[mister ed]

I don’t know if I am going to be of much help with the question. The TickMoneyFlow looks to be trying to achieve the same thing as Volume at Bid/Ask Delta, but like you say there are many compromises in TMF, with random snapshots and inaccuracy. It appears that in principle, though, it trying to do the same thing.

As for TMF being just a “squiggly line� representation of the delta – on the chart I have posted delta is represented as a histogram, if it was represented as a line instead it would be a “squiggly line� too. There are many ways of representing the delta on the chart: can use a moving average of it, can apply an indicator to it, can chart its momentum, can sum it, and so on; it can be represented in its various forms as a histogram or line.

The one thing I would say that sets using the volume delta (or the TMF) apart is that it is not a “squiggly line� in respect that it is not derived from the price data, it is not an “indicator� as such. It is distinct data from the price data – sure the two are related, but a squiggly line indicator, like say the MACD or the RSI is derived from price whereas the volume delta, I would argue is not derived from volume, but is volume. Like the standard volume histogram found at the bottom of most standard bar charts is not derived from volume, but is volume. Of course, if you apply say an RSI on the volume delta (which you could do) then that is an indicator. I hope I am not stepping into a semantic minefield here… In short, I would say, as you ask, it is “a different perspective on / dimension of 'volume’�.

Hope that answers your questions zdo – and thanks for the charts and ideas.