Cival Auction Structure — Trading Playbook

This playbook describes how a discretionary order-flow trader can think with the time-based value that Cival Auction Structure maps, and where the indicator's own reference prices sit. It is not a list of trades to take. Nothing the indicator draws is an order, a target or a prediction. Every playbook ends with the conditions that cancel it.

Context first

• Time at price is not volume at price. A TPO row's count is the number of different time brackets that visited it. It shows where the market accepted price for a long time and where it moved through quickly (single prints). It does not show who was buying or selling, or where anyone's stops are. Footprints show executed aggression, not positions.
• Start with the data flags. Open the panel in full (untick Compact panel (title + two lines)). If the developing session is APPROXIMATE, COARSE or PARTIAL, treat its numbers as rough, and expect the finished session to publish no levels. The prior-session lines you see on the chart only exist because that earlier profile was complete and exact.
• The session is your convention. In 24-hour markets there is no official session. Check Session start and Session timezone until the day boundary is the one you actually trade.
• Early in a session everything is provisional. Shape and edge labels change as brackets accumulate. A profile with only a few brackets says little.
• Use it with other context: a volume profile or the volume-weighted average price, the previous session's high and low, higher-timeframe structure, scheduled news, and order-flow evidence from your footprint. No single reference is a reason to trade.
• Reference prices are not orders. The lines are reference prices drawn from a count. TVAL and TVAH sit within half a row of the row edges, so treat them as placed within about one row of the true edge.

Playbook A — The prior session's value as a map

Setup. A new session has just started. The prior session's three lines are on the chart: the time value center (TPOC), value area low (TVAL) and value area high (TVAH), each labelled with the earlier date.

What must be true on the chart. - The three lines exist (so the prior profile was complete and exact) and the current session is not flagged. - You have noted where the session opened: above TVAH, inside the value area, or below TVAL. - The line you care about is still New: no bar has traded through it (tested lines are not drawn unless Show touched levels is on).

Reference prices. The prior TVAH, TVAL and TPOC, and the developing TPOC and value area in the panel (TPOC … VA …).

How a trader might frame it. - Open inside prior value: a discretionary trader may treat the prior edges as the range to watch and wait for a closed bar and bracket that trades outside and is accepted, or one that probes and returns. - Open outside prior value: the question is acceptance. Several closed bars (and brackets) holding outside the prior edge point to acceptance; a close back inside points to rejection. The trader decides in advance what "accepted" means, for example a number of closed bars or brackets. - Entry, stop, management are the trader's own: for instance an entry after a closed bar confirms what the plan describes, a stop beyond the reference line or the rejecting bar's extreme, and the next line (TPOC or the opposite edge) as a reference for where to reassess, not as a promised target.

Cancel or stand aside when: price closes beyond your stop reference; the session or prior session is flagged APPROXIMATE, COARSE or PARTIAL; the session cut is wrong for your market; the chart is crowded and the lines you rely on are beyond Maximum visible zones; scheduled high-impact news is due; or the level was already tested on its first bar (it has already traded).

Playbook B — A failed-auction mark at the prior extreme

Setup. A ▼ FA prior TPO high (or ▲ FA prior TPO low) mark appears on a bar that moved beyond the previous session's profile extreme and then closed back inside.

What must be true on the chart. - The mark is on a closed bar. Marks only exist when the previous profile was complete and exact. - This is the first probe at that extreme, or you have counted how many marks already appeared there (the demo sample had six FA prior TPO high marks in one session). - You can see where the mark sits relative to the prior TVAH/TVAL and TPOC.

Reference prices. The mark price (the bar's high for a ▼, its low for a ▲) is the invalidation reference: price closing beyond it contradicts the idea. The prior session's TVAH and TPOC (or TVAL and TPOC) are where a move back into prior time-based value would meet earlier acceptance. The mark compares against the prior profile's extreme row, which is not drawn as a line: it lies at the previous session's high or low on your chart, and the comparison uses the lower edge of the highest row, so a mark can appear slightly under the exact prior high.

How a trader might frame it. A mark is one bar's rejection. Some traders wait for the next closed bar to stay inside the prior profile before planning anything, define a stop beyond the mark bar's extreme plus a buffer for their market's noise, and use the prior TVAH or TPOC as places to reassess. Size, entry and management are theirs to define in advance.

Cancel or stand aside when: a later bar closes beyond the mark bar's extreme; further marks keep appearing at the same extreme without a move back inside (repeated probes can mean price is being accepted there: in the demo, six marks on 19 October were followed by a session that traded as high as 83,140, above the area of the marks); the developing shape reads Trend / low-overlap candidate; the data is flagged; or you cannot name why this extreme matters.

Playbook C — Single prints and edge candidates as unfinished business

Setup. The histogram shows gold rows (visited by one bracket) at the edge of the developing profile, and panel line 5 reads Excess high candidate or Excess low candidate, with single rows rising in line 3.

What must be true on the chart. - Enough brackets have formed for the labels to mean something. Early in a session they flip easily. - The tail has at least two adjacent single-print rows (that is what excess means here). - No data flag is active.

Reference prices. The tail's extreme (the end of the gold rows) and the inner edge of the tail (the first row with a count of 2 or more). The tail is an area the market traversed quickly in time terms.

How a trader might frame it. As a map of where the market has not yet spent time. A trader may watch for a return into the tail, noting whether price lingers (counts rise, the label changes to Poor … or Edge unresolved, which suggests acceptance) or moves through again quickly. A plan might place its invalidation beyond the tail's extreme.

Cancel or stand aside when: the edge label changes to Poor … or Edge unresolved; price spends several brackets inside the tail; the session is early; the data is flagged; or the same area was already traded through before you looked.

Playbook D — The shape candidate as a lens on the day

Setup. Panel line 3 shows a shape candidate: P, b, D/balanced, B / double-distribution or Trend / low-overlap.

How to use it. Treat the label as a description of how this session's time has been distributed so far, not a forecast. It is computed only from where the TPOC sits in the range and from the pattern of counts. Compare it with where the session opened relative to the prior value (Playbook A). For example, a Trend / low-overlap candidate that opened outside prior value describes a day with little overlap so far; a D/balanced candidate that opened inside prior value describes rotation so far.

Reference prices. The developing TPOC and value area from line 2.

Cancel or stand aside when: fewer than a few brackets have formed; the label changed in the last few bars; the data is flagged; or you are using the label as the only reason for a decision.

Combining with other context

Auction Structure answers "where did the market accept price, in time?" Pair it with something that answers a different question: volume at price (a separate volume profile), the prior day's high and low, VWAP, the footprint (do you see aggressive buying or selling at the reference?), higher-timeframe trend and the event calendar. Write down in advance which two or three things must agree for you to act, and which one disagreement cancels the idea.

Journaling and review

For every trade or observation record: date and session; the three prior lines and the developing TPOC/VA; where the session opened; the shape and edge labels; any FA marks and how many were already at that extreme; data flags; what you planned (entry condition, stop, management) before acting; what happened; and whether you followed the plan. Take a screenshot with the panel expanded. Review weekly: how often did acceptance versus rejection follow the framing you used? Count cases where the data was flagged and you traded anyway.

Mistakes to avoid

• Reading the panel in compact mode and missing an APPROXIMATE or PARTIAL flag.
• Treating TPOC or the value area as a volume level, or the lines as targets.
• Treating a single FA mark as a signal, and ignoring that several can appear in one session.
• Trusting shape labels early in a session.
• Forgetting that TVAL/TVAH sit within about a row of the true value-area edge, and that a failed-auction mark can sit slightly under the exact prior high.
• Using a wrong session start and then trusting the lines.
• Changing the row size or bracket length merely to make a level, a mark or a label appear. Different settings define a different profile; they are not a way to find the "real" one.
• Trading a market that was closed, thin or at news time with the same assumptions.

Risk

Trading futures and crypto involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. Indicators describe what happened, not what will happen. A TPO profile, a value area, a failed-auction mark or a shape label is a description of past price and time; none of them predicts the next bar. Test any approach on market replay or a simulated account first. Size positions so that a stop-out, or a run of them, is affordable. Past observations do not predict future results. Nothing in this product is financial advice.