Important!
ATAS was initially created for Windows, but the developers are ready to release a MAC version in 2024.
ATAS is a professional platform for trading stocks, futures, and cryptocurrencies. ATAS has about 25 broker/exchange connectors and over 300 indicators.
Advantages: A trading simulator; about 400 types of footprint charts; professional indicators, such as Market Profiles, Delta, DOM Levels, Smart Tape, Cluster Search, Big Trades, and others; an API (application programming interface); a fully functional demo version; and useful educational content
Disadvantages: There are paid features; the Windows version often freezes; the interface and drawing tools may seem unaesthetic; and an additional connection to quote providers is required
Trading a highly competitive business. To survive in it, you need an advantage, and finding one keeps getting harder.
Order Flow trading is one of the ways to improve trading performance. In this article, TU reviews the pros and cons of ATAS, a professional platform for trading stocks, futures, and cryptocurrencies, which makes the most of Order Flow.
What is order flow trading?
In simple terms, Order Flow allows traders to work with market data within an accuracy of one trade. By using this maximum degree of detail, traders can work with indicators and footprint charts to get the most accurate information about the market – for example, when looking for the best entry points.
Is order flow trading profitable?
Like any other type of trading, Order Flow does not guarantee profits. But accurate data enables traders to better assess balances or imbalances between supply and demand in order to predict further price action.
Does footprint trading work?
Generally, yes, but it depends on the qualification of the person who uses footprint charts and on the software used to create them. By making sufficient efforts when interpreting footprint charts, traders can significantly improve their performance.
What is the best trading platform?
There is no all-in-one answer. It depends on the trader’s individual needs. Some of the popular options are MetaTrader, Thinkorswim, TradingView, and ATAS. It’s important to choose a platform that meets your goals, experience, and preferences in trading.
A professional trading platform is complex software designed for experienced traders and institutional investors. It offers not only “buy” and “sell” buttons and standard candlestick charts, but also advanced features, such as:
the most accurate and flexibly customizable charts with various modes and time frames
real-time processing of market data
technical analysis tools, including many more indicators than the RSI, MACD, and moving averages
algorithmic trading
account management, and a lot more
ATAS is one of such platforms, and you can download it right now for free. If you are seriously aiming for success in stock, cryptocurrency, and futures trading, you must use world class tools.
This is easy. Register on the ATAS website and sign in to your user account. Credit card details are not required for registration.
How to download ATAS for free
Next:
Go to “Download ATAS”
Download the installation file
Important!
ATAS was initially created for Windows, but the developers are ready to release a MAC version in 2024.
When the installation file is downloaded, install and start ATAS.
Enter your login and password in the welcome window and click OK. That’s it.
Note the Learn section, which includes educational content on using ATAS, as well as Order Flow analysis, Profiles, Level II, and other tutorials.
The Learn section on ATAS
It is obvious that ATAS’ team tries to make it easier for users to master this complicated product. And human support is just one of the platform’s advantages.
👍 The platform's benefits also include:
• Custom time frames
• Footprint charts
• 400+ indicators
• Market Replay trading simulator
• Convenient trading features
• Smart Tape and Smart DOM modules
• Regular updates and an API
Let’s briefly look at each advantage before mentioning the downsides.
ATAS provides advanced features for working with time frames. Besides the standard types, such as 15-minute or 1-hour charts, users can select Range, Tick, Reversal, Volume, and other chart types as shown by number 1 below. The downside is that Point and Figure, Heikin Ashi, Kagi, and some other chart types are not available. However, they are little-known.
Chart types on ATAS
Number 2 shows the features for loading history. For example, you can see down to the second the consequences of the coronavirus panic in spring 2020.
Number 3 shows the button for creating your own unique time frames.
To switch a chart to the footprint mode, press Shift+K or stretch the time scale left and right with the mouse.
Footprint mode settings will open on the left as shown by number 1 below. For more settings, press Ctrl+S or click the sign shown by number 3.
Footprint charts on ATAS
Number 2 shows how useful the footprints can be. Note that the large volume level on the 20:40 candlestick serves as a resistance level for the next few candlesticks, which can be used to open short positions.
To open the indicator manager, press Ctrl+I or use the context menu by clicking the mouse’s right button on the chart.
An example of some indicators on ATAS
The following indicators were added to the ES (E-mini S&P-500) futures chart:
Big Trades. The green circles represent the buys and the red ones represent the sells
Market Profile - the blue histogram
Stacked Imbalances - the red and green lines
Indicators can be set once and saved as a template.
This great simulator enables you to learn to use Order Flow, footprints, Level II, and other professional tools for stock, crypto, and futures trading. With Market Replay, you do not risk your capital and learn faster.
To start the simulator, click the Replay button (1), activate the replay mode (2), set the parameters (3), and click Play (4).
Market Replay at work
The screenshot demonstrates how the Market Replay simulator works. The setup from this example can be used to learn intraday scalping with the application of the DOM Levels indicator and the DOM Trader panel that makes trading more convenient.
One of the main features is the Chart Trader panel.
Chart Trader panel
In the crypto market, it allows you to:
select an account, volume, and margin type
set an automatic stop loss, take profit, and trailing stop
set up hotkeys, etc
The screenshot below shows the Smart DOM and Smart Tape modules.
ATAS’ Smart Tape and Smart DOM modules
Smart Tape is a Time and Sales print feed (order flow) that has several useful features:
trade size filter
trade aggregation
feed speed indicator
Smart DOM is an order book that helps you trade, track the number of trades at each price level, and more.
Finally, it’s worth noting that:
The platform is regularly updated. Approximately twice a week, beta versions with improvements and corrections are released
Developers interact with users. Users can offer improvements for the platform’s features or vote for the already made changes
You can connect your solutions via the API. These can be your own indicators or trading bots written in C#
Of course, this review would be unfair if it did not mention the platform’s downsides:
• Complexity. It takes more than a month to master the platform
• Paid features. The first 14 days of using ATAS are free of charge, after which limits apply. However, compared to competitors, ATAS offers more features for less money
• The platform often freezes, which can be a problem for open positions
• Design. The interface and drawing tools may seem unaesthetic, although this is not crucially important for trading
Also, take into account that to receive real-time chart updates, you must be connected to quote providers.
ATAS is a powerful platform for trading and analyzing markets based on Order Flow data. The platform best suits professional intraday traders and those who want to become ones.
By making simple comparisons, ATAS constructs the most detailed charts. When working with the platform, you kind of switch from Full HD to 4K resolution. But it’s all about usefulness, not picture quality. ATAS provides everything necessary to assess balances and imbalances of supply and demand – the true drivers of price action – helping users make better trading decisions.
For over 15 years, Oleg worked as a copywriter and journalist at advertising and marketing agencies, as well as radio and television companies. His writing style is aimed at using simple terms to explain only those things that matter to the reader – benefits, risks, and realizable ideas. During the 2008 financial crisis, Oleg got interested in the stock and Forex markets and thoroughly explored price action to start working as an independent expert in 2018.
Dr. BJ Johnson is a PhD in English Language and an editor with over 15 years of experience. He earned his degree in English Language in the U.S and the UK. In 2020, Dr. Johnson joined the Traders Union team. Since then, he has created over 100 exclusive articles and edited over 300 articles of other authors.
The topics he covers include trading signals, cryptocurrencies, Forex brokers, stock brokers, expert advisors, binary options. He has also worked on the ratings of brokers and many other materials.
Dr. BJ Johnson’s motto: It always seems impossible until it’s done. You can do it.
Mirjan Hipolito is a journalist and news editor at Traders Union. She is an expert crypto writer with five years of experience in the financial markets. Her specialties are daily market news, price predictions, and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). Mirjan is a cryptocurrency and stock trader. This deep understanding of the finance sector allows her to create informative and engaging content that helps readers easily navigate the complexities of the crypto world.