Lesson 4 of 4 · 2 min
Mistakes
Why heatmap "walls" fool traders, and how to stay honest with the tool.
Common misreads
- "The wall will hold." Displayed size can be cancelled in a millisecond.
- Over-reading colour. Relative scaling exaggerates ordinary size.
- Ignoring executions. A bright band no one trades against tells you very little.
- Reading NQ like ES. Book thickness differs; so does what "big" means.
- Hindsight. It's easy to find the band that "mattered" afterwards.
Limits
Heatmaps only show displayed orders on a limited depth. Hidden liquidity, iceberg reserves and orders in related markets don't appear.
Trading implication
Write down what you expect a band to do before price gets there. Then check. That's the only honest way to learn whether you're reading the tool or reading into it.
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