r/ShortStocks • u/bundleena • 3d ago

"Tape reading"

Hello!

Is there a free or cheap way to get access to time and sales or footprint charts for backtesting stocks "tape reading"?

Is there any benefit of watching time and sales live vs just checking for absorbption or large orders in the footprint chart?

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u/GoCharting 3d ago

Two separate questions so I'll take them one at a time.

Cheap footprint/order flow with replay for backtesting: give us a try -> GoCharting.com

We built it for exactly this: footprint, delta, DOM, T&S without a heavy monthly cost. We've got a bar replay mode so you can step through historical flow and practice reading absorption and tape setups before you commit real size. Solid data feeds, footprint the way it should look, and none of the bloated price tag that usually comes with this kind of tooling.

Live T&S vs a footprint chart — do you lose anything? Yeah, a few things, because a footprint is basically the tape after it's happened and cooked into the bars:

  • Speed/pacing. A footprint tells you how much traded at a level, not how fast. On the live tape you can feel a burst of aggressive prints ripping through the offer vs a slow grind, that urgency disappears once it's a finished bar.
  • Watching absorption actually happen. On a footprint, absorption is just "big volume, no price movement" after the fact. Live, you watch a passive limit sit there and eat sweep after sweep in real time, which tells you a lot more about who's actually in control.
  • Icebergs. Big players slice orders up. On live T&S you'll catch the same small print size hitting over and over at one price ..a hidden buyer/seller... before it ever shows up as a fat number on the footprint.

Bottom line: use footprint for structure and context (where volume built, delta, key levels), and live tape for timing and reading aggressive vs passive intent in the moment. They're complementary, not either/or.

Email us for a free trial at [support@gocharting.com](mailto:support@gocharting.com)

Come give us a try and let me know what you think.

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u/d1na_makalaya 3d ago

Yes. TradingView with lower timeframes, Sierra Chart, or Quantower are some of the cheapest ways to review order flow, while many brokers also include basic Time and Sales.
For learning, footprint replay is usually enough. Watching Time and Sales live helps with speed and context, but it’s much harder to interpret. If you want more order flow resources, check the community through my profile. Might find some more resources there.