A replay drill for reading absorption

A replay drill for reading absorption is a fixed routine you run on a recorded session. You pause each time price tests a resting level, write down what you think happened, then measure it. Absorption means aggressive orders trade into a resting level, more volume trades there than the level showed at any one time, and price does not trade through. This note runs the drill on one invented ES hour in Liquivue and scores eight events. The note on absorption versus a refilled level defines the ratio the drill uses.

The rules before you start

Write the rules down before the replay starts and keep them the same for the whole hour.

1. An event starts when price trades at a price where the heatmap shows at least 200 contracts at the best bid or the best offer.
2. Pause at the first trade at that price. Play 30 seconds, then pause again.
3. Write your first read as one of three labels. Absorbed means the level held while volume traded into it. Pulled means the size left with little traded. Traded through means a trade printed one tick beyond the level.
4. Measure the 30 second window. Note the largest size shown at the price, the volume traded there, and whether any trade printed one tick beyond.
5. Label the measured result. Any trade beyond the level counts as traded through. Otherwise a ratio of 1 or more counts as absorbed, and a ratio below 0.5 with the size gone counts as pulled.

The ratio is the volume traded at the price divided by the largest size shown there in the window.

Setting up the replay in Liquivue

All numbers below are invented. The recording covers ESZ6, the December 2026 E-mini S&P 500 contract, from 10:00 to 11:00 New York time. One tick is 0.25 points.

Import the file and check its time zone, tick size and depth first. The note on replaying an imported recording in a browser platform walks through those three checks. Run the replay at normal speed for this drill. At four times speed, each 30 second window passes in under 8 seconds. The note on replay speed and what you notice compares speeds.

On screen, keep the Liquivue heatmap layer, trade bubbles, CVD and the volume profile. To measure the traded volume, read the volume profile row at the event price when you first pause and again after 30 seconds. At event 1 below, the 5,061.00 row reads 1,240 contracts at the first pause and 1,650 at the second, so 410 contracts traded there. The trade bubbles at the price should add up to the same 410.

Liquivue lists absorption markers on its heatmap. This site has not verified that the markers run during replay. If they do, record them in a separate column and do not use them as the answer key, because the drill trains your own read.

The drill log for one hour

Liquivue has no verified trade journal, so keep this log in a spreadsheet.

Scoring the hour

The first read matched the measured label at events 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8. That is 5 matches out of 8.

The three misses each have a cause you can name.

• At event 2 the offer band at 5,063.50 dimmed and came back, and the colour looked like absorption. Only 60 contracts traded against 250 shown. Traders cancelled the rest.
• At event 3 the ratio was 1.3, and 520 contracts traded at 5,060.25. A sell still printed at 5,060.00 at second 26 of the window, so the level did not hold.
• At event 6 the offer at 5,062.25 shrank on the heatmap, and the read was pulled. Buyers traded 380 contracts there against 350 shown, so traders added offers while the buys printed.

Two of the three misses came from reading the band's colour without reading the bubbles. Event 3 shows that a high ratio alone does not settle the label. The trade one tick beyond the level sets the label.

The score is not a win rate. It counts how often your read matched the data, and it says nothing about profit.

Running the drill over a week

Run the drill with the same rules on five sessions before you change any threshold. Keep the 200 contract minimum and the 30 second window fixed. If you change the window to 60 seconds, start a new log, because the old scores no longer compare.

Replay on other platforms

Bookmap lists recording and replay from its Digital+ tier on desktop, at US$19 a month. ATAS lists replay on Plus and higher plans, and its connector documentation excludes dxFeed instrument charts from Market Replay. NinjaTrader has Market Replay and free simulation. The drill works on any of them that replays book updates as well as trades.

A check you can run

Replay 15 minutes of today's session and find the first three events that meet rule 1. For each one, write your first read before you look at the volume profile row. Then fill in the ratio and the trade beyond column and count how many of the three labels match.