Big Trades

Big Trades is a volume analysis indicator in ATAS that displays large market buys and sells directly on the chart. It helps quickly identify areas where significant aggressive volume appeared in the trade flow.

The indicator marks an event on the chart: the time, price, direction, and volume of a large trade or an aggregated group of similar trades.

What the Indicator Shows

Big Trades marks large trades on the chart. A marker can help identify:

• where large volume appeared on the chart;
• whether it was a buy, a sell, or a trade between Bid and Ask;
• the trade volume;
• the price or price range where the trade occurred.

When hovering over a marker while holding Ctrl, a tooltip appears with additional details. It can show volume, direction, and Bid x Ask data if this information is available for the selected instrument and data feed.

Big Trades can be used as a visual event filter. Instead of manually scanning the entire tape, users can immediately see chart areas where large aggressive volume appeared.

How to Use Big Trades for Analysis

Find Areas of Increased Activity

Add Big Trades to the chart and check where the most noticeable markers appear. This helps quickly identify areas where large volume entered the market.

After that, analyze the context: where the trade happened, whether it appeared near an important level, how activity changed afterward, and whether similar events appeared nearby.

Check Price Reaction

The marker itself only shows that a large trade occurred. The next step is to evaluate what happened afterward:

• price continued moving;
• price stopped;
• price returned back;
• the level of the large trade was tested again later.

This is not a trading rule, but a way to describe the market reaction to the event.

Compare the Event with Smart Tape

Big Trades shows the event on the chart, while Smart Tape helps examine the trade flow around that moment. This can help determine whether it was a single large trade, a series of trades, or part of broader activity.

Distinguish Big Trades from Cluster Search

Big Trades looks for large individual or aggregated trades. Cluster Search looks for areas where a large total volume appeared inside a cluster.

This means the indicators can highlight different events:

• Big Trades can trigger on one large trade;
• Cluster Search can trigger on a series of trades if their total volume meets the condition;
• one indicator may show activity while the other does not.

Main Settings

Calculation Mode

This setting defines how the indicator processes trades.

• Cumulative Trades — aggregated trades mode. Auto Filter is available in this mode.
• Separate Trades — individual trades mode. In the current platform logic, Auto Filter is disabled for this mode.

Price Location

This filter defines where the trade should be located within the candle:

• Any — any location;
• At High — at the candle high;
• At Low — at the candle low;
• Body — inside the candle body;
• Upper Wick — in the upper wick;
• Lower Wick — in the lower wick;
• At High or Low — at the candle high or low.

This setting helps focus on specific event types. For example, users can display all large trades with Any or show only events near the candle High or Low.

Auto Filter

Auto Filter automatically selects a volume threshold based on the instrument. In Big Trades, it works in Cumulative Trades mode.

The auto filter is calculated when the indicator is first launched and does not update in real time. To change display conditions, refresh the indicator or switch to manual Min Volume and Max Volume settings.

Min Volume and Max Volume

Min Volume defines the minimum trade volume required for a trade to appear on the chart.

Max Volume defines the upper filter boundary. If Max Volume is set to 0, there is no upper display limit.

Time Filtration

Time Filtration limits the indicator display by time. Enable Use Time Filter and set Time From / Time To.

This filter is useful for analyzing a specific trading session or selected time window. The current logic supports both a regular intraday range and a range that crosses midnight.

Visualization, Colors, and Alerts

Colors

The Colors section allows you to configure colors for buys, sells, and intermediate trades. It is recommended to choose colors that do not blend into candles or other indicators on the chart.

Visualization

The Visualization section controls how markers look on the chart:

• Show Above Chart — displays objects above the chart;
• Visual Mode — marker shape;
• Visual Objects Transparency — marker transparency;
• Cluster Selection Transparency — price area selection transparency;
• Fixed Sizes — fixed marker size;
• Size — base marker size;
• Minimum Size / Maximum Size — lower and upper marker size limits;
• Show Value — displays volume next to the marker.

If Fixed Sizes is disabled, marker size depends on volume relative to Min Volume, but it is limited by Minimum Size and Maximum Size.

If the chart becomes visually overloaded, increase transparency, disable Show Value, or increase Min Volume.

Alerts

Use Alerts enables notifications when a new large trade appears in real time. Users can select an alert file and configure the notification background.

Alerts are best used together with an appropriate volume filter so notifications appear only for meaningful events.

Useful Tips

• Start with Auto Filter to get an initial threshold for the instrument, then adjust Min Volume manually if needed.
• Save separate templates for different instruments because the same volume can be large on one market and normal on another.
• If there are too many markers, increase Min Volume, enable Time Filter, increase transparency, or disable Show Value.
• Use Price Location to separate trades at candle extremes from trades inside the body.
• Check important markers with Smart Tape to see the structure of the event in the tape.