Liquidation Heatmap
Paints estimated stop and liquidation clusters behind candles. Bright bands mark magnet zones price tends to hunt, plus a side profile and sweep markers.
The Liquidation Heatmap paints predicted liquidation levels behind the candles — the modelled prices where leveraged longs and shorts would be force-closed if price hunted them. Where many of those levels stack at adjacent prices you get a liquidation cluster, and the brightest bands on the heatmap are exactly that: a magnet zone that price often drifts toward because clearing it pays the next leg. Long-side risk paints below price, short-side risk paints above, and a right-side profile sums the still-unswept exposure per price level so you can see the heaviest pocket at a glance.
Settings reference
The dialog packs every control into one Liquidation heatmap group. Defaults are tuned for a busy futures chart — start there, then tune Intensity and Cell H to your symbol.
| Section | Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liquidation heatmap | Intensity | 15% – 100% | Dual-handle filter. Hides the dimmest cells (left handle) and the brightest ones (right handle) — labels show the volume each handle maps to. Slide the left handle up to suppress chart noise; slide the right handle down only to dim peak cells when the heatmap drowns the candles. |
| Cell H | x20.0 | Vertical thickness of every heatmap cell. Range x0.5 – x50.0. Tall multipliers (x20+) give the smooth painterly look you see in the hero; drop to x1–x5 if you want razor-thin price-precise bands. | |
| Filled | Few | How many sweep bubbles to plot on the chart — Many shows every meaningful swept cluster, Med / Few / Min only keep the largest. Bubbles mark moments where a magnet zone got cleared. | |
| Profile W | x1.0 | Width of the right-side profile bars as a multiple of the default. Shrink toward x0.3 when you need candle room; grow toward x3.0 to read the bars at a glance. | |
| Show profile bars | On | Toggle the right-side per-price risk profile (long-stop on the left half of each bar, short-stop on the right half, gold peak band on the densest row). | |
| Show prediction signals | On | Toggle the BUY / SELL triangle markers that fire when momentum aligns with a magnet zone (see Prediction signals below). |
The setting names match the live Intensity, Cell H, Filled, Profile W labels on the indicator dialog so you can find them faster.
What it draws
The Liquidation Heatmap is four layers on the same surface. Each layer answers a different question; you can toggle the ones you don't read.
| Layer | Where | Reads |
|---|---|---|
| Heatmap cells | Behind every candle, above and below price | "Where is leveraged risk stacked right now?" Brighter cell = thicker cluster. Above-price cells are short stops; below-price cells are long stops. |
| Right-side profile | Compressed bars at the right edge of the chart | "What is the heaviest pocket of un-swept risk?" Each bar splits long-stop (left side of the bar) and short-stop (right side). A dashed gold line + amber band marks the loudest row — the peak magnet zone. |
| Sweep bubbles | Circles on the candle that cleared a cluster | "Did the magnet actually fire?" A bubble prints on the bar where a cluster was fully swept; size scales with how much exposure cleared. Orange = long stops sweeped (price punched a low); teal = short stops cleared (price punched a high). |
| Prediction signals | BUY / SELL triangles above / below a candle | "Is momentum lining up with a nearby magnet?" Triangle prints when there is a heavy magnet within reach AND momentum has just rolled in that direction. |
How to read it
- Heavy band above price + price grinding up — short stops are stacked overhead; expect a squeeze hunt. The closer the band, the cheaper the run.
- Heavy band below price + price grinding down — long stops are stacked beneath; expect a flush. Same logic, opposite side.
- Symmetric stacks above and below — balanced positioning. The market is range-fair; mean-reversion plays setup off the band edges, breakouts wait for one side to drain first.
- Peak dashed line + amber band on the profile — the heaviest single price level in the visible window. Treat it as a reference magnet; rallies and dips that don't reach it often complete the trip on the next attempt.
- Profile bar mostly green vs mostly red — at a glance, who is more at risk in that price pocket. A tall green segment in the bar = lots of short stops bunched there; a tall red segment = long stops.
- Sweep bubble prints + price keeps going — fuel got burned in the direction of the sweep; the next leg is with the sweep until exhaustion shows up on flow.
- Sweep bubble prints + immediate reversal — classic stop-hunt-and-reverse. The cluster was the whole reason for the move; with it gone, price often returns to the prior range.
Prediction signals
When Show prediction signals is on, the indicator scans for setups where there is a heavy enough magnet within striking distance of price AND momentum has just turned in the magnet's direction. The triggers print as triangles:
| Marker | Where it prints | Read |
|---|---|---|
BUY (green triangle) | Below the candle | Magnet above current price + momentum just turned up. Bias is toward the magnet — the typical target is the cluster zone, not an unlimited extension. |
SELL (red triangle) | Above the candle | Magnet below current price + momentum just turned down. Bias is toward the magnet on the down side. |
These are setup cues, not entries. Use them to wake up — confirm with CVD, RSI divergence, or a clean S/R level before you click size.
Common pitfalls
- Treating the heatmap as exchange-published data — these are model estimates of where leveraged positions would liquidate. They show probable clusters at typical leverages, not the venue's raw per-position book. For the actual liquidation prints as they happen, layer in Aggregated Liquidations or break them down per venue with Liquidations by Exchange.
- Trading every cluster hunt blindly — price doesn't always run the nearest magnet. A heavy cluster only matters once there's momentum to spend on it. Pair the heatmap with a CVD or RSI read so you only enter when both the magnet AND the fuel are present.
- Stacking the Liq Heatmap + Orderbook Heatmap at full visibility — the two are designed to coexist but they paint on the same canvas. If the chart starts looking like soup, drop one of them via the indicator panel transparency or tighten its
Intensityrange. Read the resting depth view with Orderbook Heatmap. - Reading the right-side profile as a static level — the profile is the current unswept risk, not a fixed historical zone. It updates as clusters get cleared and as new positions stack. The peak band moves; the dashed gold line tracks it.
- Mistaking sweep bubbles for "trades happened here" — a bubble means a magnet zone was cleared, not that a single big trade printed. For the actual large prints, use Large Trades.
- Lifting the
Intensityleft handle too high — once you cut more than ~40-50% of the cells, you hide the surrounding pressure that tells you whether a magnet is an isolated speck or sits in a thick zone. Filter to taste, but not so aggressively that only neon yellow survives.
What's next
- Aggregated Liquidations — the realised side of this story; actual liquidations as they print on the tape.
- Liquidations by Exchange — breakdown of those prints across the major venues.
- Orderbook Heatmap — resting limit-order depth, the complementary read to "where will positions be forced out".
- Open Interest — the macro pulse of leveraged exposure. Heatmap clusters get heavier as OI ramps and lighter when OI drops — read them together to catch fresh positioning.