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Dark Pool Flow
Large trades executed away from public exchanges, and what they can and cannot tell you about institutional activity.
What is dark pool flow?
Dark pool flow is the tape of equity trades that executed off the public exchanges and were reported after the fill. Each row shows ticker, price, size, premium, dark volume versus total volume, and a bullish, bearish, or neutral label. The print hits the tape later. It is not a hidden buyer.
Dark pools are regulated venues. The order does not sit on the lit book before it fills, so other traders cannot lean on that size while it is working. After the trade, reporting rules still put it on the public tape. You get ticker, price, size, and time. You do not get who traded or why. A large print can be a block, a market-maker fill, or one slice of a larger parent order.
Premium and dark volume tell you whether enough capital moved to care. Dark Ratio shows how much of that ticker's total volume printed off exchange. Direction is a row label, not proof that someone is accumulating. Repeated prints on the same name, especially with a high Dark Ratio and large premium, are a stronger prompt than one isolated row.
On EZPZ, Dark Pool Flow is the all-ticker off-exchange tape. The live chrome titles the page Darkpool Data. SPY Flow locks the same columns to SPY. $1M+ Premium Dark Pool Flow keeps only prints that already clear a million dollars of notional. $1M+ DP Volume Flow is a running total by ticker, not the raw tape. Live Flow is listed options prints, not equity dark pool prints.
How Dark Pool Flow works on EZPZ
Each row is one reported snapshot: the ticker, the size, the premium, and how much of that name's volume printed in the dark. It is not a score. Most people start with PREMIUM, DARK VOLUME, and DARK RATIO. If a row looks interesting, read AVG SIZE, # DP TRADES, and DIRECTION next. When the full tape is too much, search a ticker you already care about or raise the premium floor.
How Dark Pool Flow differs from SPY Flow
Dark Pool Flow is the unfiltered off-exchange tape for whatever you filter to. SPY Flow is the same columns locked to SPY, so that ETF does not bury or dominate the all-ticker list. $1M+ Premium Dark Pool Flow is the same tape with a fixed million-dollar notional floor. $1M+ DP Volume Flow adds prints up by ticker until the session total clears one million dollars. Use this page when you want every matching print. Use SPY Flow when you only care about the S&P 500 ETF. Use the million-dollar pages when you only want size. Use Live Flow when you want options fills, not equity dark pool prints.
Anatomy of a print
Read a row left to right: when it printed, what ticker, then how large the dark activity is. You do not need every column on every print. Use the tabs if you want a map of the fields.
These columns answer what printed, and when.
| Column | What you are looking at |
|---|---|
| TIME | When the print was reported. Dark pool prints can arrive after the fill. |
| TICKER | The symbol. Search ticker lives in the toolbar and in the Filters drawer. |
| PRICE | The reported trade price. |
| DIRECTION | Bullish, bearish, or neutral label on the row. It is a tag, not a thesis. |
These columns help you decide if the print is large enough to spend time on.
| Column | What you are looking at |
|---|---|
| SIZE | Share size on this snapshot. |
| AVG SIZE | Average shares per dark pool trade in the row. Larger usually means fewer, chunkier prints. |
| PREMIUM | Dollar notional on the dark activity. This is the quickest way to rank the tape. |
| # DP TRADES | How many individual dark pool transactions are rolled into this row. |
These columns compare off-exchange size to the ticker's total volume.
| Column | What you are looking at |
|---|---|
| TOTAL VOLUME | Shares traded across venues, lit plus dark. |
| DARK VOLUME | Shares reported off exchange for this ticker. |
| DARK×PRICE | Dark volume times price. Another dollar read on the same size. |
| DARK RATIO | A bar and percent of dark volume over total volume. A fuller bar means more of that name's tape printed off exchange. |
Filter the tape
Click Filters in the toolbar. That drawer is how you cut a noisy tape down to a watchlist name, a direction hunt, or a size screen. Reset puts the defaults back. All three direction toggles start on.
Toggles
- Direction: Bullish, bearish, and neutral row labels. Turn two off if you only want one color.
Ranges
- Search ticker: Limit the tape to one symbol. The same search also lives in the toolbar.
- Price, Premium, Total Volume, Dark Pool Volume, Size, # of DP Trades: Min and max. Leave a field empty and there is no cap on that side (shown as infinity).
On the toolbar you can also change how many rows you see (50 is the starting setting), which columns are visible, and the text size. Those controls do not live in the Filters drawer.
Stay live
The right side of the toolbar controls whether the tape keeps moving:
- Live: newer matching prints can show up during market hours.
- Paused: the tape freezes so a row does not scroll away while you read it.
- Prev / Next: page toward newer or older prints that still match your filters.
How people actually use it
Watch one name
Filter to a ticker already on your radar. Leave Live on while you work the chart. You are listening for that name, not the whole market.
Start with premium and ratio
Sort or scan PREMIUM first. Then read DARK RATIO and DARK VOLUME so a cheap high-ratio name does not crowd out a real dollar print.
Sit with one print
Read AVG SIZE, # DP TRADES, and DIRECTION. Then open SPY Flow if the name is the index ETF, or Live Flow if you want options around it.
Use it next to everything else
Dark Pool Flow is a tape, not a setup. Keep it open beside the chart and options tools. One print means look here, not buy this.