# Read the time and sales tape

> Read the time and sales tape in Scalpel: prints coloured by who took liquidity, size bars, dollar values, the size filter, and the tape against Level 2.

Source: https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/read-time-and-sales
Guide 3.3, Reading the market. Beginner, 5 min read.
Checked with Scalpel 1.12.8 on 2026-10-15. By Scalpel Team.

**In short:**

The time and sales tape is the narrow column on the right of Scalpel's Level 2 panel: every trade in the stock, newest on top, with its price and size. Green bars are buyers taking the ask, red bars are sellers hitting the bid, grey rows traded in between, and each bar's length is the trade's size against the biggest one around it, so block trades stand out. The book shows what people are willing to do; the tape shows what they actually did.

Level 2 can be faked: orders are placed and pulled all day. Trades cannot. Reading the tape (also called time and sales, or prints) tells you whether buyers are actually paying up, how big they are, and how fast it is happening. On a momentum stock that is often the earliest sign a move is starting or running out.

**Before you start:**

- Know the Level 2 panel ([guide 3.1](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/read-level-2)).

## Reading the column

*Screenshot: The tape beside the book. A 3,600-share buy at the ask, the biggest print here, fills its row (1); a 1,500-share sell at the bid (2); a print between the bid and ask in grey (3); a small buy is a short bar (4). Demo data.*

Each row is one trade (a **print**):

- **PRICE** on the left, **SIZE** in shares on the right. Prices show two decimals from $1 up, and up to four under $1.
- **Newest on top.** The list starts from the first trade after you loaded the stock today and keeps every print of the day; scroll down to go back through it.
- **Green bar:** the trade was at the ask. A buyer was in a hurry and took the offer: buying pressure.
- **Red bar:** the trade was at the bid. A seller hit the bid: selling pressure.
- **Grey, no bar:** the trade printed between the bid and ask, so neither side clearly took it. It is not counted as a buy or a sell anywhere in Scalpel.
- **Bar length** is the trade's size against the biggest print in the rows around your view, so a block trade is a full bar and a 100-share print is a sliver. The size reads in bright green or red; once the bar is long enough to run under the number, it reads white (black in the Light theme).

The side a trade is counted on is its [aggressor](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/glossary#aggressor), the one who crossed the spread. Buyers lifting the offer is the side that pushes price up.

## What to look for

- **Speed.** A tape that is suddenly scrolling faster than you can read means a crowd has arrived. Whether it is buyers or sellers is the colour.
- **Green prints at a rising price.** Buys at 5.71, then 5.72, then 5.73: buyers are paying up level after level. That is what you want to see under a long.
- **Big green prints that do not move the price.** Lots of buying at one price while the ask stays put means a seller is absorbing it, often an iceberg ([guide 3.2](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/iceberg-orders)). Price cannot get through that level until the seller is done or pulls out.
- **Red prints taking out the bid.** Sells at 5.69, 5.68, 5.67: buyers are stepping away and sellers are dumping into whatever bids are left. Time to look at your exit, not to average down.
- **The delta.** The **DELTA** numbers above the book (10s, 1m, 5m) add the tape up for you: buy shares minus sell shares. **+4.2K** over a minute is 4,200 more shares bought at the ask than sold at the bid ([guide 3.1](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/read-level-2#the-numbers-above-the-book)).

Read the tape against the book. The ask says there are 245 shares at 5.71; if 2,900 shares trade there and 5.71 is still offered, there was far more than the book showed.

## Set the tape up

The tape's options are in the **LEVEL 2** cog, under **Time and sales** ([guide 2.3](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/panel-settings)). They apply to every desk.

*Screenshot: The same prints with size bars (the default), as solid blocks with size bars off, and as dollar values. Demo data.*

| Option | Default | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| **Display min size** | 0 | A busy stock prints hundreds of odd lots a second. Set 100 to hide anything under 100 shares, or 500 to see only the bigger players. The delta, read line and tape sound still count every print. |
| **Color by aggressor** | On | Leave on. Off draws every print grey. |
| **Size bars** | On | Off paints whole rows in green or red instead of bars: easier to read the colour at a glance, harder to spot the big prints. |
| **Dollar value instead of size** | Off | Shows price x size in whole thousands: the 2,500 shares at 5.71 read **$14K**, and anything under $500 reads **$0K**. The header changes to **VALUE**. Handy when you trade both $2 and $20 stocks, since 1,000 shares means very different money on each. |

**Show tape column** in the **Level 2** section of the same cog hides the tape completely, giving the book its full width. Tape sound keeps playing ([guide 3.4](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/tape-sound)).

## Good to know

- **Today only.** The tape starts when you first load the stock today. It is not backfilled from before that, and it clears at the New York day change. Load the stocks you care about before they start to move.
- **The same tape feeds the chart.** The chart's Delta sub-pane and its trade bubbles come from these prints ([guide 3.5](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/chart-basics)).
- **Not every trade has a side.** A trade between the bid and ask is neither a buy nor a sell to Scalpel, so it is grey and left out of the delta.

**Tip.**

Turn on tape sound and you will hear the tape change pace and side before your eyes catch it, which leaves your eyes free for the book ([guide 3.4](https://scalpeltrade.com/guides/tape-sound)).

## Questions

**How do you read time and sales?**

Each row is a trade: price and size, newest on top. Green means a buyer took the ask, red means a seller hit the bid, grey traded in between. Watch how fast prints arrive, which colour dominates, how big they are, and whether price moves when big prints hit.

**Why are some prints grey on the Scalpel tape?**

They traded between the bid and the ask, so neither side clearly crossed the spread. They are not counted as buys or sells in the delta or the read line.

**How do I hide small trades on the tape?**

Set Display min size in the LEVEL 2 cog, under Time and sales, to the smallest share size you want to see, for example 100.

**Can I see the time and exchange of each print?**

Not in Scalpel's tape column, which shows price and size only to stay narrow. The prints are newest first, and the chart's bubbles place the biggest ones in time.

**Why is the tape empty after I load a stock?**

It starts with the first trade after the stock loads. On a quiet stock before the open it can take a while; 'No prints' shows until then.