How to Find Steam Orderbook Imbalance

GET /v1/market/steam/latest returns full-depth bid and ask ladders, so Steam orderbook imbalance can be calculated from the quantity or wallet notional inside a fixed near-market band.

Total order counts include orders far from the best prices. A bounded imbalance measures the part of the book that could affect nearer-term fills.

Orderbook fields used#

The top object gives the best ask, best bid, and total order counts. The depth object returns paired price and volume arrays for every level. Ask prices ascend; bid prices descend; each volume is the quantity at that exact price.

The current snapshot covers regular items and refreshes every 10 minutes for liquid items and every 60 minutes for others. Each book carries updated_at and collected_at.

Calculating bounded imbalance#

Choose and publish a band, such as a fixed percentage above the best ask and below the best bid. Sum either units or price * volume on each side within its respective band.

A symmetric normalized measure is bid depth minus ask depth divided by their sum. Positive values are bid-heavy and negative values ask-heavy. Keep the raw bid and ask totals, spread, band definition, item name, and timestamps beside the result.

For analysis through time, POST /v1/market/steam/history returns the latest full-depth book inside each 1h or 1d bucket from June 9, 2026.

Applicable endpoints#

Signal limits#

• A percentage band starts from each side's own best quote; it is not automatically symmetric around a midpoint.
• Visible orders can be canceled. Imbalance is a snapshot of intent, not a direction forecast or completed-sale measure.
• Notional is in Steam wallet USD and should remain separate from cash-market depth.
• Variants are not supported on the Steam orderbook endpoints.

Use the Steam depth chart guide to inspect which levels dominate the calculation.