Practitioner course in discretionary trading
Order Flow Trading: Tape Reading and Volume Profile
Order flow trading reads the orders behind the price: the limit order book, the time and sales record, volume at each price and the balance of buying and selling. This course teaches each tool, what the research on order flow shows, and how to test an order flow setup on your own record.
Order flow trading looks past the price chart to the orders that make it. A price chart shows where trades happened; the order book and the tape show who was waiting, who was in a hurry and where size changed hands. It is the closest a manual trader comes to the view of a market maker, and also one of the easiest views to misread.
What is order flow in trading?
The stream of orders arriving at the market: resting limit orders in the book and aggressive orders that cross the spread and trade. Order flow traders read the balance between the two to judge which side is in control near a level. The course teaches each source of order flow information by replaying recorded sessions.
What is a volume profile?
A chart of how much volume traded at each price over a period, turned on its side. Prices where much volume traded tend to act as areas of agreement, and thin areas are crossed quickly. The course builds a volume profile by hand once and then has you test whether its levels mattered in your market.
Who is this course for?
Intraday and futures traders who want to read the market below the chart. No programming is needed.
What you will be able to do
- Read the limit order book and time and sales, and describe what large, hidden and spoofed orders look like.
- Build and interpret a volume profile and a footprint chart for a session.
- Define an order flow setup by rule and record it consistently.
- Judge an order flow setup on a sixty-trade simulated record against its costs.
Syllabus, module by module
The order book
Bids, offers, queues and depth, and how the book changes as orders arrive and cancel.
Time and sales
Reading the tape: trade size, aggressor side, speed and prints at the bid and the offer.
Volume profile
Volume at price, the point of control and value areas over a session and a week.
Footprint and delta
Buying and selling volume per bar, cumulative delta, and the limits of both.
Deception in the book
Iceberg orders, spoofing, and why the visible book is never the whole story.
Testing order flow
Turning an order flow read into a recorded rule, and judging it after costs.
How the certificate is earned
Weekly replay exercises and two graded problem sets: an annotated order flow study of ten sessions, and a sixty-trade simulated record of one order flow setup with a review. On a pass you receive the Course certificate in Order Flow Trading, issued by the Institute with a verification code. Read how certification works.
Before you start
Intraday Trading: Manual Execution and Spread Costs.
This course counts toward
- Advanced Certificate in TradingThe third semester of the trader path, for a certified trader at advanced level: order flow, futures, momentum and breakouts, global macro, fundamental analysis, how desk traders think, prop trading firms and overtrading, with a desk-style simulated book as the capstone. No programming.
- Diploma in Professional TradingThe top credential on the trader path and the Institute's trading certification for people who do not write code. Three semesters, 24 courses and a 160-hour capstone, from a first lesson on how markets work to a six-month simulated trading business reviewed like a desk.
Questions applicants ask
Does order flow trading work in every market?
It works best where the order book and trades are centrally reported, such as exchange-traded futures and stocks. In spot forex there is no single book, so order flow data comes from one venue only. The course explains which data you can trust in each market.
Do I need paid order flow software?
Footprint charts usually need a paid platform or data feed. The course shows what you can do with a free book and tape first, and which paid tools are worth their cost for your style.