The problem with most indicators is that they are backward looking; there aren’t many indicators that can show changes in the market as they are occurring. Bookmap is an incredibly powerful tool to visualize liquidity zones in the market in real time to help you make better buying and selling decisions in your trading – and it works for stocks, futures, and crypto! 

Bookmap, developed by a high frequency/algorithmic traders, describes itself as a platform that “accurately shows the entire market liquidity and trading activities.”

Their goal is to help you “Identify market trends and hidden price patterns with high precision.” OK, that’s quite a mouthful. Let’s get into what all that means a little deeper.

Bookmap breaks its features into three sections. The first is “heatmap.” The second is volume. And the third feature are custom indicators. Our Bookmap review will go over each one.

 

Let’s take a look at the heatmap in this Bookmap review. The heatmap shows the historical limit order book for each price level and color codes them so you can quickly visualize support and resistance areas.

The darker the color, the more orders are at the corresponding price (and the colors are even customizable!)

A day trader can use this information to get earlier entries on their trades and increase their profitability per trade. 

Volume

The next feature of our Bookmap review is volume. The bookmap platform has both volume bars, located at the bottom of the chart, and “volume dots”.

This is instead of candles on the chart. The dots help visualize two key pieces of information. First, the dot will show the proportion of buy orders at the ask (in green) vs the number of sell orders at the bid (in red).

This shows you who is more in control, the bulls trying to push price higher. Or the bears trying to push it down. Secondly, the size of the dot corresponds to the relative volume.

This’ll allow a trader to quickly see changes in market volume; which often means an opportunity for a trade.

Custom Indicators

The third feature are custom indicators that were created by Bookmap developers, whose expertise is in High Frequency Trading, or HFT. These indicators include the Imbalance Indicator, Iceberg Detector, Large Lot Tracker, Advanced Volume Delta, and more.

You can learn about these custom indicators within the learning resources on Bookmap’s website – read on for more on their learning tools.

There are a couple of competitive indicators our there, but Bookmap is definitely considered the Rolls Royce of market depth indicators.

Bookmap is very customizable, which is one of the major legs up it has over others. Trade labs has a set of indicators that somewhat emulate Bookmap, and NinjaTrader has a market depth indicator, although not nearly as robust.

How to Get Started With Bookmap

• It’s important to note in our Bookmap review what Bookmap is NOT. It’s not a broker, and nor is it a data feed. There are many brokers that work with Bookmap for futures and cryptocurrencies. The only two brokers for trading stocks are Tradestation and Interactive Brokers. If you already have a data service with one of these two brokers, you can likely use it in bookmap as well.

If not, Bookmap suggests dxFeed, which has plans for stocks up to $119/month and futures for up to $179/month.

What Does Bookmap Cost? (Pricing Review)

Bookmap has three membership tiers. First, the digital tier, which is free. The free membership allows crypto trading only, and only one tab/screen at a time. You can add the record and review feature for $20/month.

The second tier, “Global,” has real time data for stocks and futures as well as crypto. But cryptocurrency trades are still the only asset you will be able to trade directly from the chart within Bookmap. You can look at 20 tabs at a time at this tier, which will run you $39/month.

Bookmap’s top membership tier, “Global+” will allow you to trade all three asset classes right from the screen. It also includes the custom indicators mentioned above. This tier is advertised at $79/month.

Learning Tools

Bookmap also offers some good learning opportunities. First of all, there is a free daily training session that shows key features of the platform; how to customize your screen, and some order flow basics information.

This session is Monday through Friday from 10:30 to 11am EST, and is available to everyone. Paid members (Global and Global+ users) have access to four lessons on market mechanics/order flow, market structure, and how to use their custom indicators.

Additionally, paid members their own daily live trading session from 10:30 – 11am EST. Its always great to watch experienced traders.

Bookmap Integration With ThinkorSwim

Great news for all you ThinkorSwim users! TD partnered with Bookmap to offer it directly within their platform. You must contact TOS support to have it turned on. There is a trial with 3 symbols that rotate periodically (an example would be /ES, AMZN and COIN), or, spring for the full support and get every available symbol for $39.99 a month. That’s the same price as the global bookmap subscription, but it doesn’t seem to require additional data feeds, which makes it a more competitive way to use Bookmap. Smart move by TD Ameritrade. It appears as of April 2021, Canadian residents do not have access to this deal.

Final Thoughts 

Bookmap isn’t an indicator for brand new traders. You should master chart patterns and candlesticks before getting into software like this. A great place to start is with the free courses on our website!

However, for a trader with some experience under their belt, Bookmap is a powerful tool that can help you see breakouts and reversals before they happen by visualizing and analyzing the orders coming into the market.

The stock market is a battle of the bulls and the bears, and trading is all about going along with the ones in control. Bookmap is a tool that can help you be on the right side of the market. Open a Bookmap account!