Displayed size that holds its ground. It persists through price contact and absorbs trades. This is capital that means it.
Case study · Live book read
Five price levels.
INTERACTIVE READ BELOW
Five price levels.
Three kinds of liquidity.
One honest picture of the book.
INTERACTIVE READ BELOW
A working read of a live E-mini S&P 500 futures book (ESU6) across a twenty-point range. Every resting order the market displays is classified into one of three states — committed, phantom, or hidden — using exchange-stamped depth, volume-profile, and time-&-sales data.
Iron — committed
Sand — phantom
Displayed size that exists to be seen, not filled. High-jitter, repositioning walls that vanish as price approaches. Flagged.
Iceberg — hidden
Size the book doesn’t display at all — hidden reserves revealed only by how trades keep filling at one level without depth ever draining.
The read
The ladder, as the tool sees it.
Select a level to see its classification. Bar length is proportional to size; hatched bars are inferred hidden reserves, not displayed depth.
ESU6 · classified depth · 7540–7560
units = contracts · iceberg = min. inferred
Level by level
What each level is actually doing.
7560.00
Committed · overhead ceiling
174 contracts of stationary, high-persistence resistance. This size does not reposition and does not flinch on approach — a genuine structural ceiling for the session.
7553.25
Phantom · flagged
A 55-contract wall exhibiting high-jitter repositioning — the signature of size placed to influence, not to trade. The tool flags it; a desk leaning on it as support would be leaning on air.
7551.00
Hidden · largest reserve on the book
Only 16 contracts displayed — but fills keep printing here without the level draining. Inferred hidden reserve of 322+ contracts: the most active absorption node in the range, nearly invisible on a standard DOM.
7547.50
Committed · bid-side floor
116 contracts of sincere bid-side capital. Persistent through contact — a real floor, not a display.
7540.00
Committed · long-horizon floor
118 contracts of long-horizon institutional interest anchoring the bottom of the range. Positioned away from the action and unmoved by it.
Why it matters
A standard DOM shows you 55 contracts of support that don’t exist — and hides 322 that do.
In this range, the single largest pool of liquidity was nearly invisible, and the most visible wall was the least real. A desk executing against displayed depth alone is negotiating with a book that is, in places, the opposite of what it appears.
The Integrity Tool’s job is exactly this separation — committed from phantom from hidden — in real time, before the order is placed. It identifies structural conditions in order flow; it does not identify or accuse participants. Read our position on that distinction →