DAS Order book / Ladder?

[Ekhall 0]

Apologies if this is too basic. I have been watching some lectures on using the order book and ladder to understand bids and asks. The ladder most lectures describe appears rather different than the montage in DAS. Am I correct in that these are still different items? If so is there a separate order book / depth of sales in DAS or elsewhere?

 

Have people found Bookmap or Jigsaw to be useful software?

[Ryan W 76]

Hi, what you are referring to is a DOM (Depth of Market). For example, Tradestation has a DOM (or 'ladder') called 'The Matrix'. It shows the total number of bids and asks at each price level on both sides. Visually, it's easier to see when there's a large order a certain price level (always at whole numbers and usually at half dollar increments). The Montage or Level 2 (Market Depth) window, presents the same information, but in my opinion, are better. The reason is the Montage (level 2/Market Depth) window, shows each market maker at that price. Rather than aggregating everything at a price like the ladder/DOM does. This is vitally important when trying to understand what market makers/participants are trying to do a different prices.

[Ekhall 0]

Thanks Ryan, appreciate the response.

Have to say I've been playing around with Bookmap and completely love it.

[Ryan W 76]

I just checked out Bookmap and that's some serious stuff right there! Are you using it live or just the simulated/delayed data to see how it works? I'm tempted to download it and do the free account to see how it works.

[Ekhall 0]

Yes, I’m running it with live data but still running a simulator for trades. I think it’s simply wonderful. And it plots time of the order book with the heat map along the X axis whereas the others don’t