ATAS/X Indicator · Order Flow · Delta
PND Delta Candles
Rolling CVD delta as a color gradient on hollow candles. Quick read of net order flow bias without cluttering your chart.
What it does
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Colors hollow candles by order flow
Each bar's color reflects the rolling sum of delta (buy aggression minus sell aggression) over the last N bars. The brighter the color, the more one-sided the flow. Yellow = contested / neutral.
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Adaptive thresholds — no manual tuning
Neutral and max-intensity thresholds scale automatically to the instrument. On NQ 1m (avg delta ~80) the neutral zone is ~12, on NQ 5m (avg ~250) it's ~37. Same settings work on any chart.
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Direction stripe
A solid-filled strip on the open side of each body shows candle direction at a glance. Hollow space faces the close, filled strip faces the open.
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Replaces default candles
Uses ATAS's PaintbarsDataSeries to suppress the default candle rendering, then draws fully custom hollow candles on top via OnRender.
How the score is calculated — step by step
Raw data
candle.Delta
Ask-aggressor minus
bid-aggressor volume
bid-aggressor volume
→
Step 1
Rolling Sum
SUM(delta, Period)
over last N bars
over last N bars
→
Step 2
Rolling Mean |Δ|
SMA(|rollingSum|, Lookback)
= avg activity level
= avg activity level
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Step 3
Adaptive Thresholds
Neutral = avg × 0.15
Max = avg × 2.0
Max = avg × 2.0
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Step 4
t = position in range
0 at neutral thresh
1.0 at max thresh
1.0 at max thresh
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Step 5
Power curve
tp = t ^ 0.7
(compresses ramp)
(compresses ramp)
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Output
Candle Color
LerpColor(soft, strong, tp)
per direction
per direction
Adaptive threshold diagram — how neutral zone and gradient range work
Neutral Fraction (0.15) — Below this fraction of avg |delta|, bar shows yellow. Raise to color fewer bars. Lower to always show a directional color.
Max Multiplier (2.0) — At this multiple of avg |delta|, gradient reaches full intensity. Lower to 1.5 to reach strong color sooner.
Color gradient
Bull (positive delta)
soft — low delta intensitystrong — high delta intensity
#88FFFFFF semi-transparent white → #FFFFFFFF opaque white
Bear (negative delta)
soft — low delta intensitystrong — high delta intensity
#FF505757 dark teal-gray → #FF242425 near-black
Neutral
#9EFFFF00 — rolling delta within the neutral zone (near-zero or contested)
Power Curve (default 0.7): shapes how the gradient ramps up. At t^0.7, mid-range delta values show noticeably colored bars — not just the extremes. Setting it to 1.0 gives a linear ramp. Setting it to 2.0 keeps bars mostly soft until a strong reading appears.
Mock chart — candle states
Direction stripe — reading the candle body
Bull candle (Close > Open)
Open is at the bottom of the body.
Stripe fills the bottom portion (open side).
Hollow space is at the top (close side).
Reading: price closed up from where it opened.
Stripe fills the bottom portion (open side).
Hollow space is at the top (close side).
Reading: price closed up from where it opened.
Bear candle (Close < Open)
Open is at the top of the body.
Stripe fills the top portion (open side).
Hollow space is at the bottom (close side).
Reading: price closed down from where it opened.
Stripe fills the top portion (open side).
Hollow space is at the bottom (close side).
Reading: price closed down from where it opened.
Doji (Close = Open)
Body height is zero → drawn as a single horizontal line in the bar's color.
Color is still driven by rolling delta, so a yellow doji = neutral flow + indecision.
Color is still driven by rolling delta, so a yellow doji = neutral flow + indecision.
Stripe height controls
Stripe Fraction (0.9) — 90% of body height is filled by stripe. Lower for a thinner accent line.
Min Stripe Ticks (1) — Minimum height in ticks, so tiny-body bars still show a visible stripe.
Min Stripe Ticks (1) — Minimum height in ticks, so tiny-body bars still show a visible stripe.
All settings — quick reference
| Setting | Default | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| Delta | ||
| Period | 15 | Number of bars to SUM delta over. This is your CVD window.On a 1m chart, Period=5 ≈ 5-min flow, Period=15 ≈ 15-min flow. Higher = slower/smoother signal that ignores single-bar spikes. Lower = more reactive to recent delta changes. |
| Adaptive Thresholds | ||
| Lookback Period | 60 | How many bars back to average |rollingDelta| for the adaptive threshold baseline. 60 bars on 1m = 1 hour of history to set the "typical delta" for the session. Lower = adapts faster to changing conditions. Higher = more stable baseline. |
| Neutral Zone | 0.15 | Fraction of avg |delta| where bar shows yellow. At 0.15: if avg delta is 80, then |rolling delta| below 12 = yellow. Raise toward 0.3–0.5 to only show directional color on stronger readings. Lower toward 0.05 to color nearly every bar. |
| Max Intensity | 2.0 | Multiple of avg |delta| at which gradient reaches full strength. At 2.0: full-color white/black appears when rolling delta ≥ 2× the average. Lower to 1.5 to reach full intensity sooner (useful in fast markets). Raise to 3.0 if you only want full-color on truly extreme readings. |
| Gradient | ||
| Power Curve | 0.7 | Exponent applied to the normalized intensity (tp = t ^ power). <1 pushes color out earlier — mid-range bars get noticeably colored. =1 is a pure linear ramp. >1 keeps bars soft until near the max — only extreme readings get strong color. |
| Colors | ||
| Bull Soft | #88FFFFFF | Color at the low-intensity end of the bull ramp (delta just above the neutral zone). |
| Bull Strong | #FFFFFFFF | Color at full bull intensity (rolling delta ≥ max threshold). |
| Bear Soft | #FF505757 | Color at the low-intensity end of the bear ramp. |
| Bear Strong | #FF242425 | Color at full bear intensity. Near-black by design — strong selling pressure. |
| Neutral | #9EFFFF00 | Color for bars where |rolling delta| is within the neutral zone. Yellow = contested flow. |
| Candle Body | ||
| Body Fill | #00000000 | Fill color for the interior of the candle body. Default alpha=0 = fully hollow (only the border and stripe show). Set a non-zero alpha to get a translucent filled body. |
| Direction Stripe | ||
| Stripe Fraction | 0.9 | What fraction of the body height the stripe occupies. 0.9 = 90% filled (very visible). Lower to 0.3–0.5 for a subtle accent line at the open edge. |
| Min Stripe Ticks | 1 | Minimum stripe height in ticks, regardless of body size. Ensures small-body bars still show a distinguishable stripe. |
Setting the Period for different timeframes
The Period setting controls how many bars are summed. On a 1-minute chart, each bar = 1 minute, so Period = bars ≈ minutes. Mix and match to see different time perspectives simultaneously.
| Timeframe goal | On 1m chart | On 5m chart | Lookback suggestion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intrabar / scalp | Period = 3 | Period = 1 | Lookback = 20–30 |
| 5-minute flow | Period = 5 | Period = 1 | Lookback = 30–50 |
| 15-minute flow (default) | Period = 15 | Period = 3 | Lookback = 60 |
| 30-minute flow | Period = 30 | Period = 6 | Lookback = 80–100 |
| Hourly bias | Period = 60 | Period = 12 | Lookback = 120+ |
Tip: Run two instances side by side — one at Period=5 for scalp reads, one at Period=15 for bias direction. When both agree, conviction is higher.
PND Delta Candles vs PND Order Flow Composite — when to use each
| Characteristic | PND Delta Candles | PND Order Flow Composite |
|---|---|---|
| Core signal | Rolling sum of delta only | 7 signals combined (delta, absorption, exhaustion, DOM, footprint) |
| Speed / reactivity | Very fast — single calculation | Slightly slower — z-scores + EMA smoothing |
| False signal filtering | Moderate — single metric | Better — signals must agree to score high |
| Live DOM data (L2) | No | Yes — Queue Imbalance signal |
| Footprint cluster data | No | Yes — Cluster Location signal |
| Works on historical bars | Fully | Yes, except S6 (DOM = 0 on history) |
| Best use case | Quick read: is flow net bullish or bearish right now? | Higher-conviction reads: do multiple signals confirm the same direction? |
| Run together? | Yes — use the same Period / FastPeriod so they cover the same CVD window. Colors are different by design. | |
Installation
Get up and running in 3 minutes
The indicator is distributed as a compiled .dll file. No coding required — just download and drop into the ATAS indicators folder.
Download ATAS/X — the order flow platform this indicator runs on.
atas.net — download →
atas.net — download →
Get the indicator DLL — join the ProfitNotionDaily Discord and grab the latest
PNDDeltaCandles.dll from the indicators channel.Place the DLL in the ATAS indicators folder:
Windows:
macOS:
Windows:
%AppData%\ATAS\Indicators\macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/ATAS/Indicators/Fully restart ATAS/X — .NET caches assemblies until the app is closed. Quit completely and reopen.
Add to chart — open the indicators panel, search
PND Delta Candles, and add it to any chart.Questions? Join us on Discord.
Live chart discussions, indicator updates, and custom order flow alerts.