Order flow
A candle tells you where price closed. Order flow tells you who pushed it there and what it cost them — and separates situations that look identical on a chart.
5 lessons · 29 min
Who this course is for
For anyone who already reads a chart and has noticed that identical-looking candles behave differently. After this course you can compute delta and understand why its sign changes with the window, read a volume profile and its point of control, tell absorption from a reversal, and know how a wall that holds price differs from one that is pulled a second before it is touched.
- 1Delta: who was the aggressor5 minEvery trade has a buyer and a seller in equal amount. Delta does not count them — it counts who refused to wait and hit someone else's resting order.
- 2Volume profile: where the market agreed with the price6 minOrdinary volume answers 'how much was traded in this hour'. A profile answers a different question — 'how much was traded at this price' — and shows which levels the market treats as fair and which it flies through.
- 3Absorption: effort without result6 minThe strongest story order flow can tell looks boring: aggression rises and price stands still. It means somebody on the other side is calmly taking the entire push.
- 4The life of a wall: standing there and holding are different things6 minA resting order promises nothing: it can be pulled a second before it is touched. What makes a wall significant is not its size but how long it has already stood and whether it replenishes after being hit.
- 5Effort against result6 minVolume is effort, candle range is result. All order-flow reading comes down to one question: do they match, and if not, in which direction.