Order flow, without the bluff.

The live ladder of resting bids and offers at every price. Useful for seeing where size is parked; less useful as a predictor — most book size is iceberg, spoof, or pulled.

The time-and-sales feed of every individual trade print. Reading the tape is reading the auction at maximum resolution.

Bar chart variant showing volume traded at every price within each bar — bid vs ask side. A microscope on the auction.

The signed difference between aggressive buy and sell volume on a bar. Positive delta = buyers lifting offer; negative = sellers hitting bid.

Cumulative Volume Delta — running sum of (buy-aggressive − sell-aggressive) volume. Divergences with price are leading indicators of exhaustion.

Aggressive flow being eaten by passive size at a level without price moving. Reads as a stack of large bid- or ask-side prints with no progress — the ledger of who actually wants the level.

The continuous two-way negotiation between buyers and sellers that produces price. Reading the auction means reading where size traded, not just where price went.

Initiative activity pushes price out of value (trend); responsive activity defends value (rotation). Reading which side is in control is the first read of every session.

Price extends beyond a reference (range high, prior day high, ORB high), then closes back inside within the same or next bar. Failed auctions are mean-reverting — the rotation back is the trade.

Point of Control. The price at which the most volume traded over a profile period. A magnet, not a line in the sand.

High / Low Volume Nodes on a profile. HVNs are absorption zones; LVNs are vacuums where price travels quickly.

Volume-Weighted Average Price. Institutional benchmark; price below VWAP often means buyers are losing the day.

VWAP computed from a chosen anchor (session open, prior swing, news event) instead of the day. Useful for measuring distance from a reference participants actually care about.

A large resting order that displays only a fraction of its true size. Detected by repeated refills of the same level after fills clear it.

Posting and pulling large size to manufacture the appearance of demand or supply. Illegal in regulated venues; still common enough that you should never trust the book at face value.

A fast move through a cluster of resting stops, followed by reversal. The sweep is the move that takes liquidity; the reversal is the trade.

The difference between the best bid and best offer. Tightest in liquid futures (ES often 1 tick); widens with vol and time-of-day.

How much size you can move without moving price. Function of depth at each price level and rate of replenishment.