Key Levels

Tops and bottoms price turned at, each with the block of volume that traded there, held on the chart as a faint band for a few hours — with a ring each time price comes back into it.

A top or a bottom price turned at, with the volume box that traded there — a few columns wide, a few price rows tall, heavier than the market's usual best block. The band stays on the chart for the lifetime you pick, then goes. A mark shows each time price comes back into it.

Candles: 1m, 5m, 15m, 1h
Footprint: 1m, 5m, 15m, 1h
Heatmap: any range
Not drawn on: Renko, Range bars, Line break — This chart type has no time axis, so order-flow indicators cannot be plotted on it
Needs: the instrument's price grid — without it the chart shows: “Instrument tick unknown — this indicator needs the exchange price grid”
Alerts: yes

What it shows

A level is a top or a bottom that price turned at, together with the block of volume that traded around it. The block is a few bars wide and a few price rows tall, and it has to be clearly heavier than the market's usual best block — a turn on thin volume is not a level.

Each level is drawn in two parts:

A box centred on the bar of the turn, with the volume of the block printed inside it in coin units.
A faint band between the same two prices, carried to the right until the level's lifetime ends, and then taken off. A level that has ended stays on the chart between its two bars, so you can scroll back and see it.

A bottom is read as support and drawn in the buying colour; a top is read as resistance and drawn in the selling colour. Each time price comes back into a standing band from outside it, a small ring is drawn on that bar, on the edge price came in through. A level price is still sitting in when it forms is not touched until price has left it and come back.

A level is only known some bars after the turn, because a turn is confirmed by the move away from it. The chart puts the box where the volume actually traded, so on a live chart a new level appears behind the newest bars — it was not there to see at the time. That is how the picture stays honest about where the volume was, and why the alert, not the chart, tells you when a level became known.

How to read it

A level with a heavy box is a price where a lot of volume changed hands at a turn. Price coming back to it is testing whoever traded there.
Rings show how many times price has returned. A level that keeps drawing rings without the band being crossed is being defended again; one that price runs through has changed hands.
A band that has ended is history, not a forecast. Re-touches are most likely in the first hours after the turn, which is why the lifetime is short by default.
Compare with Volume Zones, which draws every heavy box once without waiting for a turn.

Parameters

Setting	Control	What it does
Top / bottom size	Choice Small · Medium · Large	The default is set by TapeHawk; the settings dialog shows it.
Keep for	Choice 4h · 1d	The default is set by TapeHawk; the settings dialog shows it.
Box width (bars)	Number	Range and default are set by TapeHawk; the settings dialog shows them.
Box height (rows)	Number	Range and default are set by TapeHawk; the settings dialog shows them.
Heavier than usual by	Number	Range and default are set by TapeHawk; the settings dialog shows them.
Max marks / minute	Number	How many levels a minute may raise an alert. It bounds notifications only — every level the rule finds is still drawn. 1–60 · default 20
Buying colour	Colour
Selling colour	Colour

Top / bottom size is how far price has to turn for a top or a bottom to count. Small finds the short swings you would circle by hand; large keeps only the big ones, whose levels are touched again more often but are far fewer. It is measured against the market's own hourly range, so the same setting means a different number of dollars on a different symbol.

Keep for is how long a level stays on the chart, 4h or 1d, counted from the turn itself. Past it the band stops and no more rings are drawn on it.

Box width (bars) and Box height (rows) are the size of the volume block, in bars and in price rows. A row is half of the market's typical bar range, measured as it goes, so it follows the symbol's own volatility instead of a fixed number of ticks.

Heavier than usual by is how much heavier than the market's usual best block the box has to be. Raise it for fewer, heavier levels.

Max marks / minute concerns only alerts; it never limits the drawing.

Alerts

The Alert tab has two signals. level tells you when a top or a bottom becomes a confirmed level, with its price range and side. touch tells you when price comes back into a standing level — the same event the ring marks on the chart. The rule watches bars of the panel's timeframe, so switch it on from a panel at the timeframe you want. It uses the settings on the Parameters tab at the moment you switch it on; if you change them later, the tab offers to bring the alert along. Alerts need a confirmed account; Signal alerts covers the rest.

The alert engine reads each bar as it closes and does not replay history. After it restarts it has to read a few hours of bars before it can measure the market's usual range, and until then it announces no levels — the chart, which is rebuilt from the recorded history, is not affected.

Limitations

It is drawn at 1m, 5m, 15m and 1h, and needs the symbol's price steps; until the panel has them its row in the menu says (no price grid).
A level is found on closed bars, so the bar still forming has none yet, and a level is confirmed some bars after its turn.
It reaches back 24 hours on a symbol TapeHawk records, and about half an hour on a live-only symbol.
A box too small to hold its figure prints none, rather than a clipped one; zoom in to read it.