Glossary.

This ticker's largest single trade by dollar value since 2016.

Each ticker has one at a time, and it changes only when a bigger trade prints or the current one is canceled.

What it tells you How big the trade is against this ticker's own history. Never whether it matters.

Several large Dark trades close together in price and time.

BigTape draws one box around the group and labels it with the total and the count, for example “Block Burst · $840M · 7 prints”.

What it tells you Large Dark trades gathered in one zone. Not who traded them, or why.

The strike with the most estimated call gamma. Not a price ceiling.

A strike is the price at which an options contract can be exercised, and the call wall is the strike where the model finds the most call gamma.

A trade later withdrawn from the record. We keep it, crossed out.

A canceled trade no longer counts toward ranks, so other prints' ranks can change when it is withdrawn.

What it tells you It was reported, then withdrawn. BigTape keeps it so nothing disappears quietly.

Traded off-exchange, at a private venue or inside a broker. Side unknown.

Off-exchange venues do not show their orders before a trade, and each trade is still reported publicly afterward.

What it tells you It traded away from an exchange. The public report doesn't say which side started it.

A price zone where heavy Dark dollars built up since 2016.

Ranks are all-time for this ticker, since 2016. Each level is ranked by its Dark dollars since 2016, and #1 is the heaviest. Ranks go to 100; smaller levels show without a rank. The tag gives the rank and the total, for example “Dark Level #7 · $22.5B”, or “Dark Level · $1.20B” for an unranked level. The chart draws the top 5 levels in the price range you're looking at; the Levels control offers Off, Show 3, Show 5, Show 10 and Show 20.

What it tells you Where Dark trading happened. Not where price goes next.

Scores a company's reported profit growth and its consistency. Not a forecast.

It uses only results the company has already reported.

Traded on a public stock exchange.

Exchanges show waiting orders to the public before a trade, and every trade there is reported publicly afterward.

What it tells you Where it traded and how big it was. Not who started it, or why.

A trade type we leave out of the rankings. Shown faded.

Excluded trades stay on the chart so you can still see them, and the Methodology page explains the exclusions.

What it tells you It happened, but it isn't compared for size, so it carries no rank.

A trade outside regular market hours, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern.

The chart shades the time before the open and after the close, so these prints sit inside the shaded blocks.

What it tells you When it traded. Fewer trades happen then, so one size can stand out more.

The estimated price where the model's total gamma switches between positive and negative.

It rests on an assumption about how dealers are positioned, and that assumption can be wrong.

Estimated price levels based on open options contracts. A model, not a measurement.

BigTape draws three of them as lines, the flip, the call wall and the put wall, and each one is labeled Estimate.

A trade priced outside that day's regular-hours high and low.

Its mark is a ghost at the trade's real price, solid for Exchange and outlined for Dark, with a dotted line back to the day's high or low, so you can see how far outside the range it sits. A Top 10 rank rides on a small badge. A Sweep or an auction priced there is drawn as a ghost too.

What it tells you It is not where the market traded that day.

Where a stock's industry group ranks by recent price change. 1 is highest.

It gives you the backdrop for a single stock by comparing its industry with the others.

A trade published late and out of order. Its time may differ from when it happened.

When a late trade arrives, it can change the ranks of the prints around it.

What it tells you Its time is when it was reported, not necessarily when it happened.

Price moves clearly through a Dark Level ranked #1 to #20 on heavy volume.

The mark is a short gap in the level line, and the candles show which way price moved.

What it tells you Price crossed the zone on heavy volume. Not that it will keep going.

Today's ten largest single trades across every stock and ETF we cover. Not a ticker's rank.

It is the one list in BigTape that compares different tickers, and it compares them by dollars alone. A label reads “Market Top 10 · #3 today, across the market”: a place in today's list.

Alert: a trade became this ticker's largest since 2016.

The alert opens the chart at that moment, with the new #1 Print highlighted and the previous one a rung lower on the size ladder.

Trades from the exchange auction that sets the day's opening or closing price.

An auction matches many orders at one price at the same moment, so a single auction print can be very large.

What it tells you Scheduled volume that index funds and others aim at, so often large. Less unusual than that size mid-session.

One reported trade. BigTape highlights the unusually large ones.

A print records a price, a number of shares, a time and a venue type, and its dollar size is the price times the shares.

The strike with the most estimated put gamma. Not a price floor.

Like the call wall, it describes open contracts and says nothing about where price will go.

Scores how profitable and steadily growing a company's reported results are. Not a forecast.

It looks at measures such as profit margins, return on equity and sales growth.

Bigger than 99.9% of this ticker's trades since 2016; $50,000 minimum.

It sits below the ticker's all-time top 100, so it shows without a rank number.

What it tells you Unusual in size for this ticker since 2016. Not a direction, and not a reason to act.

A large off-exchange trade that keeps repeating at nearly the same dollar size.

Its mark carries a count of how many times the size has repeated, such as “×4”.

What it tells you A size that keeps repeating. Not who is behind it, or what comes next.

Price comes back to a ranked Dark Level.

The chart marks the first return to each level in a session with a small tick across the level line.

What it tells you Price returned to a zone of heavy past trading. Not that the zone will hold.

N Dark trades at one exact price (at least three, $1 million minimum).

The chart draws a solid bar at that exact price from the first trade to the last, ending in a pill such as “×5”.

What it tells you Large Dark trades gathered at one price. Not who traded them, or why.

Every trade has a buyer and a seller. Our data doesn't say which side started it.

So BigTape never gives a print a direction, an arrow or an up or down color.

How a stock's past-year price performance ranks against other covered stocks. 99 is highest.

It describes the past year only and always shows its date, such as “As of Oct 2 close”.

Specially flagged trades landing on two or more venues within 5 milliseconds. Side unknown.

BigTape shows the group as one mark with its total, for example “Sweep across 4 venues within 5 ms, $9.20M total.”

What it tells you One order filled on several venues at once. Not which side, and not why.

One of this ticker's 10 or 100 largest trades since 2016.

Ranks are all-time for this ticker, since 2016. A label such as “#4” gives the exact place, which can slip as bigger trades arrive. Prints outside the all-time top 100 show without a rank number. The chart draws the top 10 prints in the part of the chart you're looking at; the Prints control offers Show 5, Show 10, Show 20, Show 50 and Show all.

What it tells you Its size against this ticker's own history. Never whether it matters.