Where Im at

1. Charts are historical. Orderflow is now. You need both.
2. Chart levels and volume zones line up almost perfectly. Using both sets you up for awesome scenarios and target levels.
3. Watching the reconstructed tape or time and sales is excellent for seeing institutional orders and trading with that volume.
4. The DOM is excellent for seeing retail involvement VS institutional.
5. Volume profiling is overrated. PA support and resistance is overrated. Factoring both into your decisions is where the power lies.
6. Break your day into sessions. Personally I work well with 30-40mins and about 10-15 mins break in between. When your mind starts going walkabout, take a break.
7. Shut off all distractions. Its only you and the market.

And a final little tidbit for anyone reading this. Stop analysing with your right hemisphere, shut that f**** off. Use your subconscious; it is multi threaded and a trillion times more powerful than your best conscious effort. You will start to see without any effort. Takes a helluva lot of practice though and you need to get with the meditation thing.

Good luck.

Thanks,

Those are great tips!

Thanks Grantx. Concise & direct info.

Do you mind sharing your favorite education sources for volume profile & order flow/DOM besides the NexusFi forum? I understand both of these concepts to some extent, but I'm looking to take my knowledge to the next level.

futureio 

Thanks Grantx. Concise & direct info. Do you mind sharing your favorite education sources for volume profile & order flow/DOM besides the NexusFi forum? I understand both of these concepts to some extent, but I'm looking to take my knowledge to the next level.

I'm also on the look out for educational sources and hope that @Grantx can provide some good resources.
I studied almost everything from MarketDelta and a lot of other videos (NexusFi webinars) for a couple of days. I learn a lot, but it's never in depth/long enough. I also found a lot of paid courses from many platform providers, but they are too expensive for me.

Right now I'm having a look at the free video archive from JigsawTrading. It's a lot of content and seems great! Have you watched them?
Source: Free Tape Reading and Order Flow Training Materials

crille123 

I'm also on the look out for educational sources and hope that @Grantx can provide some good resources. I studied almost everything from MarketDelta and a lot of other videos (NexusFi webinars) for a couple of days. I learn a lot, but it's never in depth/long enough. I also found a lot of paid courses from many platform providers, but they are too expensive for me. Right now I'm having a look at the free video archive from JigsawTrading. It's a lot of content and seems great! Have you watched them? Source: Free Tape Reading and Order Flow Training Materials

Educational resources at jigsaw are pretty good. Do the drills they recommend and you will learn. Ive learnt by pulling bits and pieces from different resources and putting in the screen time. I highly recommend that you spend time getting your trading setup the way that works for you. Dont spend too much time questing after learning material. Pull up the charts and play around, ask questions, don’t worry how silly they sound, no one else’s opinion of you matters.

1. Know your platform. Thrash the crap out of it. Be a pro with it. You don’t want to be live and wonder to yourself ‘what if I do this?’.
2. Know how different entries affect you ie going short by hitting into the bid or joining the offer. Vice versa for longs. This makes a difference when scalping on a thick market.
3. Spend time entering trades with tight stops and big rewards. Watch how quickly your account and patience get smashed.
4. Enter randomly with big stops and big rewards. Watch how quickly your account and patience get smashed.
5. Analyse every single trade with multiple rules and indicators for entering. Watch how quickly your account and patience get smashed.
6. Stare at the ladder watching orderflow stacking and pulling and see how crazy you go. In my opinion paying attention to sitting orders is a complete waste of time. The only time I look at it is for signs of absorption.

The one thing that is the absolute truth is what orders have been executed on the exchange. If you look at the screenshot you will see how I scan the different elements of an instrument. This works for me. Keeps me looking at different things but I never focus too much on one thing. You will see I put an xxx marker on the screnshot. That just shows how a low volume area lines up perfectly with a swing low point, so regardless of whether you are a volume purist or a charting purist it all amounts to exactly the same thing at the end of the day. I guess what Im trying to say is that you mustnt get too hung up on one thing. There are so many traders that every technique is self fulfilling.

Hope that helps.

Order Flow - what is trading and how it's trading right now.

Order Flew - what traded where.

Don't forget order flew - or where positions likely are.

DionysusToast 

Order Flew - what traded where. Don't forget order flew - or where positions likely are.

Hi Pete,
I laughed when I initially read your post thinking you were being funny but then decided you weren't.
Order flew isn't a phrase I have ever heard before. Can you elaborate a little more on the meaning as I am finding, on first reading, those two sentences seem to contradict each other a little, or cover a wide range. The first talking about the past, "what traded where" (the tape/traded volume); and the second, what I think of as being the present or future. And also 'order flew' sounds like consideration of how price moves away from an area?

matthew28 

Hi Pete, I laughed when I initially read your post thinking you were being funny but then decided you weren't. Order flew isn't a phrase I have ever heard before. Can you elaborate a little more on the meaning as I am finding, on first reading, those two sentences seem to contradict each other a little, or cover a wide range. The first talking about the past, "what traded where" (the tape/traded volume); and the second, what I think of as being the present or future. And also 'order flew' sounds like consideration of how price moves away from an area?

As far as I understand Peters meaning, orderflow is what is currently trading the inside bid and offer and whether the current 'flow' is slicing through levels with ease or facing resistance and moving slowly. You would have a strategy for both characteristics. Order flew is what has already traded on the ladder and is more historical. So 20 ticks away small volume traded and you would imagine they would be out of their positions by now as opposed to orders that have recently traded and which are closer to the current price. You would want to take more notice of the closer orders and maybe anticipate that if price moved any further from those larger orders, stops would kick in and you could potentially see a bit of a runner.

I think thats what he means. I could be wrong. Usually am.

Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

matthew28 

Hi Pete, I laughed when I initially read your post thinking you were being funny but then decided you weren't. Order flew isn't a phrase I have ever heard before. Can you elaborate a little more on the meaning as I am finding, on first reading, those two sentences seem to contradict each other a little, or cover a wide range. The first talking about the past, "what traded where" (the tape/traded volume); and the second, what I think of as being the present or future. And also 'order flew' sounds like consideration of how price moves away from an area?

I think Grant covered it but...

Order Flow - the way it's moving, trading into prices, pace of the market, getting stuck at prices

Order Flew - mostly volume profile/footprint analysis - a look at what traded where/where positions are/where stops may be