DOMINIUM USER MANUAL

About This Manual

This manual describes Dominium v.2.5 — what it shows, how its settings work, and how to use it in practice. It covers every user-facing setting in the indicator and explains the underlying order-flow concepts well enough that a trader new to footprint and volume-profile analysis can use it productively, while a veteran can skip directly to the settings reference.

Dominium is structurally larger than its sibling indicator Volumentum. Where Volumentum scans a running range of candles and marks individual imbalance ticks, Dominium operates inside a user-drawn rectangle and overlays a full stack of elements: detected imbalance zones, a cumulative volume profile, per-bin delta bars, a developing Point-of-Control trail, a developing VWAP trail, an in-rectangle statistics summary, and up to four optional marker lines. The trader chooses what range of bars and prices to analyze; Dominium does the rest.

The manual is organized in the order most users will need information:

• Sections 2–3 explain what Dominium does and the underlying market-microstructure concepts it relies on.
• Section 4 walks through getting it on a chart and reading every visual element.
• Section 5 is the complete settings reference, organized by the two property tabs and their groups.
• Section 6 covers the draggable rectangle, its eight resize handles, and the splitter handle.
• Sections 7–9 cover practical workflows, common questions, and limitations.

Quick Start

1. Apply Dominium to a footprint (cluster) chart in ATAS — a chart type that exposes per-tick bid/ask volumes within each candle.
2. On first load, a rectangle appears covering the recent 250 bars at the chart’s price range, with the right edge tracking the live bar and the top/bottom edges tracking the range’s high/low. Leave all other settings at default for the first session.
3. Move the cursor over the rectangle’s edges and corners. The cursor changes shape depending on which handle it sits over. Click and drag an edge or corner to resize.
4. Observe the layers Dominium draws: colored bid/ask imbalance zones at specific tick prices; a horizontal volume profile growing outward from the left edge; delta bars growing inward from the same left edge; a thick yellow developing-PoC line and a thin yellow developing-VWAP line stepping across the bars; and two faint horizontal marker lines inside the box (the Volume Splitter and Absolute Delta Splitter, both on by default).
5. Read the stats line above the rectangle (total volume, currency mode, candle count, tick count) and below it (bid/ask/delta breakdown).
6. Once you understand the default output, return to Section 5 and tune the imbalance ratio, aggregation, touch count, volume filter, and unit modes to match your instrument and analysis style.

 

What Dominium Shows

Dominium is a multi-layer analysis overlay that operates inside a user-drawn rectangle. The rectangle defines the bar range and price range to analyze; every visual element Dominium draws is computed from the footprint data contained within that range.

The Core Layers

Imbalance zones: Colored horizontal rectangles at specific tick prices (or bin price ranges, depending on aggregation) where one side of the order book overwhelmed the other by a configurable ratio. Bullish zones mark aggressive buying; bearish zones mark aggressive selling. When Absorption Color-Flip is on (the default) and the live price has moved past a zone against its aggression direction, the zone is reclassified as absorption and recolored.

Volume profile: Horizontal bars anchored at the rectangle’s left edge and growing outward to the left, one per price bin. Each bar’s length is proportional to the total volume traded at that bin’s price range across all candles inside the rectangle. The Point-of-Control (the bin with the highest volume) is the longest bar in the profile.

Delta bars: Bars anchored at the same left edge but growing inward (to the right), representing each bin’s net delta (ask − bid). Bar length is proportional to the absolute delta; the sign is shown by color, not direction — positive-delta bins draw in the (+) color, negative-delta bins in the (−) color. Lets the trader see whether the volume at a level was buyer-driven, seller-driven, or balanced.

Developing PoC: A thick stepped line inside the rectangle, showing what the Point-of-Control was at each bar as volume accumulated from the rectangle’s left edge to the current bar. Flat segments mean the PoC didn’t move; vertical jumps mean a level was overtaken by another with higher cumulative volume. Drawn in the Volume Profile Bars color (yellow by default).

Developing VWAP: A thin stepped line inside the rectangle, drawn bar by bar like the developing PoC. At each bar it is the volume-weighted mean of every price traded from the rectangle’s left edge up to that bar — as meaningful as the left edge you anchor to. Drawn in the Box Border color (yellow by default).

Stats overlay: A two-line summary anchored to the rectangle’s edges. The top line shows total volume, currency mode, candle count, and tick count. The bottom line shows bid total, ask total (both with percentage of volume), and net delta with absolute size and percentage.

Marker Lines

Up to four optional horizontal markers visually anchor key statistics inside or beside the rectangle:

• The Volume Splitter marks the price at which total volume above equals total volume below — the rectangle’s median price by volume. On by default.
• The Absolute Delta Splitter marks the price at which total absolute delta above equals total absolute delta below — the activity midpoint irrespective of direction. Colored by the sign of the box’s net delta. On by default.
• The Live Price Delta Split divides the box at the current live price and prints two labels just past the right edge: volume and delta above the live price versus below it. Off by default.
• The Adjustable Splitter is a draggable line inside the box with a center handle; it prints the same above/below labels at whatever price you park it. Off by default.

All four are toggled in the Markers group.

Base vs Quote Currency Modes

Every volume number Dominium reports — in the profile, the delta bars, the stats line, the splitter calculations, and both developing trails — can be reported in two units:

• Base Currency: Raw contract or share counts. The number of units that changed hands. For ES futures this is contracts; for stocks it’s shares; for crypto it’s the base asset (e.g., BTC in BTC/USDT).
• Quote Currency: Each price level’s bid and ask volume multiplied by that level’s price, then summed. The total dollar value (or quote-asset value) that changed hands. Captures the economic weight of activity, which can differ meaningfully from raw volume when price spans a wide range within the rectangle.

The currency mode applies uniformly across all reported numbers. Quote Currency is the default. The stats line always states the active mode so the user knows what units they’re reading.

 

Order-Flow Concepts You Need

This section is for traders new to footprint and volume-profile analysis. If you already know what bid/ask volume within a candle means, what a Point-of-Control is, and how horizontal volume profiles are read, skip to Section 4.

Bid vs Ask Volume Within a Candle

A standard candle records four prices for the whole bar: open, high, low, close. A footprint candle records something richer: at every price the candle traded, how many contracts hit the bid (sellers were aggressive — they sold into the resting bid) and how many lifted the ask (buyers were aggressive — they bought from the resting ask). Each price level inside a single candle has its own bid and ask volume counts.

This per-level breakdown is the data Dominium reads. The indicator requires a chart type in ATAS that exposes this — typically a cluster chart. Time-based or candle-based charts that don’t decompose volume by price will not produce useful Dominium output.

Volume Profile and the Point-of-Control

A horizontal volume profile flips the usual chart axes for volume: instead of showing volume over time, it shows volume by price. For each price (or bin of prices), the profile draws a horizontal bar whose length is proportional to total volume traded at that price across the analysis range. The result is a histogram laid sideways alongside the chart, showing which price levels saw the most activity.

The longest bar — the price where the most volume traded — is called the Point-of-Control or PoC. It marks the price level that traders most agreed was fair value across the analysis window. Levels with very high volume tend to act as magnets and as future support or resistance; the PoC is the strongest such level by definition.

Dominium’s volume profile is built from the candles inside the rectangle. Bins can be aggregated — a setting of 1 means one bin per tradeable tick (highest resolution, busiest visual); higher numbers merge ticks into wider bins (smoother visual, broader strokes). The PoC is computed at the chosen aggregation.

Delta — Who Was Aggressive at Each Price

Volume alone says how much traded, not which side was aggressive. Delta is the missing piece: at each price, delta = ask volume − bid volume. Positive delta means buyers were aggressive (lifted offers); negative delta means sellers were aggressive (hit bids); near-zero delta means balanced two-sided trade.

Dominium’s delta bars render each bin’s net delta as a bar whose length is proportional to the size of the delta and whose color encodes the sign. A price level can have huge volume but near-zero delta (heavy two-sided absorption), or modest volume with extreme delta (one-sided aggression). The combination of profile and delta tells a fuller story than either alone.

Imbalance and Absorption

Imbalance at a price is the raw observation: one side’s aggression overwhelmed the other by a meaningful ratio. The interpretation depends on what happens to price afterward:

• Successful imbalance: Aggressors at that price drove price in their direction. A bullish imbalance whose level holds — price stays above — represents buyers who got what they wanted. The level becomes potential future support.
• Absorption: Aggressors at that price could not move price in their direction. A bullish imbalance where price ultimately drops below the level represents buyers who got eaten — somebody on the offer had enough size to absorb all that aggressive buying and even reverse direction. The level becomes potential future resistance.

Dominium’s absorption flip implements exactly this: when the current live price has moved fully past a zone against its original aggression direction, the zone is recolored to reflect the absorber, not the failed aggressor. A bullish imbalance whose bin sits entirely above the live price becomes bearish absorption; a bearish imbalance whose bin sits entirely below the live price becomes bullish absorption. Absorption Color-Flip is on by default.

Why Touch Count Matters

A single candle that produces an extreme imbalance at one tick might be a one-time spike — a stop run, a single large order, an end-of-session liquidity vacuum. That kind of event leaves a footprint but isn’t necessarily a level worth watching going forward.

A level that sees aggressive imbalance across multiple distinct candles is different: the market repeatedly arrived at that price and one side repeatedly won. That’s a level validated by independent visits, and Dominium’s Minimum Candle Touches setting filters specifically for it. The default is 1 (no touch filtering — a single visiting candle is enough); raise it to require that a bin was touched by that many distinct candles before its imbalance can display.

Touch count combined with the imbalance ratio is what distinguishes a structural level (multiple candles, all showing aggression in the same direction) from coincidental noise (one candle, one outlier print).

 

Setup and Reading the Output

Installation

Dominium is an ATAS indicator and installs through ATAS’s standard indicator-management workflow. Refer to your platform’s documentation for adding custom indicators.

Chart Type Requirements

Dominium requires per-tick bid/ask volume data inside each candle. In ATAS this typically means using a cluster chart configuration. If you apply Dominium to a chart type that doesn’t provide this data, the rectangle will appear but no zones, profile, or trails will compute — there’s nothing to read.

First Load Behavior

On first application to a chart, Dominium auto-initializes the rectangle to cover the recent 250 bars at the chart’s actual price range. Three tracking states are enabled at once: the right edge tracks the live bar, and the top and bottom edges track the highest high and lowest low of the covered bars. As new bars print, the right edge advances with them, and — while the right edge is the live bar — the top and bottom expand to include any new high or low the live bar makes.

From that starting position, the user can resize the rectangle or leave it as is. The rectangle’s coordinates are persisted across chart reloads and template applications for the same instrument; switching to a different instrument auto-resets the rectangle, and switching to a different timeframe or chart type within the same instrument snaps the rectangle’s time-based anchors to the nearest available bars on the new chart.

Reading the Layers

Imbalance Zones

Colored horizontal rectangles drawn at specific tick prices (or bin price ranges, depending on aggregation). Each zone occupies one bin’s height vertically and the full width of the user’s rectangle horizontally. Color encodes direction and absorption state:

• Bullish imbalance — semi-transparent green by default; aggressive buying at this level, live price not yet fully below it.
• Bearish imbalance — semi-transparent magenta by default; aggressive selling, live price not yet fully above it.
• Bullish absorption — brighter green by default; aggressive selling that was absorbed by buyers — price moved fully above the level despite the seller aggression. Level acts as potential support.
• Bearish absorption — brighter magenta by default; aggressive buying absorbed by sellers — price moved fully below the level despite buyer aggression. Level acts as potential resistance.

Each color is independently configurable. Absorption colors default to higher opacity (more visually prominent) than imbalance colors because absorption is typically the more actionable signal. If you’d rather see raw imbalance detection with no reclassification, turn off Absorption Color-Flip in the Colors group.

An optional volume filter, at the bottom of the Imbalance Detection group, restricts which detected imbalances actually display. It has four modes — None, Hi-Vol Filtering, Lo-Vol Filtering, Bimodal Filtering — letting the user hide low-volume imbalances (Hi-Vol), hide high-volume imbalances (Lo-Vol: isolate the low-volume rejection-zone candidates the Wyckoff/Steidlmayer tradition treats as most interesting), or hide only the unremarkable middle while keeping both extremes (Bimodal). The default is Bimodal Filtering; set it to None to show every detected imbalance.

Volume Profile

Horizontal bars anchored at the left edge of the rectangle, extending outward to the left. The bar at any price bin’s vertical position has length proportional to total volume traded in that bin across all candles inside the rectangle. The PoC — the longest bar — marks the highest-volume price level. The Max Bar Width (% of Box) setting controls how long the PoC’s bar can be, as a percentage of the rectangle’s pixel width; all other bars are scaled proportionally.

Volume bars can be hidden via the Show Volume Profile toggle if the user only wants the imbalance zones and delta information.

Delta Bars

Bars anchored at the same left edge but extending inward (to the right), representing net delta per bin. Length is proportional to the absolute delta and is on the same scale as the volume bars; the sign is shown by color — the (+) color for positive-delta bins, the (−) color for negative-delta bins. Short bars are near-balanced; long bars are one-sided.

Delta bars can be hidden via the Show Delta Profile toggle. Volume bars and delta bars are independent — either can be shown without the other.

Developing PoC and Developing VWAP

Two stepped lines drawn inside the rectangle, each traversing from the rectangle’s left edge to the current bar:

• The developing PoC (thick) sits at each bar at the price that was the PoC of all volume accumulated from the left edge up to that bar. Flat segments mean the cumulative PoC didn’t change; vertical jumps mean a different price overtook it.
• The developing VWAP (thin) sits at each bar at the volume-weighted mean of all prices traded from the left edge up to that bar.

Both are useful for seeing how value developed across the analysis window. A developing PoC that stays flat across many bars is a strong indication of that level’s importance; one that jumps around suggests the rectangle spans a transition between value areas. By default both lines are drawn yellow (the PoC in the Volume Profile Bars color, the VWAP in the Box Border color) — recolor one of those if you want to tell them apart at a glance. Each can be toggled off independently.

Stats Overlay

Two text lines anchored to the rectangle’s edges:

• Top line (above the rectangle): “Volume: NNN (Z Currency) · X Candles / Y Ticks”. The total volume in the active currency mode, the currency mode itself (Base or Quote), how many candles the rectangle covers, and how many tradeable ticks of vertical extent it spans. If Minimum Candle Touches is set higher than the number of candles in the box, a note is appended warning that no imbalance can pass that filter.
• Bottom line (below the rectangle): “Bids: NNN (X%) · Asks: NNN (Y%) · Δ: ±NNN (Z%)”. Bid volume and its percentage of total, ask volume and its percentage, and net delta (signed) with its absolute size as a percentage of total volume.

Numbers use K/M/B suffixes for readability: 1,234 displays as 1.23K, 1,500,000 as 1.5M, 2,300,000,000 as 2.3B. On the top line, the Volume figure and metadata use the Box Border color. On the bottom line, Bids use the Delta Profile (−) color, Asks use the Delta Profile (+) color, and Δ uses whichever of those two matches the sign of net delta.

Marker Lines

• Volume Splitter: Drawn at the price where 50% of volume traded above and 50% below — the rectangle’s volume median. Drawn in a half-opacity Box Border color. On by default.
• Absolute Delta Splitter: Drawn at the price where total absolute delta above equals total absolute delta below — the activity midpoint regardless of direction. Drawn in a half-opacity delta color: the (+) color when the box’s net delta is positive, the (−) color when negative. On by default.
• Live Price Delta Split: Two labels just past the right edge, splitting the box at the current live price. The upper label describes the region above live price (potential trapped longs); the lower label describes the region below (potential trapped shorts). Each label reads “Side/Box V” (that side’s share of box volume) and “Side’s Δ/V” (that side’s net delta as a percentage of that side’s own volume), colored by that side’s delta sign. The platform’s live-price line is the divider, whether or not the live bar is inside the box; a tick sitting exactly on the divider is excluded from both sides. Off by default.
• Adjustable Splitter: A draggable horizontal line with a center diamond handle. It prints the same two above/below labels as the live split, but split at wherever you park the line. Placement of those labels is set by Splitter Label Placement. Off by default.

 

Settings Reference

Settings are organized in ATAS’s indicator-properties panel across two tabs. The Technicals tab holds the Imbalance Detection, Volume Profile, and Markers groups; the Visualization tab holds the Colors and Font groups. Every setting is described below with its purpose, default value, and practical guidance for tuning.

Imbalance Detection (Technicals tab)

Controls the core scanning logic — what counts as an imbalance and how levels are bucketed.

Pipeline Default: Dual (Diagonal + Horizontal)

Which imbalance detection method to apply.

Diagonal (Traditional): compare the ask volume at one bin against the bid volume at the bin one step below (and the mirror). The conventional cluster-chart definition, geared toward intra-move aggression direction.

Horizontal (Alternative): compare bid versus ask within the same bin.

Dual (Diagonal + Horizontal): run both pipelines simultaneously; detected levels merge before display.

The default is Dual, which surfaces the most complete set of imbalances. Narrow it to a single pipeline if you want fewer, more specific zones — Horizontal tends to be steadier over aggregated windows, Diagonal captures directional pressure between adjacent levels.

Imbalance Ratio Default: 2

Minimum ratio between the dominant side and the opposite side at a level.

At 2, a bullish flag fires when the bin’s total ask volume is at least 2× its total bid volume (or the corresponding diagonal comparison in Diagonal mode).

Lower values produce more signals; higher values demand stronger imbalances. Typical range is 2 to 4 depending on instrument liquidity.

Cannot be set below 1 — that would make both directions trigger simultaneously, which has no meaning.

Minimum Candle Touches Default: 1

Minimum number of distinct candles that must have contributed volume to a bin for its imbalance to be displayed.

1 (default) applies no touch filtering — a single visiting candle qualifies. Higher values require independent validation: a level that several different bars all visited and showed imbalance at. Raising this produces sparser, higher-conviction zones.

This is a common setting to tune when adapting Dominium to a new instrument. Liquid instruments often handle a value of 3–5 cleanly; thin instruments usually want it left at 1 or 2. Note: if you set this higher than the number of candles in the box, nothing can pass, and the stats line will say so.

Aggregation (Bin Size in Ticks) Default: 1

Number of ticks per bin in both the imbalance detection and the volume profile.

1 means one bin per tradeable tick — highest resolution, every distinct price visible. Higher numbers merge adjacent ticks: 2 means two ticks per bin, 5 means five, and so on.

Increasing aggregation smooths the visual and reduces clutter at the cost of precision. Useful on charts with very fine tick sizes (e.g., crypto pairs quoted to many decimals). Setting it too high collapses meaningful structure — usually 1–5 covers practical use.

Changing aggregation changes what “a bin” means — the volume profile, the developing PoC, and the imbalance detection all rebuild from scratch when this setting changes.

Volume Filtering Default: Bimodal Filtering

Four-mode volume filter applied to detected imbalance bins. Restricts which candidates display based on each bin’s volume relative to the rectangle’s average volume per bin (its Average Tick Volume scaled by Aggregation, so the comparison is apples-to-apples against a bin’s total volume).

None: no filtering. Every bin meeting the ratio and touch-count conditions displays regardless of its volume.

Hi-Vol Filtering: keep only bins whose volume is at or above (multiplier × ATV). High-volume imbalances only — the conventional reading where strong levels matter most.

Lo-Vol Filtering: keep only bins whose volume is at or below (ATV ÷ multiplier). Low-volume imbalances only — the Wyckoff/Steidlmayer reading of Low Volume Nodes, where unfair-price rejection zones are the levels of interest.

Bimodal Filtering: keep bins from BOTH ends — those at or above (multiplier × ATV) and those at or below (ATV ÷ multiplier). Bins whose volume is close to the rectangle’s average fall in the middle band and are dropped. This is the default: it removes the unremarkable middle and shows only the extremes.

Volume is measured in the active currency mode (Base or Quote per the Volume Profile group’s Volume Measured In setting). Threshold and bin volume use the same units, so the comparison is unit-consistent regardless of mode.

Vol. Filter Multiplier Default: 2

How aggressively the filter discriminates. Has no effect when Volume Filtering is None.

In Hi-Vol mode, the threshold is multiplier × ATV. Higher values raise the bar — only bins with progressively more volume above the average pass.

In Lo-Vol mode, the threshold is ATV ÷ multiplier. Higher values push the bar lower — only bins with progressively less volume below the average pass.

In Bimodal mode, both thresholds apply simultaneously. Higher values widen the excluded middle band, making both kept bands stricter and shrinking the total set of bins that pass.

At multiplier 1, both thresholds collapse to ATV itself: Hi-Vol keeps bins ≥ ATV, Lo-Vol keeps bins ≤ ATV, and Bimodal’s middle band has zero width so every bin passes.

Minimum 1. Lower values would invert the filter’s logic and have no useful interpretation.

Volume Profile (Technicals tab)

Controls the appearance and units of the volume profile, delta bars, and both developing trails.

Volume Measured In Default: Quote Currency

Whether all reported volumes — in the profile, delta bars, stats line, splitters, and both developing trails — are measured in base or quote units.

Base Currency: raw contract or share counts. What changed hands in units of the traded asset.

Quote Currency: each tick’s bid and ask volume multiplied by that tick’s price, then summed. The total dollar (or quote-asset) value that changed hands. Reflects the economic weight of activity.

On instruments where the rectangle spans a wide price range, Base and Quote can paint meaningfully different PoCs and splitter prices — Quote weights higher prices more heavily because each contract is worth more there.

Show Volume Profile Default: On

Master toggle for the horizontal volume bars that grow outward from the rectangle’s left edge. Off hides them entirely.

Show Delta Profile Default: On

Master toggle for the per-bin delta bars that grow inward from the left edge. Off hides them entirely. Volume bars and delta bars are independent — either can be shown without the other.

Max Bar Width (% of Box) Default: 20

Maximum length of the longest profile bar (the PoC), expressed as a percentage of the rectangle’s pixel width. All other bars — volume and delta alike — scale proportionally to this maximum. Range 1–100.

Because it’s a percentage of the box rather than a fixed pixel count, the profile keeps consistent proportions as you resize the rectangle or zoom the chart. Increase for a more prominent profile; decrease to keep it compact. Purely cosmetic — no effect on the underlying math.

Show Developing PoC Default: On

Toggle for the thick developing Point-of-Control line that traces across the rectangle showing where the PoC sat as volume accumulated from the left edge to each bar. Off hides it. Drawn in the Volume Profile Bars color.

Show VWAP Default: On

Toggle for the thin developing VWAP line. At each bar it is the volume-weighted mean of every price traded from the rectangle’s left edge up to that bar — only as meaningful as the left edge you anchor to. Drawn bar by bar like the developing PoC, in the Box Border color. Off hides it.

Markers (Technicals tab)

Optional horizontal lines and split labels that mark volume-median, delta-balance, and live-price statistics.

Volume Splitter Default: On

Draw a horizontal line at the price that splits the rectangle’s total volume into two equal halves — the volume median. Drawn in a half-opacity Box Border color.

Absolute Delta Splitter Default: On

Draw a horizontal line at the price that splits the rectangle’s total absolute delta into two equal halves — the activity midpoint regardless of direction. Colored by the sign of the box’s net delta: the Delta Profile (+) color at half opacity when net delta is positive, the Delta Profile (−) color at half opacity when negative.

Live Price Delta Split Default: Off

Split the rectangle’s delta at the current live price and show two labels just past the box’s right edge: one for the region above the live price (potential trapped longs) and one for below it (potential trapped shorts). Each label reads the side’s share of box volume (“Side/Box V”) and the side’s net delta as a percentage of that side’s own volume (“Side’s Δ/V”), colored by that side’s delta sign. The platform’s live-price line is the divider; this works whether or not the live bar falls inside the rectangle. A tick sitting exactly on the divider is breakeven and is excluded from both sides, so the two sides can come up a hair short of the box totals.

Adjustable Splitter Default: Off

A draggable horizontal line inside the box. Grab its center handle to move it; it snaps to the nearest tick on release. It shows the same two above/below labels as the Live Price Delta Split, but split at this line instead. It defaults to the box midline until you move it; its price is then saved with the box, and if you resize the box past it, it rides just inside the nearest edge.

Splitter Label Placement Default: Center

Horizontal placement of the Adjustable Splitter’s two labels within the box: Left, Center, or Right.

Colors (Visualization tab)

Visual encoding for every layer Dominium renders. Defaults below are given as ARGB hex so they can be reproduced exactly.

Bullish Imbalance Default: #4080F000 (green, low opacity)

Color for raw bullish imbalances — buyers were aggressive at this level and price hasn’t moved fully against them.

Bearish Imbalance Default: #407700FF (magenta, low opacity)

Color for raw bearish imbalances — sellers were aggressive and price hasn’t moved fully against them.

Absorption Color-Flip Default: On

Master toggle for absorption reclassification.

On: zones where the current live price has moved fully past the zone against its original aggression direction are recolored with the absorption palette.

Off: all detected zones display with the imbalance palette regardless of where live price sits.

Bullish Absorption Default: #8080F000 (green, higher opacity)

Color for bullish absorption — sellers were aggressive at this level but a larger buyer absorbed them and price moved above it. Rendered more opaque than plain imbalance because absorption is typically more actionable.

Bearish Absorption Default: #807700FF (magenta, higher opacity)

Color for bearish absorption — buyers were aggressive but a larger seller absorbed them and price moved below it.

Box Border Default: #FFFFEE00 (yellow)

Color for the rectangle’s outline. Also used for the stats line’s top section (Volume figure and metadata), the developing VWAP line, the Adjustable Splitter line and handle, and — at half opacity — the Volume Splitter line.

Choose a color that contrasts cleanly with your chart background — the border is the primary visual anchor for the rectangle.

Volume Profile Bars Default: #FFFFEE00 (yellow)

Fill color for the horizontal volume profile bars. Also used for the thick developing PoC line.

Delta Profile (+) Bars Default: #FF0088FF (blue)

Color for positive-delta bins in the delta bars, the Asks label/value in the stats line, positive net delta in the stats line, and — at half opacity — the Absolute Delta Splitter when net delta is positive.

Delta Profile (-) Bars Default: #FFFF7700 (orange)

Color for negative-delta bins in the delta bars, the Bids label/value in the stats line, negative net delta in the stats line, and — at half opacity — the Absolute Delta Splitter when net delta is negative.

Font (Visualization tab)

Typography for the stats line and split labels.

Name Default: Verdana

Font family name for the on-chart text.

If the named font isn’t installed on the system, the rendering engine falls back to a default font automatically — the indicator will still render, just in a different typeface. Common safe choices: Verdana, Arial, Segoe UI, Calibri.

Size Default: 11

Font size in points. Increase for greater readability at the cost of more chart real estate; decrease for a more compact overlay.

 

The Rectangle

Dominium’s central interactive element is the analysis rectangle. Its bar range and price range define what the indicator scans; everything else — zones, profile, delta, developing trails, splitters, stats — recomputes when the rectangle moves.

Why It Exists

Volume-profile analysis and footprint-based level detection both require a defined analysis window. A profile of “the whole chart” is meaningless; the trader has to choose which range matters. Dominium puts that choice in the trader’s hands and shows it visually: the rectangle is the chosen window, and the trader can resize it at any time to refocus.

The Eight Resize Handles

The rectangle responds to mouse interaction along its edges and corners. Hover over each to see the cursor change:

• Top edge / Bottom edge: Within a few pixels of the top or bottom border. Cursor shows vertical-resize. Drag to expand or contract the rectangle’s price range from that edge; the opposite edge stays fixed.
• Left edge / Right edge: Within a few pixels of the left or right border. Cursor shows horizontal-resize. Drag to expand or contract the rectangle’s bar range from that edge; the opposite edge stays fixed.
• The four corners: Top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right. Each within a few pixels of where two edges meet. Cursor shows the move-all-directions arrow. Drag to move both adjacent edges at once; the opposite corner stays fixed.

There is no whole-body drag — position and size are always adjusted from the edges and corners. On release, price edges snap to the nearest tick and bar edges snap to the nearest bar.

The Splitter Handle

When the Adjustable Splitter is enabled, a small diamond handle appears at the center of its line. Grab it (the cursor shows vertical-resize) and drag up or down to move the splitter; it snaps to the nearest tick on release. The splitter handle takes priority over the edges when they overlap, so it can be grabbed even near the middle of a narrow box.

Live-Edge and High/Low Tracking

When the rectangle’s right edge sits exactly at the live bar, the rectangle is tracking-live: as each new bar prints, the right edge advances automatically to stay anchored to the live bar. Independently, when the top edge sits at the highest high of the covered bars it tracks that high, and when the bottom edge sits at the lowest low it tracks that low — so while the box is anchored to the live bar, its top and bottom expand to include any new extreme the live bar makes.

Dragging an edge away from the live bar or the range extreme turns off the corresponding tracking; dragging it back re-enables it. All three tracking states are persisted, so a chart that was tracking when saved resumes tracking on reload.

Persistence and Cross-Chart Behavior

The rectangle’s position is saved with the chart and survives reloads. Position is stored as absolute prices (top and bottom edges), bar timestamps (left and right edges), the adjustable-splitter price, and the three tracking flags.

• On reload of the same chart: timestamps and prices match — rectangle restored exactly where you left it.
• On the same instrument, different timeframe or chart type: timestamps snap to the nearest available bars on the new chart, prices used as-is. The rectangle covers the same wall-clock period at the same price range, regardless of how that range is bucketed into bars.
• On a different instrument: saved coordinates are meaningless on the new price scale, so Dominium resets the rectangle to the new chart’s default — the recent 250 bars at the chart’s price range, tracking live and tracking high/low. Drag it to the desired window from there.

 

Practical Workflow

First Session With a New Instrument

Leave all settings at default for the first session and observe the output through a meaningful range — at least one full session. Defaults produce readable output on most major futures, equities, and high-liquidity crypto pairs without modification. Note that two defaults shape what you see immediately: the Pipeline runs both detection methods (Dual), and Volume Filtering is set to Bimodal, so only the highest- and lowest-volume imbalances display while the middle is hidden.

After observing, evaluate the output by these criteria:

• Too few zones overall — lower the Imbalance Ratio to 1.5, keep Minimum Candle Touches at 1, and consider setting Volume Filtering to None so mid-volume imbalances are no longer hidden.
• Too many zones, hard to distinguish levels — raise the Imbalance Ratio to 2.5 or 3, raise Minimum Candle Touches to 3–5, or leave Volume Filtering on Bimodal (or switch to Hi-Vol) to keep only the strongest.
• Volume profile too coarse, not enough detail — leave Aggregation at 1 (the default).
• Volume profile too granular, fragmented across single-tick noise — increase Aggregation to 2 or 3 to merge adjacent ticks.
• Quote-mode numbers feel disconnected from what you care about — switch Volume Measured In to Base Currency for raw contract counts. Use Quote where price levels span enough that economic weight differs meaningfully from raw count.
• Want only the most-traded levels, or conversely only the thinly-traded rejection candidates — use Hi-Vol or Lo-Vol Filtering respectively (Imbalance Detection group) and tune Vol. Filter Multiplier. Bimodal (the default) keeps both ends at once and drops the middle; None shows every detected imbalance.

Sizing the Rectangle

The rectangle’s size has direct consequences for what Dominium shows:

• Too narrow (few bars) — the profile is thin and may not reveal stable structure, and if you raise Minimum Candle Touches, few bins will have been touched enough to qualify. If using the indicator for current-session analysis, expand left to include enough recent context.
• Too wide (many bars) — the profile becomes the average across the whole range, which may not reflect current state, and with a higher touch count almost every level qualifies. Tighten left until the picture matches your analysis horizon.
• Sensible range — typically 100–500 bars covering a meaningful window: one full session for intraday work, several days for swing work, several weeks for position analysis. Adjust to your style.

Reading the Profile-Zones-PoC Triple

Each layer adds different information; together they triangulate where the chart’s real structure sits:

• Volume profile shows where price spent time — the long bars are levels traders kept returning to.
• Imbalance zones show where aggression occurred — the colored zones at specific prices are where buyers or sellers pressed hard.
• Developing PoC (and VWAP) show how value evolved — whether the distribution settled around one level or migrated as time progressed.

When all three agree — long profile bar, imbalance zones clustered there, developing PoC parked there — that’s a strongly validated level. When they disagree — long profile bar but no zones, or zones with no profile support — the level is less clear-cut and may not act as expected.

Combining With Other Tools

Dominium identifies and characterizes levels of interest within the chosen analysis window. It does not predict direction or generate signals. Practical use typically combines Dominium with one or more of:

• Higher-timeframe market structure analysis — swing highs/lows, trend lines, key session levels — to provide directional context.
• Time-based context — what session is active, what news is scheduled, where the day’s open and prior settlement sit — to interpret zones economically.
• Volumentum or similar per-candle imbalance scanners for short-term confirmation that aggression is occurring as price approaches a Dominium-identified level.

Dominium is most useful as a structural analysis layer: telling the trader where in the chart real participation has built up. The trade decision — when, why, and in what direction — comes from elsewhere.

 

Troubleshooting and FAQ

The rectangle is there but nothing else displays

The chart probably doesn’t expose per-tick bid/ask volumes. Dominium requires a cluster or footprint chart configuration. If footprint numbers are visible inside your candles, the data is present.

Also possible: Minimum Candle Touches is set higher than the number of candles in the rectangle — in which case the stats line shows a note saying no imbalance can pass. Lower it, or widen the box. And remember Volume Filtering defaults to Bimodal, which hides mid-volume imbalances; set it to None if you expected to see everything.

Two faint horizontal lines appear inside the box and I didn’t add them

Those are the Volume Splitter and the Absolute Delta Splitter, both on by default. The Volume Splitter (half-opacity yellow) marks the volume median; the Absolute Delta Splitter (half-opacity blue or orange) marks the absolute-delta midpoint. Turn either off in the Markers group.

Too many zones — the chart is cluttered

Raise Imbalance Ratio (try 2.5 or 3.0). Raise Minimum Candle Touches (try 3–5). Increase Aggregation (try 2 or 3) to merge adjacent levels into wider bins. Consider Hi-Vol Filtering to keep only the strongest levels.

Too few zones — almost nothing displays

Lower Imbalance Ratio (try 1.5). Keep Minimum Candle Touches at 1. Set Volume Filtering to None so mid-volume imbalances aren’t hidden. Check that the rectangle isn’t so narrow that few bins have been touched.

Volume profile and delta bars overlap awkwardly

Reduce Max Bar Width (% of Box) to keep both narrower. Or disable one of the two — Show Volume Profile or Show Delta Profile — if showing both at once is too busy.

The PoC and VWAP lines are the same color

By default both are yellow — the PoC uses the Volume Profile Bars color and the VWAP uses the Box Border color, which share the same default. Recolor either one to tell them apart.

The developing PoC line jumps around as I change Aggregation

Expected. The PoC is whichever bin has the highest cumulative volume — and changing aggregation changes what “a bin” means, which changes the PoC. This is the math working correctly. Pick the aggregation that matches your horizon and stay there.

Base mode and Quote mode show different PoCs

Also expected. Base PoC is the bin with the highest raw contract count; Quote PoC is the bin with the highest economic value traded, which weighs higher-priced bins more heavily. On instruments spanning a wide price range they can disagree by several bins. Both are correct under their definitions; pick the one that matches the question being asked.

Colors look wrong — bullish zones appear bearish-colored

Absorption reclassification is doing its job: a bullish imbalance whose level the live price has dropped fully through becomes bearish absorption. To see raw imbalance detection without this flip, turn off Absorption Color-Flip in the Colors group. (It is on by default.)

After applying a template to a fresh chart, the rectangle is in the wrong place

Templates carry rectangle coordinates that may not match the new chart’s data. Dominium resets the rectangle to defaults when the saved instrument doesn’t match the current chart’s instrument. On a same-instrument, different-timeframe switch, the time-snap should place it on equivalent bars — drag it to wherever you want it for the new chart.

The stats line says “Quote Currency” but the numbers look like contracts

On instruments where prices are near 1.0 (some forex pairs, low-priced crypto), Quote and Base numbers can look numerically similar. Check the indicator settings to confirm which mode is active — the stats line text always reflects the actual mode.

Dominium is slow when I change settings

Several settings — Aggregation, Imbalance Ratio, Minimum Candle Touches, Volume Filtering, Pipeline, currency mode — trigger a full recalculation across the entire rectangle’s bar range. On large rectangles spanning thousands of bars on cluster-dense charts, this can take a moment. Once it completes, the indicator settles back to live-tick performance.

 

Limitations and Design Notes

What Dominium Does Not Do

• It does not generate buy or sell signals. It characterizes the structure inside the chosen analysis window; trade decisions are the trader’s job.
• It does not aggregate across timeframes. The analysis covers exactly the bars inside the rectangle on the chart’s current timeframe. To see how levels look on a different timeframe, switch the chart’s timeframe — Dominium will snap to equivalent bars.
• It does not look forward. All numbers are computed from data already in the rectangle. The live bar updates tick by tick as new data arrives; closed bars are finalized.
• It does not weight zones by recency or anchor distance. Every zone meeting the configured filters is displayed equally; visual prominence comes from color choice and from whether the zone is in imbalance or absorption state.

Rectangle-Bound Analysis

Every layer Dominium draws is bounded by the rectangle. A zone outside the rectangle does not display; a profile bar outside it does not display; the developing trails stop at its edges. This is deliberate — the rectangle is the analysis contract. The trader chooses the window, Dominium analyzes that window.

Consequence: when the rectangle is moved or resized, everything recomputes. The same level may show as a strong zone in one rectangle and not register at all in another, depending on which other bars are in the analysis.

Why Live-Tick Updates Recompute

Each new tick of the live bar can change bid/ask volumes at one or more price levels, which can change whether a level qualifies as imbalanced, the volume profile shape, the PoC, the VWAP, the delta totals, and the splitter prices. Dominium recomputes affected layers as ticks arrive. This is invisible in normal use; on extremely large rectangles or extremely tick-dense bars, it may cause noticeable per-tick load.

About the Defaults

The defaults are chosen to produce readable output on liquid instruments during normal sessions. Imbalance Ratio 2 with Minimum Candle Touches 1 admits any clear imbalance without requiring repeated visits, while Bimodal volume filtering trims the unremarkable middle so only the strongest and weakest bins survive. Running both detection pipelines (Dual) surfaces the widest set of candidates. Most users will find one or more of these too strict or too loose for their instrument and session — tune them, and keep different settings saved as templates for different market conditions.

Closing Note

Dominium gives the trader precise visibility into a chosen analysis window: where volume concentrated, where aggression occurred, where value developed, and how the participation balanced. It does not say what to trade or when. Used well, it adds a layer of analytical resolution to chart reading that’s invisible without it — making it possible to see, with specificity, why a level was important and what was happening as price approached or rejected it.