BANKNIFTY Market Pressure — Live
Book-pressure classification (BUY / SELL / NEUTRAL) with bid/ask ratio and top spread.
What is market pressure?
Market pressure is a normalised score derived from live 5-level depth showing whether buyers or sellers are dominating the RESTING ORDER BOOK right now. Different from aggressor delta (which measures completed trades), market pressure captures the LATENT demand — orders sitting in the book waiting to execute. High buy pressure with steady spot = coiled spring for upside. High sell pressure with weak spot = imminent breakdown.
How the pressure score is computed
Formula: `pressure = (top3_bid_qty / (top3_bid_qty + top3_ask_qty)) − 0.5`, scaled 0-100 and labelled. Values above 0.60 = STRONG BUY pressure — bid book massively outweighs ask. 0.55-0.60 = mild BUY. 0.45-0.55 = NEUTRAL. 0.40-0.45 = mild SELL. Below 0.40 = STRONG SELL. The top 3 depth levels are weighted more than deeper levels because they're more likely to execute.
Pressure + aggressor delta cross
The strongest signal comes when pressure and aggressor delta AGREE: Strong BUY pressure + positive aggressor delta = the market is being bought aggressively AND passive buyers are stacking underneath = high-conviction long setup. Strong SELL pressure + negative aggressor delta = mirror image, high-conviction short. When they disagree (BUY pressure but sellers hitting the bid), it's often a distribution/absorption pattern that resolves against the aggressor.
Pressure decay in event windows
Book pressure fluctuates most in the 60-90 seconds before / after news events (RBI announcements, budget speeches). Watch for pressure spikes to ±0.7 in these windows — they often precede the direction of the post-event move. The /orderflow terminal has a pressure history chart that animates through the session so you can see when peaks occurred.
Live pressure feed (paid)
This page shows a 60-sec cached snap. For the live continuously-updating pressure gauge with 30-min history, use the [Order Flow terminal](/orderflow). Also has per-strike option pressure so you can see book imbalance per option, not just per underlying.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is market pressure different from delta?
Pressure = passive resting orders (book state). Delta = aggressive completed trades. Both matter.
What causes strong pressure imbalance?
Institutional stopping orders, algorithmic makers stepping away, or news anticipation.
How often does pressure change?
Every book update — many times per second. Snapshot here is 60-sec cached.
Can I trade on pressure alone?
Better with aggressor delta confirmation. Alone, pressure works ~55%; with delta confirmation, ~65%.
Where does the data come from?
Kotak Neo 5-level depth.
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