Lumen Futures Blog
Platforms & Tools
Charts, the DOM, volume and order flow tools, and how the trading platforms that offer them differ.
Platforms & ToolsOctober 26, 2026How Are Pivot Points Calculated on a Futures Chart?
In Sierra Chart's default formula the pivot is the average of the prior period's high, low and close, and the support and resistance lines are arithmetic on those three numbers and the prior range — which is why a chart that defines yesterday differently draws different lines.
- Platforms & ToolsOctober 17, 2026
What Is a Renko Chart? How a Brick Gets Built
Sierra Chart specifies a renko brick as an open-to-close distance in ticks rather than a stretch of clock, and the platform documentation sets out how one is built, what the last brick is still allowed to do, and why two charts on the same setting disagree.
- Platforms & ToolsOctober 15, 2026
Tick Chart vs Time Chart: What Each Bar Counts
A tick chart cuts a new bar every time a set number of trades has printed, a time chart cuts one every time the clock runs out, and the platform documentation explains why two tick charts on the same setting, fed by different data services, probably will not match.
- Platforms & ToolsOctober 8, 2026
What Is a Continuous Futures Contract? Rollover, Back-Adjustment and the Prices You See
A continuous futures contract is a chart series stitched together from expiring contract months, and back-adjustment shifts the older prices by the accumulated settlement differences at each roll, so the history you are reading is not what the market printed.
- Platforms & ToolsOctober 4, 2026
What Is a Volume Profile?
A volume profile is a histogram of how much traded at each price over a chosen period, and the point of control and value area it draws are both the output of the platform's own arithmetic.
- Platforms & ToolsSeptember 29, 2026
What Is Cumulative Delta in Futures Trading?
Cumulative delta is a running total of bid-versus-ask volume, and the platform documentation behind it shows why the number depends on where the count started and not only on what the market did.
- Platforms & ToolsSeptember 25, 2026
What Is a Footprint Chart in Futures Trading?
A footprint chart prints how much traded at every price inside a single bar, and Sierra Chart, Quantower and ATAS can each split that volume into trades filled at the bid and trades filled at the ask.
- Platforms & ToolsSeptember 16, 2026
What Is the DOM in Futures Trading?
The DOM is the price ladder a futures trader works orders on, showing resting buy and sell quantity at each price — and it is neither complete nor a statement of anyone's intent.
- Platforms & ToolsSeptember 5, 2026
Sim Trading vs Live Trading: What Changes When the Order Leaves
A simulated order is filled by software and never reaches a market, while a live futures order in a US market is executed on a CFTC-designated exchange and has to be cleared.