Absorption on a real market: a round-number level

Absorption is aggression that doesn't move price. A passive participant takes every market order at a given level. In theory it's simple. On a real market there's one more important question: for how long?

What happened on October 7

17:10–17:15 Warsaw time (11:10–11:15 AM ET): buyers hit a round-number level. In the top 3 points of the candle a few hundred contracts were bought at the ask, including single large trades right at the level.
Price stalls: for the next 20 minutes or so it drifts back a few dozen points below the level. A passive participant absorbed all of the buyers' aggression.
17:35, the break: a candle with a clearly positive delta pushes through the level. By 18:25 price is clearly higher.
By the end of the day: that level had become the session's point of control (POC), the level with the most volume.

How to read the footprint

In the 17:10 candle, the two rows right at the level show heavy volume at the ask (red numbers). The next candle doesn't go any higher.
In the 17:35 candle, volume at the ask is already printing above the level. Aggression starts to move price.

Why a round number

A round number is a level where orders naturally cluster: sell limits, profit-taking orders, alerts. Round numbers have no magical power, but they focus participants' attention.

The lesson

Absorption tells you that someone is defending a level right now. It doesn't tell you for how long. Once the passive participant has filled their order, the level can break, and the former absorption becomes a high-volume area the market rotates around.

What to watch out for

Absorption is easy to confuse with exhaustion (Order flow encyclopedia #19). The difference: with absorption aggression is heavy; with exhaustion it disappears.
It's easiest to see on 1–5 minute candles. On 30-minute candles it gets lost in the noise.

Exercise

Find 5 situations where heavy volume at the ask (or bid) didn't move price more than 2–3 points. Write down how many minutes it took before the level broke or price moved away in the opposite direction.

Common questions

Was it an iceberg? Possibly, but you can't tell from the trades alone. What you can see in the order book is covered in atlas #15.

Educational content, not investment advice. No signals, entries or position sizes.

This is the footprint in the Hetman Terminal (Hetman X-Ray). Screenshot from the Hetman Index (IHA) – a training instrument, simulated data. See all the Hetman Terminal tools →