Full Book versus Top of Book

3DStockChartsOnline can show you the “Top of Book” on a stock or the “Full Book” on a stock.

Top of Book shows the charts and graphs for only the best buy and sell limit orders for the stock.  This view quickly shows you what is offered as the best price.

Full Book shows the charts and graphs for all of the orders for each stock: it is a complete picture of the pending buy and sell orders (bid and ask) at any given instant for any stock.  This view gives you a better idea of the buying and selling pressure on a stock.

Once you have entered a stock symbol, click the Top of Book or Full Book button for the view you want.  A bar chart for that stock will appear in the main window, with six tabs across the top: Bar Chart, Book, Spread, Line, Pressure, and Totals..

For a larger view of the main window, click the "Float Main Window" option on the View menu, then click the maximize button in the upper right corner of the main window.  To make the detached window go back into the browser, select "Dock Main Window" from the View menu or close the window.

Bar Chart Tab

The 3D bar chart is the default view.  It plots limit orders in three dimensions. The x-axis represents price, the y-axis the number of shares, and the z-axis represents time. New data is added every two seconds at the front of the chart, and old data marches backward.  The chart shows the last 60 seconds of bid and ask activity. 

On the Full Book version of the bar chart, the green bars depict the buy limit orders. Red bars depict the sell limit orders. A single white bar marks the most recent trade, whose price is noted just below the x-axis. Distinctive shades represent separate orders.

On the Top of Book version of the bar chart, each limit order is represented by a different color, with bids in solid colors and asks with a line through them.

To rotate the display in any direction, left-click on the chart and drag the mouse in any direction.

To enlarge or shrink the 3D display, right-click the mouse on the chart, and drag up or down.  (Macintosh users must hold down the Apple key to perform this function.)

To pan across the graph, hold down the control key while left-clicking on the chart and dragging in any direction.

If you wish, you can view the chart in 2-D mode by selecting Display 2D Chart on the View menu.

The Bar chart only shows the main spread by default. Orders are kept if they are +/- 10% from the center's spread price. This is to prevent distortion of the bar chart due to extreme order prices. This can be disabled by selecting Disable filtering from the View menu.

Book Tab

The Book displays bid and ask limit orders for a stock in table format.  It updates automatically once every second.

In the Top of Book version only the best bid and ask order shown.

In the Full Book version, the top 15 orders are shown (with a number at the bottom of each column showing how many other orders there are).  Orders of the same type (bid or ask) at the same price are shown in similarly colored highlights.

The number of shares and price limit are listed for each order. The price, time and volume of the most recent trade is noted across the top of the table.  

Spread Graph Tab

The Spread Graph shows you the dynamic interplay in real time between the inside spread (the difference between the best bid and best ask prices), the width of the spread, the depth of limit orders outside the spread, and the price and size of the last sale.

The limit orders to buy and sell are shown in green and red shaded bars, respectively, and the number of shares represented in these orders are depicted by the length of the shaded bars.

Sales are shown as yellow spikes. This sale spike changes length with the number of shares of the last sale. The yellow spike points up if the last sale is higher than the pervious trade (up tick), and down if the last sale is lower than the pervious trade (down tick).

Line Graph Tab

The line chart tracks the traded price over the course of the trading day.  The line chart itself shows the change in price in a classic two-dimensional price graph, with a volume chart underneath it. 

In the upper right corner the last trade price is shown, along with the ECN where the trade was made, the number of shares, and the change from the previous trade.

In the lower right corner there is an uptick/downtick chart, showing intra-trade changes in bar graph form.

Pressure Gage Tab

The Pressure Gauge is a unique indicator that measures relative buying and selling pressure.

The graph shows the change in price and volume of the last trade.

The ratio, shown in the upper right corner, shows the pressure in decimal format.  A reading equal to 1.0 on the y axis indicates a neutral market. A reading less than 1.0 indicates selling pressure and a value greater than 1.0 indicates buying pressure. The lower or higher the reading implies stronger pressure and possible price changes ahead.

The Pressure Gauge can be generated using a moving average, and the period used to calculate the moving average can be adjusted from zero (no average used) to 200 seconds.  The effect of a longer period is to smooth out the graph and diminish the impact of spikes or dips that are outside of the trend.

Totals

The Totals menu shows a list of activity for a specific stock.

If more then two or three ECN’s are trading the stock, you will need to float the window (select “Float” on the View menu) and then maximize it to see all the data.

If the charts and graphs for a particular symbol appear sparse or blank, consult this table to determine if the amount of trading activity during the day

Get Quote Button

The Get Quote Button displays a non-graphical Top of Book quote for a given stock. It includes the best bid price, best ask price, last trade price and their respective order volumes.

Trade Totals Button

The TradeTotals button shows a list of trade activity for the stock.

Most Active Button

The Most Active button shows the 20 most active stocks, along with the 20 biggest gainers, 20 biggest losers, and 20 biggest movers

WatchList Button

The 3DStockChartsOnline WatchList is a powerful trading tool for paid Subscribers that allows you to follow up to 10 stocks with streaming updates.  You can also pop up multiple windows (Bar Chart, Book, Spread, Line, Pressure, and Totals) and have them all on screen at once. When you leave and come back, the program remembers not only the stocks you were watching, but how, and where the charts were positioned, and whether you were watching full book or top-of-book. 

To pop up a chart for a stock, double click on the symbol in the default table.  

To change the stocks in your Watchlist, select Edit Watchlist from the Preference menu.  You can adjust the columns on the list itself using the cursor, and save the new layout with the Save Layout option on the Preference Menu.

To change the stocks in your Watchlist, select Edit Watchlist from the Preference menu.  You can adjust the columns on the list itself using the cursor, and save the new layout with the Save Layout option on the Preference Menu.

On the Windows menu, you can open a Watchlist, float the main window, or close all the chart windows.

On the WatchList menu you can select your custom watchlist, or select a watchlist of the most active stocks

The Tools menu lets you select between Full Book and Top of Book.

The ECN menu allows you to filter out one or more of the ECNs by clicking on that ECN’s name to disable it.  A second click will remove the filter.

Resource Links Button

These are related sites that provide historical stock charts, chat rooms, SEC filings, financial statements, news, and company profiles.  Unlike simple links, these hot links automatically pass-along the stock you have selected, saving you keystrokes.

 

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