VFILabs Dynamic Zones detects two of the most reliable institutional order flow patterns — Absorption Traps and Exhaustion — and draws transparent zone rectangles directly on your chart showing exactly where the institutional activity occurred. No guessing. No interpretation. The zones tell the story.
Dynamic Zones focuses on two complementary patterns — where institutions are entering (absorption) and where they are running out of fuel (exhaustion). Together they cover the two most reliable reversal setups in order flow trading.
An absorption trap fires when there is extreme delta exhaustion on a bar that closes against the delta direction. Large sellers are hitting bids on an up-close bar — or large buyers are lifting offers on a down-close bar. The delta doesn't agree with price. That's institutional absorption.
A green zone rectangle is drawn on the chart marking the body of the signal bar. As long as price stays within the zone, the absorption is active. When a new signal fires, the old zone closes.
An exhaustion signal fires when a series of consecutive directional bars show declining delta, declining volume, and a shrinking body — all three confirming that the move is losing momentum. The institutions that drove the move are stepping back. A reversal or pullback is likely.
A teal zone rectangle is drawn on the chart covering the exhaustion sequence. The zone persists until a new exhaustion signal fires in the same direction.
Dynamic Zones does the work for you — detecting the patterns, drawing the zones, and keeping them updated in real time.
When a signal fires, a transparent zone rectangle is drawn on the chart immediately. The zone extends bar by bar in real time until the next signal replaces it — no manual drawing required.
The absorption detection uses an exponential moving average of delta magnitude as the baseline. Signals only fire when delta significantly exceeds the recent average — filtering out routine order flow noise.
ABS buy zones, ABS sell zones, EXH buy zones, and EXH sell zones each have independently configurable colors. Customize to match your chart theme.
A yellow dot marks the contributing bar on every absorption signal — the exact bar where the institutional delta spike occurred, even when the signal fires one bar later.
Separate cooldown periods for absorption and exhaustion signals prevent rapid-fire back-to-back signals in choppy conditions. Configurable independently for each signal type.
All signals are evaluated on closed bars only — no mid-bar triggers, no repainting. The signal and zone you see on a closed bar will not change.
Both signal types are independently configurable — tune each one to your market and timeframe without affecting the other.
| Absorption Trap (ABS) Settings | ||
Delta EMA Period Baseline for delta comparison |
5 | EMA period for the delta magnitude baseline. Lower = more reactive. Higher = smoother baseline, fewer signals. |
Delta Exhaust Multiplier How much delta must exceed the EMA |
1.3 | Delta must exceed EMA × this value to trigger. Higher = fewer but stronger signals. Try 1.5–2.0 for less noise. |
Marker Offset (ticks) ABS signal arrow distance from bar |
6 | How many ticks above/below the bar the ABS signal marker appears. |
Min Bars Between Signals ABS cooldown |
5 | Minimum bars between consecutive ABS signals. Prevents rapid-fire signals in volatile conditions. |
Buy Zone Color / Sell Zone Color ABS zone rectangle colors |
Green / Red | Colors for the ABS zone rectangles. Customize to match your chart theme. |
| Exhaustion (EXH) Settings | ||
Consecutive Declining Bars Number of bars in exhaustion sequence |
3 | Minimum consecutive bars required. Set to 2 for more signals. Set to 4–5 for only the most obvious exhaustion patterns. |
Body Shrink % vs First Bar Body size confirmation threshold |
50% | Final bar body must be less than this % of the first bar's body to confirm body shrink. 50% = last bar is half the size of the first. |
Marker Offset (ticks) EXH signal arrow distance from bar |
10 | Slightly larger than ABS by default to keep signals visually separated on the chart. |
Min Bars Between Signals EXH cooldown |
8 | Longer default than ABS since exhaustion patterns take more bars to develop. |
Buy Zone Color / Sell Zone Color EXH zone rectangle colors |
Gray / Teal | Colors for the EXH zone rectangles. Different from ABS colors so you can distinguish the two signal types at a glance. |
Your license key is emailed automatically within seconds of purchase from sales@vfilabs.com. Run the included installer, enter your key, and the study installs directly to your Sierra Chart Data folder.
No. All signals are evaluated on closed bars only. Once a bar closes and a signal fires, that signal does not change. The zone rectangles extend in real time on the current bar but the signal bar itself is fixed.
Any Sierra Chart data feed that provides bid and ask volume on your bars. Most professional futures feeds including Rithmic, CQG, and Denali include this data.
Dynamic Zones focuses on just two signal types — ABS and EXH — with their visual zones. The full AI OrderFlow study in Depth Core adds stacked imbalances, trap breaks, momentum, volume spikes, and the Master Entry confluence arrow. Dynamic Zones is the focused entry point.
Yes — your license covers up to 2 machine activations. Contact sales@vfilabs.com if you need to move to a new machine and we will reset your activation.
Add Dynamic Zones to your Sierra Chart setup and let the absorption and exhaustion zones show you exactly where the institutional order flow is happening — bar by bar.
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