypto prices has not been shown. Every options number is labelled estimated. --- ## Gamma envelopes Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/gamma-envelopes · Options gamma · updated 2026-10-31 Three smoothed lines from 24 h of options volume × gamma: zero gamma (its tag says which side is calm), the +γ wall that slows price and the −γ wall that speeds it. Three smoothed lines that follow where option gamma sits around price. They answer: *is price on the calm side or the fast side, and where may it slow or speed up?* Off by default; turn it on in **Indicators → Options (estimated, Deribit) → Gamma envelopes**. ![A 30-minute BTC chart from 28 to 31 October with three lines through time: teal +γ wall 78,830 · slows price above price, yellow Zero γ 76,570 · calm above / fast below and magenta −γ wall 76,320 · speeds price below it; on the evening of 29 October price falls through the yellow line and the magenta line drops with it.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-envelopes.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: zero gamma (yellow), the +γ wall (teal) and the −γ wall (magenta), with their tags.* - **What you see:** Three solid lines, no fill, each with a tag at the right edge in plain words. In the picture: *+γ wall 78,830 · slows price* (teal), *Zero γ 76,570 · calm above / fast below* (yellow) and *−γ wall 76,320 · speeds price* (magenta). The yellow tag says which side of zero γ is calm: here above, and price (77,439) is above it, so it is on the calm side. Look left: until the evening of 29 October price stayed above the yellow line (about 80,000); then it fell through it and dropped about 4,000 USD while the magenta line fell with it. The biggest move in the picture began from above the yellow line (hover those bars to read which side was calm then): calm is a tendency in the model, not a floor. Hover a bar and the readout says which side was calm then, for example *Zero γ (24 h volume): calm above / fast below*. On a phone the tags are shorter (*Zero γ 76,570*, *+γ 78,830*, *−γ 76,320*). A line far from price can leave the chart; its tag then sticks to the top or bottom edge with an arrow (▲ or ▼). - **How to read it:** - **The yellow tag says which side is calm:** *calm above / fast below* or *calm below / fast above*. On the calm side, dealer hedging tends to lean against moves; on the fast side it can push with the move. - **"No flip near price · all calm"** (or *· all fast*) means gamma does not change sign close to price: the whole area is calm (or fast). The tag then has no number; the yellow line still shows the last zero γ, and the readout says *none near price — last at …*. - **Teal line:** the centre of the positive gamma near price. Price may slow near it. - **Magenta line:** the centre of the negative gamma near price. Price may speed up through it. - **What it tells you:** Where option trading of the last 24 hours put gamma, and so where hedging may calm or speed price. It does **not** tell you that price will stop at a line, and it does not know who holds the options: it is a volume estimate (below). - **How to use it:** Start each session by reading the yellow tag and noting whether price is on the calm or the fast side. Calm side, near the teal line: expect rallies to slow, so take profit on longs earlier and do not chase breakouts into it. Fast side: expect bigger swings, so use a wider stop with a smaller size, so the money at risk stays the same, and do not fade a fast move just because it looks stretched. Always confirm at the line with the footprint and delta. - **Common mistakes:** - Assuming "above the yellow line = calm". The side changes with the data: always read the tag. - Treating the teal line as a hard ceiling. It is where hedging may slow price, not an order. - Reacting to every small move of the lines. They are smoothed over about 30 minutes on purpose. - Forgetting the limits: Deribit only, and gamma's edge in crypto is unproven. ### How the lines are made 1. **Volume × gamma.** For each option, Tactiq takes the coins traded in the last 24 hours (rolling, so there is no jump at midnight), counts calls as plus and puts as minus, and multiplies by the option's gamma at each price. This assumes dealers are long the calls and short the puts that traded: a heuristic, not real positions. 2. **+γ wall and −γ wall.** The average strike of the positive (or negative) gamma near price, weighted by how much gamma each strike has. "Near price" means within the 7-day expected move (±10 % when there is none). Because it is an average, the line moves smoothly instead of jumping between strikes. 3. **Zero γ.** The price where the total crosses zero. When there are several crossings, Tactiq follows the one nearest the previous zero γ. The calm side is the side where the total is positive, worked out at each snapshot; with no crossing near price, the sign at price says whether everything nearby is calm or fast. 4. **Smoothing.** A new snapshot every 5 minutes; each line is an average over the last 6 snapshots (about 30 minutes). When a side has nothing, the line holds its last value and the hover readout says so. The **Gamma envelopes source** setting can switch the lines to dealer positioning (your Gamma model) instead of volume. Past bars that Tactiq rebuilt from Deribit trade history look exactly like live ones. The hover readout says *rebuilt* on those bars, and the notes pill says how many there are. --- ## Big option flows Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/big-option-flows · Options gamma · updated 2026-10-31 The Deribit option trades with the largest premium, at their strike: diamonds calls, squares puts, teal bought, magenta sold. Opening or closing is unknown. Markers for the Deribit option trades where the most money changed hands. They answer: *where did someone pay up for options, for which strike, and did they buy or sell?* Off by default; turn it on in **Indicators → Options (estimated, Deribit) → Big option flows**. ![A 30-minute BTC chart from 28 to 31 October with big option trades as markers: magenta diamonds at 80,000 and 82,000 (calls sold), teal squares near 76,000, 78,000, 79,000 and 80,800 (puts bought), teal diamonds at 79,000 and 80,000 (calls bought), one magenta square near 76,000, and small triangles at the top and bottom edges.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-big-flows.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: the largest option trades by premium, drawn at their strike.* - **What you see:** A **diamond** is a call, a **square** is a put. **Teal**: the customer (the side that hit the trade) bought. **Magenta**: the customer sold. Bigger marker = more premium paid. Each sits at the time of the trade and at its *strike*, shown on the perp's price scale. A strike off the chart shows as an arrow at the edge (at most 3 per edge, the largest). In the picture the markers sit on round strikes: calls sold at 80,000 several times and once, large, at 82,000 on the afternoon of 30 October (magenta diamonds); puts bought at 76,000 and 78,000 (teal squares). Hover one for the trade; a hover reads like *Call bought · $1.2M premium · 80,000 strike · exp 31 Oct (0DTE) · IV 52 % · block*. IV is the option's implied volatility (how big a move its price assumes); a *block* is a large trade agreed privately and reported to Deribit. - **How to read it:** - **Premium** is the money paid for the option (price × quantity, in USD). It measures how much was at stake. - **A call bought** pays off if price rises past the strike. **A put bought** pays off if price falls below it. - **Several markers at one strike** mean money is focused on that price. - **The expiry matters:** a 0DTE trade expires within a day; a monthly one is a longer view. - **What it tells you:** Where large option money went, and which way the aggressive side traded. It does **not** tell you whether a trade opened or closed a position: Deribit does not publish that. A "call bought" can be a new bet on a rise or someone closing a short call. - **How to use it:** Hover the largest markers near price. Note the strike, the expiry and bought or sold. A strike with several big trades that also sits near a gamma line or a level is a price worth watching closely. Then read the flow there as usual; the option trade alone is not a reason to enter. - **Common mistakes:** - Reading every bought call as "someone knows price will rise". It can be a hedge, a spread leg or a closing trade. - Ignoring the expiry: a big 0DTE trade says nothing about next week. - Thinking the marker is a target. It shows the strike of an option, not where price must go. ### Which trades are shown | Coin | Shown from (premium, default) | About how many a day | | --- | --- | --- | | BTC | $250,000 | 15 | | ETH | $50,000 | 10 | Counts are from 30 days of Deribit trades, measured on 31 October 2026. In Settings you can change the premium floor, keep only some expiries (0DTE, 1, 7 or 31 days), keep only bought or sold trades, and hide a call and a put of the same strike and expiry traded in the same second (a straddle or offsetting legs; hidden by default). The chart's notes say which floor is in use. --- ## Gamma levels, profiles and zones Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/gamma-levels-profiles · Options gamma: advanced (off by default) · updated 2026-10-31 Off by default: the options and hedging profiles, gamma levels and walls, expected-move bands, pin and acceleration zones and the gamma heatmap. These layers show where dealer gamma sits *now*, strike by strike. They are off by default; turn each on in **Indicators → Options (estimated, Deribit)**. Dealer positions come from your **Gamma model** setting. The default, *taker-flow*, replays every Deribit option trade since listing and assumes the side that did not hit the trade is a dealer. *Classic* assumes dealers are long every call and short every put. Both are estimates. Options count when they expire within the **Gamma horizon** setting (31 days by default). Strikes are shown on the perp's price scale. With any of them on, a small card appears at the top left, for example *Long γ · +$1.4M/1% · Live · est · taker-flow · as of 14:04 UTC*: the regime at the current price (dealers long gamma, about 1.4 million USD of hedging per 1 % move), the feed state, the model and the time of the estimate. ### Options profile ![A 30-minute BTC chart from 29 October to 1 November with a thin bar chart at the right edge, one bar per strike from an axis: a long teal bar at 82,000 with a dashed teal line across the chart, small teal bars near 79,700 to 80,000, a magenta bar near 78,600 with a dashed magenta line just above price and a magenta bar at price near 78,000, and a small summary box at the top right; the card at the top left says Short γ −$7.5M/1%.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-profile.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 29 Oct–1 Nov 2026: dealer gamma per strike: teal positive (right), magenta negative (left).* - **What you see:** A bar chart at the right edge, one bar per strike, from an axis. With the default source, teal bars to the right are positive dealer gamma and magenta bars to the left negative. In the picture the longest bar is teal at 82,000, marked across the chart by a dashed teal peak line; just above and at price, near 78,600 and 78,000, the bars are magenta (the one at 78,600 with a dashed magenta peak line). The small box at the top right sums net, call and put gamma. The card can say *Long γ* while the bars at price are magenta: the card sums every strike's gamma at the current price, so single strikes near price can be negative while the total is positive. Other sources (Settings): calls and puts apart, dealer delta, open interest or 24 h volume (calls right, puts left). - **How to read it:** - The longest teal bars are the strikes where hedging may calm price most. - Long magenta bars are strikes where hedging may speed price. - Optional outlines show the profile 5, 15 or 30 minutes ago, or on previous days, to see what changed. - **What it tells you:** The shape of dealer gamma across prices right now. It does **not** show positions you can verify: it is an estimate. - **How to use it:** Look for the biggest bar near price on each side; those are the strikes to watch. Compare with the envelopes: when both point to the same price, that price matters more. - **Common mistakes:** - Confusing it with the volume profile. This one is options, per strike, not traded volume per price. - Reading far-away strikes as near-term levels. ### Hedging profile ![A 30-minute BTC chart from 29 October to 1 November with bars at the right edge for every price from about 75,500 to above 83,200: teal bars growing to the left above about 79,700 (longest near 81,200) and below price down to about 76,700, magenta bars growing to the right from about 78,500 to 79,600 (longest near 78,700), and short bars at price.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/hedging-profile.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 29 Oct–1 Nov 2026: coins dealers would trade for a +1 % move at each price; teal dampens, magenta amplifies.* - **What you see:** Bars from an axis at the right edge: how many coins dealers would trade for a +1 % move at each price, with gamma plus vanna (volatility) and one day of charm (time decay). Teal, left: their hedging dampens the move. Magenta, right: it amplifies it. Yellow: neutral. In the picture the bars are teal above about 79,700 (longest near 81,200) and below price, but magenta from about 78,500 to 79,600, just above price: in this estimate, a rally into that band would be amplified by hedging, while further up and below price hedging would lean against the move. - **How to read it:** - Teal near price: moves there tend to be absorbed by hedging. - Magenta near price: hedging adds to the move. - **What it tells you:** A fuller estimate of hedging than gamma alone. It does **not** say the move will happen. - **How to use it:** Before a breakout trade, look at the bars just beyond the breakout price. Magenta there: a break may run. Teal there: a break may stall. - **Common mistakes:** - Reading bar length as an order size on the book. It is a model of dealer hedging. - Using it on gold: there are no gold options. ### Gamma levels ![A 30-minute BTC chart from 29 October to 1 November with options levels: a dashed yellow line Flip (positions, other) 82,830 at the top, a teal line ▲▲▲ Call wall 82,002 · OI call wall · γ +$17.7M/1%, a grey dashed line Max pain 80,014, another dashed yellow line Flip (positions, other) 79,569, a magenta dotted line ▲▲ γ −$11.4M/1% 78,605 just above price, a second magenta line at price whose tag is partly hidden by the candles, and a dashed yellow line Flip (positions) 77,294 below price; the card at the top left says Short γ −$7.5M/1%.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-levels.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 29 Oct–1 Nov 2026: flips from dealer positions (yellow, dashed), call wall (teal), max pain (grey) and two negative-gamma strikes (magenta).* - **What you see:** Horizontal lines with labels: *Flip (positions)* (yellow, dashed; other crossings *Flip (positions, other)*), *Call wall* (teal), *Put wall* (magenta), optional OI walls, *Max pain* of the next expiry (grey, dashed) and the largest gamma strikes ranked with triangles (▲▲▲ = the largest). Several labels on one price share one line. In the picture: *Flip (positions, other) 82,830* at the top; *▲▲▲ Call wall 82,002 · OI call wall · γ +$17.7M/1%* (the call wall, the largest call open interest and the largest gamma strike, all at one price); *Max pain 80,014*; *Flip (positions, other) 79,569*; two negative-gamma strikes, *▲▲ γ −$11.4M/1% 78,605* just above price and one at price (its tag partly hidden by the candles); and *Flip (positions) 77,294*, the flip nearest price, below it. No put wall is in view. - **How to read it:** - **Flip (positions):** where dealer gamma from estimated dealer *positions* changes sign, nearest price first. The card's *Long γ* / *Short γ* is the sign at the current price. In the picture the card says *Short γ* and the nearest flip, 77,294, is below price: gamma is negative from there up through price, and the calm side is *below* 77,294. - **Call wall:** the strike with the most call gamma above price; rallies may slow there. - **Put wall:** the strike with the most put gamma below price; drops may slow there. - The card sums every strike's gamma at the current price, so *Long γ* with negative strikes near price is not a contradiction. - **Max pain:** the strike where option buyers would collect the least at the next expiry. - **What it tells you:** Today's key options prices by the model. It does **not** say they will hold. - **How to use it:** Treat the walls like levels: if price reaches the call wall, watch for sellers on the footprint before taking any short idea; a close above the wall means it did not hold. - **Common mistakes:** - Assuming price is drawn to max pain. That is a popular idea, not a measured fact. - Trading the flip line on its own. - Expecting this flip to equal the yellow Zero γ of the envelopes. The flip comes from estimated dealer positions (everything open), the envelopes from the last 24 h of options volume (what traded recently), so they can be far apart. In these pictures they are close (77,294 and 76,570), but that is not the rule. Neither is wrong; they answer different questions. ### Expected-move bands ![A 30-minute BTC chart from 29 October to 1 November with two translucent gold bands across the whole chart: 1 day ±1σ from about 76,600 to 79,500 around price, and the wider 1 week ±1σ from about 82,400 down past the bottom of the chart.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-bands.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 29 Oct–1 Nov 2026: the move options imply for the next day (inner band) and week (outer band).* - **What you see:** Translucent gold bands around the current price, drawn across the whole chart and labelled *1 day ±1σ* and *1 week ±1σ* (±2σ, fainter, in Settings). In the picture the 1-day band runs from about 76,600 to 79,500, so options price a typical day at about ±1,450 USD; the 1-week band reaches 82,400 and past the bottom of the chart. They are today's bands, not history: the older candles were not judged against them. - **How to read it:** - The ±1σ band is where options price about two thirds of outcomes to end. - So a close outside the 1-day ±1σ band happens on about 1 day in 3. Outside ±2σ is unusual. - **What it tells you:** How big a move options traders are paying for. It does **not** say which way. - **How to use it:** Size targets and stops with it. A target beyond the 1-day band needs a bigger-than-typical day (about 1 in 3 days goes that far, either way); a stop inside a normal day's range is likely to be hit by noise. - **Common mistakes:** - Treating the band edge as support or resistance. - Forgetting it is implied volatility: it widens after big moves. ### Pin & acceleration zones ![A 15-minute ETH chart with a dashed line at 02:15 on 31 October and, right of it, a teal band from about 2,252 to 2,272 named Pin · expiry 2026-10-31 08:00 UTC, just above price; the candles after the line stay between about 2,235 and 2,255, just under the band, touching its lower edge around noon.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-pin-zone.webp) *ETH perp, 15m, 31 Oct 2026: the zones as Tactiq showed them at 02:15 UTC (dashed line). The candles to the right of the line came after.* - **What you see:** A shaded band across the chart, named at its left. **Teal, *Pin · expiry …***: a pin zone, around the strike where dealers hold the most positive gamma, shown only in the 48 hours before a large expiry. In the picture it sits at 2,252–2,272, just above price, ahead of the 31 October 08:00 UTC expiry. **Magenta, *Accel ▲ 2.4×***: an acceleration zone, where dealer hedging would be 2.4 times the resting order book (picture below). - **How to read it:** - Pin: dealer hedging leans against moves near the strike, so price tends to stay quiet around it until the expiry. After the expiry the zone is gone. - Acceleration: the ratio is hedging ÷ book depth. At 1× or more, hedging could outweigh the book, so a move into the zone can speed up. - Hatched magenta: the book depth there was not measured. These are hidden by default (Settings → *show zones with depth not measured*). - **What it tells you:** Where the options market leans toward calm (pin) or speed (acceleration) right now. It does **not** say which way price goes, and Tactiq has not measured how often price really pins in crypto. - **How to use it:** Before a pin's expiry, expect chop near it: don't chase a breakout toward the strike, wait for the expiry to pass. Don't put a tight stop inside an acceleration zone, and expect a fast move if price enters one. - **Common mistakes:** - Expecting zones every day. They are rare by design; when the layer is on and nothing is drawn, the notes pill says why. - Treating a pin as a magnet that must pull price to the strike. In the picture, price stayed just under the zone until the expiry. - Reading a hatched zone as measured. ![A 15-minute BTC chart with a dashed line at 12:15 on 30 October and, right of it, hatched magenta acceleration zones named Accel (depth not measured): three stacked above price from about 81,150 to 82,850 and three below from about 75,900 to 77,550, the top one at price; after the line price drops into the lower zones, jumps to about 78,050, falls to about 76,300 and ends near 76,850.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-accel-zone.webp) *BTC perp, 15m, 30 Oct 2026: acceleration zones as shown at 12:15 UTC (dashed line), with “show zones with depth not measured” on. After the line, price swung about 1,500 USD through the lower zones within hours.* ### Gamma heatmap ![A 30-minute BTC chart with a price axis from about 74,500 to 84,500 and glowing strike bands through time: teal bands near 79,000, 80,000, 81,000 and 82,000 before the fall, a steady teal band at 82,000 from midday on 30 October, magenta bands near 77,000 around price on 30 October and at 78,000 from the morning of 31 October, a small more heat ▲ 14 % marker at the top right and the legend at the bottom.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/gamma-heatmap.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: dealer gamma per strike over time, teal long, magenta short.* - **What you see:** Glowing bands behind the candles: dealer gamma per strike over time. Teal is long gamma, magenta short; the legend at the bottom says the scale is USD of dealer hedging per 1 % move, per strike, with a Threshold slider. The price axis stays close to the candles, so they are easy to read: it adds room above and below for the strongest heat, at most half a 7-day expected move. Heat beyond that is cut off, and when a side loses a noticeable share of it (10 % or more of the heat on screen), a small *more heat ▲ … %* or *▼* marker at that edge says how much. In the picture, since midday on 30 October a steady teal band sits at 82,000 (the same strike as the call wall), magenta bands sit right around price near 77,000, a new magenta band appears at 78,000 on 31 October, and the marker says 14 % of the heat lies above the chart. While it is on, it replaces the other heatmaps. - **How to read it:** - A steady teal band is a strike that has calmed price for a while. - Bands that appear or fade show where options positioning changed. - **What it tells you:** How gamma moved through time, not only now. It is an estimate. - **How to use it:** Check whether today's walls are new or have been there for days. Long-standing bands are more notable. - **Common mistakes:** - Confusing it with the liquidity heatmap: this is options, not orders in the book. - Reading brightness as size you can trade against. --- ## Gamma through time Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/gamma-through-time · Options gamma: advanced (off by default) · updated 2026-10-31 Off by default: dynamic walls, the expected move through time and dealer pressure, drawn on the price chart. These layers draw options readings through time on the price chart. They are off by default; turn each on in **Indicators → Options (estimated, Deribit)**. Dealer positions come from your **Gamma model** setting. The default, *taker-flow*, replays every Deribit option trade since listing and assumes the side that did not hit the trade is a dealer. *Classic* assumes dealers are long every call and short every put. Both are estimates. ### Dynamic walls ![A 30-minute BTC chart with a blue stepped ribbon that jumps around: above price on 28 and 29 October, near and below price on 30 October, then up from about 77,800 to 83,200 on the morning of 31 October.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/dynamic-walls.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: a ribbon between the 30-minute and 2-hour averages of zero gamma.* - **What you see:** A blue ribbon between a fast (30 minutes) and a slow (2 hours) average of zero gamma. It breaks where a snapshot had no zero gamma. In the picture it jumps a lot: on 30 October it swings between about 76,000 and 80,000 around price, and on the morning of 31 October it jumps from about 77,800 to 83,200, because zero gamma itself jumped to another strike. - **How to read it:** - Price above the ribbon reads as trend up, below as trend down, inside as range. This is Tactiq's own rule and Tactiq has not measured it. - The ribbon can jump thousands of USD when zero gamma moves to another strike; after a jump the read can say "trend down" during a calm drift, as at the right of the picture. - **What it tells you:** Where price sits against the recent flip, smoothed. It does **not** predict the next move. - **How to use it:** At most as background context next to the Flag and the zones. Do not choose long or short from it: the rule is not measured and the ribbon jumps. - **Common mistakes:** - Trading every cross of the ribbon. - Reading a sudden jump of the ribbon as a market move: zero gamma moved to another strike. - Reading a break in the ribbon as missing data: no zero gamma existed then. ### Expected move ![A 30-minute BTC chart with a gold band through time around price: about ±1,800 USD wide on 28 and 29 October, widest after the fall on 30 October, narrowing to about 76,600 to 78,400 on 31 October.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/expected-move.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: the one-day expected move through time.* - **What you see:** A gold band through time: the ±1σ one-day move options implied at each snapshot. In the picture, the fall on the evening of 29 October broke out of the band, and the band then widened on 30 October (options priced bigger moves after the shock) before narrowing again on 31 October to about 76,600 to 78,400. - **How to read it:** - A widening band: options price bigger moves. - Price riding the band edge: a strong day, but at ±1σ about 1 day in 3 gets there. - **What it tells you:** How expected volatility changed, and how today compares with it. - **How to use it:** When the band narrows, keep targets modest. When it widens, use a wider stop with a smaller size, so the money at risk stays the same. - **Common mistakes:** - Fading price at the band edge without a sign from flow. ### Dealer pressure ![A 30-minute BTC chart with a teal and magenta line drawn over the candles that restarts each day, falls to the bottom of the chart on the afternoon of 30 October, and ends with the tag Dealers: −11.37 BTC to sell.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/dealer-pressure.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: what dealers must trade to stay hedged after customers' option trades each day.* - **What you see:** A line scaled into the price range, starting from the first visible close: what option dealers must trade to stay hedged after customers' option trades since 00:00 UTC. The colour shows the direction of the line: teal where it rises (dealers must buy more), magenta where it falls (they must sell more). Intraday timeframes only. The tag at the right gives the day's total in plain words; in the picture, *Dealers: −11.37 BTC to sell*. On 30 October the line fell to the bottom of the chart as customers' option trades left dealers needing to sell; it restarts each day at 00:00 UTC. - **How to read it:** - Price and pressure rising together: option hedging feeds the rally. - Price up while pressure falls: a rally not fed by option hedging. - **What it tells you:** Whether options trading is adding to or against the move today. It is an estimate. - **How to use it:** When price rises but pressure falls, be careful chasing the rally. - **Common mistakes:** - Reading the line's height as a price level: it is scaled into the chart only to compare shapes. --- ## Options panes Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/options-panes · Options gamma: advanced (off by default) · updated 2026-10-31 Off by default: the dealer sentiment strip and the net gamma, options flow, options delta and options volume panes, and how to read each. Panes under the chart that show options activity bar by bar. They are off by default; turn each on in **Indicators → Panes below the chart**. Dealer positions come from your **Gamma model** setting. The default, *taker-flow*, replays every Deribit option trade since listing and assumes the side that did not hit the trade is a dealer. *Classic* assumes dealers are long every call and short every put. Both are estimates. ### Dealer sentiment ![A 30-minute BTC chart with a strip under it of three labelled rows, Gamma, Flow and IV: Gamma mostly teal on 28 and 29 October and mostly magenta on 30 October; IV teal before the fall and magenta from the fall to 31 October; Flow mixed teal, magenta and grey.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/dealer-sentiment.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: the dealer sentiment strip, rows Gamma, Flow and IV.* - **What you see:** A strip with three rows, one cell per bar. **Gamma**: teal dealers long gamma, magenta short. **Flow**: options delta customers added over the last hour, teal up, magenta down, grey flat. **IV** (implied volatility, 30 days): magenta rising, teal falling, grey flat, against 24 hours before. Hover a cell to read it in words. In the picture, Gamma is mostly teal before the fall and mostly magenta on 30 October; IV turns magenta (rising) at the fall of 29 October and stays so: a calm market that turned fast and nervous. - **How to read it:** - All teal: a calm, long-gamma market with options buyers adding upside and volatility falling. - Gamma magenta and IV magenta together: a nervous, fast market. - **What it tells you:** The options mood in three words per bar. It does **not** forecast. - **How to use it:** Read it as weather: on magenta-gamma, rising-IV bars, trade smaller. - **Common mistakes:** - Reading teal as bullish: in the Gamma and IV rows teal means calm, not up. ### Net gamma ![A 30-minute BTC chart with a Net GEX pane under it: teal bars growing through 29 October up to the fall, deep magenta bars on the morning of 30 October, small magenta bars from the evening of 30 October to the morning of 31 October; tag Net GEX (est.) +$916.0k/1%, scale ±$100M/1%.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/net-gamma-pane.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: net dealer gamma per bar.* - **What you see:** Bars: net dealer gamma per bar, in USD per 1 % move, with the latest value on the right (*Net GEX (est.) +$916.0k/1%* in the picture). Teal: dealers long gamma (moves damped). Magenta: short (moves amplified). In the picture, gamma was teal and growing through 29 October, then deeply magenta on the morning of 30 October, right after the fall, when price swung about 2,000 USD up and back down. - **How to read it:** - Big teal bars: in the model, hedging leans hard against moves. - A switch from teal to magenta: the model moved to the fast side. - **What it tells you:** How strong the calm or fast effect is, in the model, over time. - **How to use it:** Read it as context, not as a trade filter. In the picture the largest teal bars of the window came just before the 4,000 USD fall of 29 October: long gamma did not stop it. Tactiq has not measured whether net gamma predicts calmer or faster moves in crypto. - **Common mistakes:** - Comparing values across BTC and ETH: the sizes differ. ### Options flow ![A 30-minute BTC chart with an options flow pane: small bars and two lines; on 30 October the magenta put line rises to about plus 4 million USD and the teal call line falls to about minus 4 million USD; tags Puts Σ premium $387.6k and Calls Σ premium $80.5k.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/options-flow-pane.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: net customer option flow per bar and cumulative call and put lines.* - **What you see:** Bars: net customer option flow per bar (calls and puts together; teal = customers net bought options). Two lines: cumulative call flow (teal) and put flow (magenta) since 00:00 UTC, in premium USD or coins (Settings). The lines restart at 00:00 UTC, drawn as a faint grey drop. In the picture, on 30 October the put line climbed to about +$4M (customers paid for puts) while the call line fell to about −$4M (customers sold calls): both lean the same way, toward protection. The tags show today so far: *Puts Σ premium $387.6k*, *Calls Σ premium $80.5k*. - **How to read it:** - Teal bars mean customers bought options, calls *or* puts: it is not a direction. - The call line rising faster than the put line: more money into calls today. - **What it tells you:** How active option buyers and sellers are, and on which side. - **How to use it:** Check whether a move comes with option buying in its direction (calls on a rally, puts on a drop). - **Common mistakes:** - Reading teal bars as bullish. Bought puts are teal too. ### Options delta ![A 30-minute BTC chart with an options delta pane: a line restarting each day at 00:00 UTC, teal and near zero on 28 October, magenta on 29 and 30 October, falling to about minus 1,000 BTC on the afternoon of 30 October, back near zero on 31 October; tag Options Δ since 00:00, BTC −11.37.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/options-delta-pane.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: cumulative delta customers added through option trades each day.* - **What you see:** An option's *delta* is how many coins of exposure it acts like (a call with delta 0.5 on 1 BTC moves like 0.5 BTC). This is not the order-flow Delta pane (taker buy minus taker sell). A filled line: the net delta customers added through option trades since 00:00 UTC, in coins. Teal above zero, magenta below. Intraday timeframes. In the picture, on 30 October customers added about −1,000 BTC of exposure by the afternoon (they leaned short through options); today it is close to flat (*−11.37*). - **How to read it:** - Above zero and rising: customers are adding upside exposure through options. Dealers hedge that by buying. - Below zero: customers are adding downside exposure. - **What it tells you:** The direction of today's options positioning, in coins of exposure. - **How to use it:** Compare with price: price up with options delta up is a move options traders join. - **Common mistakes:** - Ignoring the daily reset: the line starts again at 00:00 UTC. ### Options volume ![A 30-minute BTC chart with an options volume pane: small bars around zero, red bars during the fall on the evening of 29 October and one tall teal bar near 9,000 BTC on the afternoon of 30 October; tag Calls − puts traded, BTC 53.80.](https://tactiq.pro/docs/chart/options-volume-pane.webp) *BTC perp, 30m, 28–31 Oct 2026: calls minus puts traded per bar.* - **What you see:** Bars: calls traded minus puts traded on Deribit per bar, in coins. Teal: more calls. Red: more puts. In the picture, puts dominated during the fall of 29 October (red), and one bar on the afternoon of 30 October traded about 9,000 BTC more calls than puts: the same hour as the large call sale at 82,000 in Big option flows. - **How to read it:** - A run of red bars: puts dominate trading, which can be demand for protection (or put selling: volume does not say which). - **What it tells you:** Which kind of option is busier. It does **not** say who bought or sold. - **How to use it:** Use it with Options flow: volume says what traded, flow says which way. - **Common mistakes:** - Treating put volume as bearish: puts are also sold, and bought as insurance by holders. > Every options pane is an estimate from Deribit only. None of them is a signal. --- ## Strategies: Direction, Area, Trigger Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/strategies · Trading ideas · updated 2026-10-31 A Tactiq strategy is a fixed rule with three questions in order: Direction, Area and Trigger. All three must say yes before a signal appears. A Tactiq strategy is a fixed rule that looks for a trade idea on closed candles. Each one asks three questions in order. All three must say yes. | Question | Name | What Tactiq checks | | --- | --- | --- | | Which way is the market leaning? | Direction | Four yes-or-no questions on closed **daily** bars: is the close above its 5-bar mean? above its 20-bar mean? are highs and lows rising (confirmed swings)? is it above the middle of last week's range? Four up answers is *Strong up* and three is *Mostly up*; four down answers is *Strong down* and three is *Mostly down*; anything else is *Neutral*. Tactiq never raises a signal against a strong Direction. | | Where does a reaction make sense? | Area | A price zone built on at least one heavy zone, flow zone or order block, where other references overlap it, such as the auction levels, last week's high and low and the Asia range. Levels alone never make an Area. Same-side zones within 0.1 ATR merge. An Area is **prime** (a heavy and a flow zone overlap), **strong** (two zone kinds, or two or more references) or **normal**. Setups act only at **key** Areas: prime, strong, or one that holds a heavy zone. | | Has the market shown its hand? | Trigger | The last *closed* candle shows something at the Area. **Rejection:** price traded into the Area and closed back out, with sellers absorbed or delta turned. **Acceptance:** price closed beyond the Area on 1.5× normal volume with delta behind the break. **CVD divergence.** | ### The four setups | Setup | Direction | Area | Trigger | Entry and stop | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Zone hold | With the Direction, or against one that is not strong | Key support or resistance | Rejection | Limit at the near edge. Stop beyond the Area and the candle, plus 0.15 ATR. | | Break and retest | With the Direction only | A key Area on the other side of price, as it stood *before* the break | Acceptance | Limit at the Area's edge (the retest). Stop back past its middle, plus 0.15 ATR. | | Heavy push | With the Direction only | A heavy zone formed in the last 3 candles whose response was "followed" | The candle closed its way | Limit at the zone's near edge. Stop beyond it, plus 0.15 ATR. | | Look above and fail | With, or against a non-strong Direction | Yesterday's high or low, value edges, last week's high or low | Traded beyond, closed back inside, with absorbed aggression or a CVD divergence | Now. Stop beyond the candle's extreme, plus 0.15 ATR. | ### Three families, side by side The same four setups run as swing trades on three timeframes. Each family has its own record and holds one idea at a time. The 30-minute and 1-hour families both run, so you can compare them. | Family | Trigger candle | Distances in | Holds up to | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Intraday swing 30m | 30-minute | 30m ATR | 2 days | | Intraday swing 1h | 1-hour | 1h ATR | 2 days | | Multi-day swing | 4-hour | 4h ATR | 10 days | The 30-minute and 1-hour families can call the same Area on the same hour. That is a comparison, not a duplicate. Two ideas with the same side, the same stop and almost the same entry are one trade, whichever setup found them. Tactiq also runs four older setups that read levels and the order book: sweep and reclaim, breakout then retest, absorption at a zone, and flush and recover. The Signals page shows each strategy in its own record. > Strategies are rules, not forecasts. They never re-fit themselves. A change to a rule is a new version that the owner approves, and versions are never mixed in one record. --- ## Signals: reading a trade idea Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/signals · Trading ideas · updated 2026-10-31 A signal is a trade idea from a strategy, with an example entry, stop and targets. It is not an order. How to read one, and how past ideas ended. A signal is a trade idea from a strategy. It is not an order. Tactiq never places trades and never needs your exchange keys. Open the **Signals** page for ideas that are open now and for the record of those that ended. ### The parts of an idea | Part | What it tells you | | --- | --- | | Call number (TQ-0012) | The same number appears on the page, in Telegram and in the follow-ups. | | Setup, side, Area strength | Which rule found it and how strong the Area is (prime, strong, normal). | | Entry | A limit at a zone edge (it waits to fill) or now (the current price). A limit fills only when price trades *through* it, not when it touches. | | Stop | Where the idea is wrong. It is between 0.15 and 2.5 ATR from the entry. | | TP1, TP2 | Real references: levels, VWAP, the initial balance, untested POCs, the near edge of the opposing zone. TP1 is the first one at least 0.3 ATR away that pays 1.2 R or more. TP2 pays 2 R or more. **No TP1 means no idea.** | | R, net | Every result is after costs: 2 bp maker fee, 5 bp taker fee, 1 bp slippage. A stop so tight that costs take more than 0.25 R is rejected. | | Why these prices | Every idea explains its entry, its stop, each target and the nearer references it skipped. | | Context grade | A, B or C from six votes: spot confirmation, 15-minute structure, the 15-minute Tactiq Flag, funding, open interest read together with price, and the last day of ETF flows. A grade is context, not a probability. | | The analyst | Take, wait or pass, with the reasoning. See [The analyst](#analyst). | ### How an idea is managed Swing ideas take half off at TP1 and move the stop to entry. The rest runs to TP2, back to entry, or to the time limit. An armed limit idea waits six trigger candles (twelve for a breakout retest) and is then closed as *not filled*. The four older setups wait one hour (two for a retest). ### How an idea ends | Outcome | Meaning | | --- | --- | | Target | TP1 traded first. | | Stopped | The stop traded first. If one bar touches both, it counts as a stop, because the order inside the bar is unknown. | | Time limit | Entered, then closed at market when the hold limit passed. It has a result. | | Not filled | The limit never filled. No result. | | Cancelled | The idea became wrong before entry. No result. | | Not scorable | Minutes of data were missing. It is left out of every record, never counted as a loss or a win. | ### The record Each strategy shows how its past ideas ended: the share that reached TP1 with its 95 % range, and the average R. A strategy has **too few ideas to judge** until it has 30 entered ideas. Thirty ideas is a minimum sample, not proof. Signals the analyst passed on are scored too, so you can see how they ended. The history table filters by instrument, strategy, period and what the analyst did, and a row opens the whole story: what happened step by step, the plan to scale, the analyst's review, the post-mortem and the lessons it was shown. > Tactiq's first setups lost money after costs over 45 months of history, and Tactiq shows that openly. The swing strategies are tracked forward, from the day they started, with no replay. Read a strategy's record before you trust its signal. --- ## The analyst Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/analyst · Trading ideas · updated 2026-10-31 Before an idea is announced, two models review it. They judge what the rules found, never invent a trade or a price, and never place an order. Before an idea is announced, two models review it. They **judge** what the rules found. They never invent a trade and never place an order. | Who | Job | | --- | --- | | Claude Haiku 5.5 (the writer) | Reads a dossier of the idea and the market, and writes the case: headline, thesis, evidence for and against, notes on entry, stop and targets, what would invalidate it, and what would change its mind. Another model, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, answers only if the Anthropic call fails. | | Jev (the calibrated second opinion) | Gives calibrated take, wait and pass probabilities in about a second. A pass of 60 % or more vetoes the idea. | ### The dossier The dossier holds the plan, the state of flow, open interest, funding, volatility, structure and the book, recent bars, the auction levels, the Tactiq Flag on every timeframe, the strategy's own record, and the lessons from the playbook that fit this idea. ### The price check Every price the analyst cites, in a field or in its text, must be within 5 basis points of a price in the dossier. Otherwise the review is rejected, retried once with the problem named, and then marked unavailable. The idea then runs on the rules alone and says so. ### Take, wait, pass - **Take:** announced on the Signals page and Telegram, with the analyst's verdict first. - **Wait:** names the one thing that would make it a take, as words and as a condition Tactiq can check, such as "a 1h close above 81,780 on net buying". Tactiq checks every close. If the condition comes while the limit is still open, the idea becomes a call: "The analyst waited for … It happened." - **Pass:** followed to its end. It reaches your Telegram only if you chose "all" ideas in My alerts, marked as not a call. ### Is it adding value? A language model cannot be tested on history, because it has already seen it. Tactiq judges the analyst **forward only**. Every idea is followed to its end, taken or passed. The Signals page compares the taken ideas with the passed ideas in net R, and measures every wait: how often its condition came, and how the ideas it came for compare with the ones it never came for. --- ## The self-learning loop Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/learning-loop · Trading ideas · updated 2026-10-31 Every day Tactiq reviews closed trades, writes lessons for the analyst and scores each lesson. You stay in control: any lesson can be paused, edited or removed. Tactiq learns the way a trading desk does. Every day it reviews what happened, writes down what it should do differently, and reads that note before the next trade. The people stay in control. 1. **Rules propose.** A strategy finds an idea. 2. **The analyst reviews** it, with the playbook's relevant lessons in the dossier (at most 6, most specific first). 3. **Followed to the end,** taken or passed, on 1-minute bars. 4. **Post-mortem.** Tactiq *measures* the trade: best and worst excursion in R, how far TP1 was missed by, time held, and where price went in the 4 hours after the exit. The writer then explains what decided it, or says it was noise. 5. **The daily review, 00:15 UTC.** The writer plays the desk manager and reads the day's closed trades, even one, against the playbook. It may add a lesson, refine one, or pause one. A second call plays the risk manager and checks each proposal. 6. **Lessons are live at once.** The owner of Tactiq gets a daily Telegram message that lists the changes, each with Pause and Remove buttons. ### What a lesson can and cannot do - A lesson changes **what the analyst is told**. It never changes a strategy's rule, a stop, a target or a size. - A lesson carries no prices. A price in its text is dropped. - A loss is not a lesson. "No change" is the usual answer, and the review is built to say it. ### Strength of a lesson | Strength | Needs | Wording | For the analyst | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Observation | Anything, even one trade | "check", "watch for" | Where to look. Never a reason to pass on its own. | | Tendency | 3 or more trades, outside the range that chance alone gives (2.0 standard errors) | "weigh", "prefer" | May tip a borderline call. | | Rule | 8 or more trades, far outside the range (3.0 standard errors) | Firm | May decide a borderline call. | Tactiq lowers a strength that the numbers do not support. These caps are about wording. A lesson is live either way. ### The scorecard Every lesson shows how the ideas it matches went before and since it went live, on how many days, and how often the analyst was shown it. It is information, not a gate. The writer and the analyst read it too, and are told that small counts are noise. ### Your controls - **Telegram:** Pause (or Resume) and Remove under each change in the daily message. - **Learning page (owner only):** the playbook with scorecards. The owner can pause, resume, edit (saved as a new version, live at once) or remove. A removed lesson is never re-created by the machine. A paused one is not touched. - **History:** every version is kept and every change is logged. ### What the loop does not do yet - It does not prove that lessons make money. That can only be judged forward, from their scorecards. - A lesson drawn from one trade can be noise, and the analyst will weigh it. The strength labels and the scorecard exist for this. - Stops, targets and sizing never adapt. A rule change is a new version that you approve. - The review was tested on invented desks where the truth was known. There, on pure noise, 7 of 8 runs wrote only observations, and a planted pattern was found in 5 of 8 runs. It is a guide to behaviour, not evidence of profit. ### Learning about the market itself The Learning page also holds Tactiq's market knowledge: the readings it makes, each scored against random times. A reading that comes true 66 % of the time means little if a random moment comes true 66 % of the time. Tactiq proposes a change only with at least 30 resolved readings and 30 controls, a lift over random times that clears a strict threshold for the number of tests, and a stable result in older and newer halves. Major changes wait for the owner, and every version can be rolled back. --- ## How a trade idea is built, step by step Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/trade-workflow · Trading ideas · updated 2026-10-31 How a trade idea is built, step by step: context, location, trigger, risk, targets, management and review, and which Tactiq tool answers each step. 1. **Context.** Read the Flag on the higher timeframe and the Direction in an idea's evidence or the daily map. Decide the side you allow, or decide not to trade. 2. **Location.** Find the Area: a heavy or flow zone, a wall in the heatmap, a level. Prime and strong Areas have more than one reason. Do not trade from the middle of nowhere. 3. **Trigger.** Wait for a closed candle that shows something there: a rejection, an acceptance, or absorbed aggression. 4. **Risk.** Put the stop where the idea is wrong. Check that costs are a small part of the risk. 5. **Targets.** Use the next real references. The ideas Tactiq raises take part at TP1 and protect the rest. 6. **Manage.** Read "Changes if". Tactiq's ideas reduce risk when a flag appears against them or the regime starts to tire. 7. **Review.** Write the trade in your Journal: the plan, what happened, what you learned. > This is how Tactiq structures an idea, as education, not advice. Tactiq does not size or place trades. Position size, execution and discipline are yours. --- ## The Overview Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/overview · The desk · updated 2026-10-31 The Overview compresses the market into one page: the Tactiq Flag on every timeframe, the verdict, evidence on both sides and the key levels. The Overview puts key readings on one page. - **Tactiq Flag stack:** the regime on every timeframe and one line on how they line up. - **Verdict:** one sentence. "No clear reading" is a valid answer. - **What matters now:** at most three readings. Each one says why, what it means, what would prove it wrong, and its track record. - **Evidence on both sides:** facts for higher and for lower prices, so you see both. - **Key levels:** the few levels that matter most, ranked by importance and distance in ATR. - **What to watch next:** conditions, not orders. --- ## Macro Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/macro · The desk · updated 2026-10-31 Macro shows what the rest of the world is doing and what is scheduled: global markets, the dollar, dominance and the economic calendar. Context only. The Macro page shows what the rest of the world is doing and what is scheduled. It is context for you. It never feeds a signal, a rule or the analyst. - **Markets:** US futures with the cash index, world stock markets, the US 10-year yield, commodities and currencies, the US dollar index (DXY) and Bitcoin dominance as line charts (1D to 1Y). A price with no trade in 30 minutes is grey. - **Events:** the economic calendar for the US, UK, Japan and the euro area, in your own time zone, with filters and a box for the next high-impact event. Every value says where it came from. A value that is missing shows as "—", never as 0. Some sources are unofficial and can change: the page then shows the last good values and says so. Bitcoin dominance has no free history, so Tactiq collects it from the day it first ran, and the chart says since when. --- ## Settings Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/settings · The desk · updated 2026-10-31 Settings belong to your account and are versioned: workspace, indicator parameters and alerts. Restore an earlier version at any time. Settings belong to your account and are versioned. You can restore an earlier version. - **Workspace:** the instrument, market and timeframe you start with, the side rail, the chart layers that start on, and the heatmap contrast. - **Indicators:** the parameters of each indicator, such as the imbalance ratio and the minimum stack for flow zones, or the minimum total for heavy zones. A change makes the chart ask again for the layers it affects. - **My alerts:** which alerts reach you on Telegram. - **Signals view:** what the Signals page shows first. - **Reference:** read-only pages that list the rules Tactiq runs on (signal rules, instruments, the analyst, zones, data and health, learning gates), each value with a one-sentence explanation. Your settings change what *you* see and what *you* are alerted about. They never change the signals, the analyst or the learning, which are the same for everyone. --- ## Alerts and Telegram Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/alerts · The desk · updated 2026-10-31 Alerts and Telegram: what Tactiq notices, how to connect the Telegram bot, how to pause alerts and how to choose which ones you get. 1. Open Account and press Connect Telegram. The Tactiq bot opens in Telegram. 2. Press Start. The page shows that Telegram is connected. Send `/stop` to pause messages and `/start` to resume. The link works once and expires in 15 minutes. ### The Trader digest The Trader digest is Tactiq's email: the market, minus the noise. Turn it on in Account and it lands four times a day (05:30, 11:30, 17:30 and 23:30 IST). Choose the assets (Bitcoin and gold are pre-selected, the rest are off) and what to include: heavy zones, flow and imbalance zones, trade ideas and how they ended, and other alerts. It goes out only when something you chose happened, so a quiet market means a quiet inbox. Each asset starts with a short note from a trader to a trader about what mattered, then the events. Preview it, or send yourself a test, from the same panel. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe. ### Install Tactiq as an app Tactiq can live on your phone's home screen or your computer's dock, full screen and one tap away. On Android and in Chrome or Edge, press **Install app** in the profile menu (or the Install button that appears). On iPhone and iPad, open Tactiq in Safari, tap Share, then **Add to Home Screen**. The app always loads live data from the internet; offline it shows a short notice instead of an error, and it tells you when a new version is ready. ### What reaches Telegram By default only the messages below. Volume spikes, flow imbalance, open interest moves and similar facts appear on the Alerts page only, because on a phone they are noise. In Settings, My alerts, you can turn on Telegram for more kinds. Most Telegram messages carry a chart card of only what the message is about. | Message | When | What it says | | --- | --- | --- | | Call TQ-0012 | An idea is announced | Side, setup, Area strength, Direction, Area and Trigger, entry, stop, TP1, TP2 with net R, the analyst in one line, the strategy's record. | | Follow-up | Entered, half closed at TP1, target, stopped, time limit, not filled, cancelled | One or two lines in R, as a reply to its call. | | Zone: new | A heavy or 30m flow zone appears | What made it and how price responded, or the stack height. | | Zone: at | A 30m candle trades into zones formed before it | Every zone touched, in one message. | | Zone: broken | A 30m close beyond the far edge | The close and the volume against normal. | | Map | 00:05 UTC | Direction, the typical day, key Areas above, below and at price, and two scenarios. | | Asia range | 08:00 UTC | High, low, and where price is. | | Weekly Direction | Monday 00:10 UTC | The score, the four answers, what changed. | | Daily review (owner only) | 00:15 UTC | Yesterday's ideas and results, what decided them, and the playbook changes, each with Pause and Remove. | Each idea or event sends one message. The same setup and side is announced at most once an hour (once per trigger candle on the 4-hour setups). --- ## Data health and honesty Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/data-health · Trust · updated 2026-10-31 Every data stream shows Live, Delayed, Stale or Disconnected, and Tactiq marks what is estimated, missing or late, so old data never looks current. Every data stream has a state: - **Live:** data arrives on time. - **Delayed:** data is late. - **Stale:** data is too old to use. - **Disconnected:** no connection. Tactiq never shows old data as current. A grey candle means minutes are missing from that bar. ### Measured, estimated and reasoned - **Measured:** says how many cases it used and how it compares with random times. - **Estimated:** comes from a model, such as the liquidation heatmap. It is labelled. - **Reasoned:** comes from market mechanics, not from a test. It says "reasoned". ### How Tactiq avoids flattering itself - **Closed bars only.** A reading uses data up to the close. Recomputing 17,472 past 15-minute Flag bars (January to June 2024) from different starting points changed none. - **A random-time baseline** for every reading, with a stricter bar for each extra test. - **Costs inside every R.** - **No replay of the analyst.** Forward tracking only. - **An audit gate** of automated checks and fresh-eyes reviews before any release. ### Limits - Binance does not publish the history of the order book or of liquidations. Tactiq collects them live, so they start on the day Tactiq started watching. - Liquidations are a sample: at most one per second. - The footprint needs the trades of a bar. After a restart, Tactiq loads the last 24 hours again. - Older bars lose inputs that exist only for recent bars, such as the footprint and big trades (about a day) and the book (now only). --- ## Glossary Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/glossary · Trust · updated 2026-10-31 Plain definitions of the terms Tactiq uses: absorption, ATR, burst, CVD, dealer, delta, funding, gamma, imbalance, POC, value area and more. - **Absorption:** Heavy aggression that does not move price, because the other side takes it. - **Acceptance:** Price that stays outside value for at least two closes. - **Area:** A price zone where several references overlap: heavy zones, flow zones, order blocks and levels. Prime, strong or normal. - **ATR:** Average true range: the typical size of one bar. Tactiq measures distances in ATR so that one rule works in quiet and in fast markets. - **Burst:** Heavy seconds of one side that are up to 3 seconds apart. Bursts make a heavy zone. - **CVD:** Cumulative volume delta: delta added up over time. - **Dealer:** In options: the firm on the other side of a customer's option trade. It hedges with the coin. Tactiq estimates dealer positions; nobody publishes them. - **Delta:** Aggressive buy volume minus aggressive sell volume. - **Direction:** The daily lean of the market, from four yes-or-no questions: Strong up to Strong down. - **Flow zone:** A zone made by a stack of three or more same-side footprint imbalances in one candle. - **Funding:** The periodic payment between longs and shorts on a perpetual. - **Gamma:** How much an option dealer's hedge must change when price moves. Long gamma: hedging leans against moves (calmer). Short gamma: it chases them (faster). - **Heavy zone:** A zone made by bursts of unusually large taker size, with a response label two minutes later. - **Imbalance:** In the footprint: buying at a price at least three times the selling one price lower (or the reverse). - **Jev:** The second model in the analyst: it gives calibrated take, wait and pass probabilities. - **Lesson:** A note in the analyst's playbook, written by the daily review. It changes what the analyst is told, never a rule. - **Open interest (OI):** The number of open perpetual contracts. - **Playbook:** The set of live lessons the analyst reads before each review. - **POC:** Point of control: the price with the most volume. - **Premium:** The money paid for an option (price × quantity, in USD). - **R:** The risk of a trade, from entry to stop. A result of +2 R made twice the risk; −1 R lost the risk. Tactiq always shows it after costs. - **Regime:** The slow state of the market in the Tactiq Flag: trend, tiring, balance or coiling. - **Scorecard:** How the ideas a lesson matches went before and since the lesson went live. - **Stack:** Three or more imbalances in a row on one side, in one candle. - **Trigger:** A closed candle that shows something at an Area: a rejection, an acceptance or a divergence. - **Value area (VAH, VAL):** The price range that holds 70 % of the volume. VAH is its high, VAL its low. - **Zero gamma (flip):** The price where dealers switch between long and short gamma. Which side is calm depends on the data: the chart's tag says it (for example "calm above / fast below"), or "No flip near price" when there is none close by. --- ## Disclaimer Source: https://tactiq.pro/docs/disclaimer · Trust · updated 2026-10-31 Tactiq shows market information for education and analysis only. It is not financial advice. Trading is risky and you can lose money. Tactiq shows market information for education and analysis only. It is not financial advice and it is not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Past results do not show future results. Trading crypto is risky and you can lose money. You trade at your own risk. > Signals and the analyst are advisory. Both are measured forward and neither is proven to be profitable.