Volume & Order Flow

AMT Unfinished Auction

Incomplete price discovery at bar extremes

Marks bar extremes where price discovery was incomplete — where one side of the auction was absent at the high or low. These unfinished auctions often attract price back for a retest, as the market seeks to complete the two-sided discovery process.

AMT Unfinished Auction on a Sierra Chart

The Concept

In a healthy auction, both buyers and sellers participate at each price level. When a bar's high has minimal ask volume (sellers didn't show up at the top) or a bar's low has minimal bid volume (buyers didn't show up at the bottom), the auction at that extreme is considered 'unfinished.' Market Auction Theory suggests price will often return to complete the auction — making these levels potential revisit targets.

How to Read It

Dots appear at bar highs and lows where unfinished auctions are detected.

  • Red dot on a bar high = sellers were absent at the extreme — unfinished to the upside
  • Green dot on a bar low = buyers were absent at the extreme — unfinished to the downside
  • Clusters of unfinished auctions at a price zone strengthen the revisit thesis
  • An unfinished auction that gets 'finished' (revisited with two-sided activity) resolves the level

Practical Tips

The Min Volume Threshold controls how much volume is required on the absent side before flagging the level. Lower values catch more signals; higher values filter to only the clearest unfinished auctions. Best used on volume or tick charts with meaningful footprint data. Pair with price levels from AMT Balance or session tracker for higher-conviction trade ideas.

Requirements

  • Requires 'Maintain Volume at Price Data' enabled on the chart

Input & Settings

1Min Volume Threshold

Minimum volume on the dominant side before flagging the level as unfinished. Default: 5. Range: 1–1000.

Subgraphs

1Unfinished High

Default: Point On High. Red dot at bar highs where ask volume was below the threshold.

2Unfinished Low

Default: Point On Low. Green dot at bar lows where bid volume was below the threshold.

Free with the AMT Toolkit

This study is part of the AMT Toolkit — a free collection of Sierra Chart studies for orderflow, market structure, and chart utilities.

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