Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the order-flow and cluster-analytics terms used across TSP Core.
- Bid / Ask
- The highest price a buyer is willing to pay (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept (ask). The gap between them is the spread.
- Cluster
- A vertical strip on the chart that groups trades into price bands so you can see volume distribution within a single bar — the basis of cluster analytics.
- CVD (Cumulative Volume Delta)
- A running total of buy volume minus sell volume. Rising CVD into rising price suggests aggressive buying; flat CVD into rising price suggests absorption.
- Delta
- The net of aggressive buy volume minus aggressive sell volume in a given bar or price band. Positive = buyers initiated; negative = sellers initiated.
- DOM (Depth of Market)
- The live list of resting limit orders at every price level, on both the bid and ask side. Also called the order book.
- Footprint chart
- A candlestick chart that exposes the bid/ask volume distribution inside every bar — letting you read order flow at the bar's individual price levels.
- Funding rate
- Periodic payments exchanged between long and short futures positions to keep the futures price tethered to the spot price. Usually paid every 8 hours.
- Impulse
- An automatically detected sharp price move with above-average volume, surfaced as an arrow marker on the chart.
- Liquidation
- A forced close-out of a leveraged futures position when its margin falls below the maintenance threshold. Cascading liquidations often produce wicks.
- Liquidity zone
- A price area with unusually large resting orders or historical reaction — a region where price has higher odds of pausing or reversing.
- Mark price
- The fair-value price used by an exchange to calculate unrealised PnL and liquidations, smoothed against the spot index to prevent manipulation.
- Open interest (OI)
- The total number of outstanding futures contracts. Rising OI on a price rise = new money flowing in; falling OI = positions closing.
- Order flow
- The real-time sequence of trades and order-book changes — the raw data behind footprint, CVD, and delta analytics.
- POC (Point of Control)
- The single price level within a session or volume profile that traded the most volume. Often acts as a support/resistance pivot.
- Spoofing
- Placing a large limit order with no intent to fill, then cancelling once price reacts. TSP Core's DOM classifier flags candidate spoof levels.
- Spot
- The market for immediate-settlement crypto — exchange of one asset for another without leverage or expiry.
- USDT-M Futures
- USDT-margined perpetual futures: contracts priced in USDT with no expiry. The standard derivatives format on Binance, Bybit and most major venues.
- VAH / VAL
- Value Area High and Value Area Low — the upper and lower bounds of the price range containing the bulk of a session's volume (usually 70 %).
- Volume profile
- A horizontal histogram that shows traded volume at each price level over a chosen time window. The POC is its peak.
- VWAP
- Volume-Weighted Average Price — the average price weighted by volume, anchored to a session, day, or arbitrary start.