Simplified Footprint
If you've tried using volume footprint charts and been daunted with information overload, then this 'Simplified Footprint' indicator could be just what you need instead.
The POC and value area are overlayed onto regular candles on the chart.
The delta is plotted as an oscillator, but the fun part, also in the oscillator pane, are the imbalances.
A buy imbalance is shown as a green bar. If it goes upwards part way, then it is partly displaced by the price. Up to the top, and the price has fully displaced the imbalance.
If the green buy imbalance bar goes downwards however, then it's absorbed by passive sell orders. Part way, partly absorbed, all the way down, then fully absorbed.
The colour of the bars are also more transparent with low volume, and more opaque, as the volume in that direction increases.
The sell imbalances are red and do the opposite. Downwards, and they are displaced by price, upwards and they are absorbed.
To clearly see what's going on, you want the buy imbalance columns narrower than the sell imbalance columns (or vice versa).
These colours are all transparent to some degree so you can still read them when they overlay, but having the columns different widths, like piano keys, really makes reading them easier.
The absorptions are also marked with an 'A' to avoid any doubt.
Using this 'Simplified Footprint' indicator allows you to visually read all this footprint data at a glance, on a regular chart.
To make it even simpler, you can just view it as; imbalance bars and delta going upwards are bullish, going downwards, bearish.
Obviously you might want to pay attention to the absorptions, as they indicate passive participants having an effect on the market that you wouldn't otherwise see, as they don't move the price.
To use this indicator, you just need to configure the number of ticks per row, at the top of the settings.
This can be set with a number of ticks per row, or with an Average True Range (ATR), and can be scalable across different timeframes as well.
Probably the easiest way to use it is to select the timeframe on the chart you want to use, then get an ATR reading for that timeframe.
Then use that ATR value in the 'Simplified Footprint' settings.
If you scale the ticks for different timeframes, just specify the timeframe for which the ATR (or ticks) are calibrated for.
You will also probably need to tweak the narrow imbalance column width, depending on how zoomed into the chart you are, to get a piano key look for clarity.
Although the 'ticks per row' can be scaled across different timeframes, the scaling is an approximation and may not always work well, especially if the chart is far removed from the reference timeframe.
Ideally try not to scale too far from the reference timeframe, and re-calibrate nearer to the chart timeframe if necessary.
If in any doubt, check the Pine logs for configuration details and information about the last confirmed bar.
The last couple of lines, where it says:
Last confirmed bar, rows per footprint: x
Use the above 'rows per footprint' as calibration, which should be between about 3 and 30 ideally, although more may still be OK.
The rows per footprint can be checked against the actual volume footprint, and should be the same if the ticks per row are the same.
However, the default value the actual volume footprint uses is 'auto', which cannot be replicated in this script due to the platform design.
So if you want the same number of rows per footprint, and see exactly the same imbalances, you need to configure the actual volume footprint with a manual row size and set the ticks per row to the same number as in this 'Simplified Footprint' indicator.
Pine Script® Indikator
