FirmTape levels in MotiveWave

Beta · version 0.1.1 · Study (.jar) · Live, every 5 s · part of the LIVE plan

A MotiveWave study that draws the flip, the walls and gamma by strike on your chart, live. These are measurements of dealer positioning, not trade signals: the plugin places no orders and raises no alerts.

FirmTape Levels for MotiveWaveBeta

Download 0.1.1firmtape-motivewave-0.1.1.jar · 45.6 KB

SHA-256 61b84f5bbfcb42cf21e02bb2def3d57c95a340a6267976c0970bdaeed071d8ca

What you need

MotiveWave with SDK extensions (the study is built for the Java runtime MotiveWave ships today).
A FirmTape account on the LIVE plan, and an integration token.

Get a token

Hold the LIVE plan. The levels API and every integration are part of it.
Open /account#integrations, section Integrations, and press Create integration token. Give it a name (for example the platform and the machine).
Copy the token when it is shown: it starts ftpl_ and is shown once. It reads levels only; it cannot run LAB or spend credits.

Install

Download the study's .jar below.
Copy it into MotiveWave's extensions folder, MotiveWave Extensions in your home folder: ~/MotiveWave Extensions/ on macOS and Linux, C:\Users\<you>\MotiveWave Extensions\ on Windows. The folder exists once MotiveWave has run; create it if it does not. MotiveWave reloads extensions when the folder changes, so it may stay open.
Open a chart, then Study > FirmTape > FirmTape Levels.
In the study's settings, paste your token into API token and press OK. Within a few seconds the lines appear and the status line reads, for example, FirmTape ES (ESZ26) | volume book | basis +59.50 | net gamma -812.4 $M/pt | 2 s old.

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
API token	blank	Your `ftpl_` token from /account#integrations.
Symbol override	blank	Blank reads the chart: ES and MES use ES, NQ and MNQ use NQ, anything else its own symbol (SPX, SPY, QQQ, NVDA). Type a symbol to force one.
Poll every (seconds)	5	Minimum 3.
Show open-interest levels	off	The open-interest book's flip and walls, dashed.
Show gamma by strike	on	The right-edge histogram.
Profile width	15%	Of the chart's width.
Line width, label font size	2, 11
Colors	#E0A040, green, red	Flip, call and put; the call and put colours also paint the histogram.

What is drawn

The volume book's zero-gamma flip (amber), call wall (green) and put wall (red) as full-width lines with price labels.
Optionally the open-interest book's flip and walls, dashed.
Gamma by strike as a histogram on the right edge (green positive, red negative), scaled to the strikes on screen.
A status line bottom left: symbol and contract, basis (ES, NQ), net gamma, the book's age, errors, a red STALE when a running session's book stops moving, and a warning when the chart's futures contract is not the one the levels were measured on.

Every level is FirmTape's volume book, the one the terminal draws; the open-interest book is the optional set.
ES and NQ are the SPX and NDX books moved by the day's basis (the running median of the day's basis measurements from put-call parity, rounded to 0.25), exactly as the terminal draws them. MES and MNQ read the same levels as ES and NQ.
Cadence: SPX and ES are rebuilt every second; NQ and the tickers carry a book rebuilt every five minutes and a price of the second.
Gamma units are named by the API: millions of USD per index point for SPX and ES, USD per 1% move for NQ and the tickers. Compare bar lengths within one chart, not across charts.

Requests and limits

The levels API allows 120 requests a minute per token, counted across everything that uses it; an unchanged reading answers 304 with no body and does not count. All charts using the same token share one poller, and all their symbols ride one request (up to 20). The histogram is fetched on a slower clock: every 15 s for SPX and ES, once a minute for NQ and tickers.

Troubleshooting

Status says	Meaning and fix
`key missing`	No token in the settings. Paste it.
`key rejected`	The token is mistyped, revoked or unknown. Create a new one on /account#integrations. A revoked token stops working within a minute.
`LIVE plan required`	The account behind the token holds no active LIVE plan. The plugin keeps retrying and picks the plan up by itself.
`rate limited`	More than 120 requests a minute on this token, counted across every chart, machine and script that uses it. Poll less often, draw fewer symbols, or give each tool its own token. The plugin waits as long as the server asks.
`symbol not covered`	The chart's symbol is not one FirmTape covers, or it did not map. Type the symbol in the plugin's symbol setting; the list is /api/v1/symbols.
`no basis yet`	ES or NQ early in the session, before the day's first basis measurement. It clears by itself.
`network error, retrying`	No answer: offline, DNS, a proxy or a firewall. Allow `https://firmtape.com` on port 443. The plugin backs off up to two minutes and retries.
`closed, last session`	Outside market hours. The lines are the last session's close. Nothing to do.
`STALE`	Market hours, but the book has not moved for longer than it should. The lines are the last good reading and clear up when the book moves again.

Tokens and the TradingView and thinkorswim levels string: /account#integrations.
The levels API reference: /api/v1 (OpenAPI).
Every platform: /integrations.

Beta software, provided as is, not yet verified inside every version of MotiveWave. MotiveWave is a trademark of its owner; no affiliation with, or endorsement by, it is implied. Not investment advice.