New to Order Flow and Futures: Where to start?

V

vruton

I've been following the Forex markets for a while now, I've been pretty much a breakeven trader, and have recently been looking at making the change to futures as they seem to be where professionals trade. I've recently found out about order flow, by that I mean footprint charts mostly. I'm lost at how to learn more about order flow and if it's just a waste of time or not.

I know there are lots of different products and styles of order flow trading. There is footprint charts, the DOM, volume profile. I've searched online but haven't found any solid information on using these tools to actually help you in your trades. I'm only demo trading futures right now, looking at the YM and ES but open to other markets as well.

It seems like every other thread I read the ideas all are opposite. One person says you should just watch the DOM, another person says the DOM is useless and same goes for footprint charts and volume profile. All the vendors claim their product is the best and without their product you don't have a chance to trade successfully.

I guess overall I'm just looking for some advice as to where to start. Should I keep focusing only on TA as I have while trading Forex? Should I try to combine TA and some order flow tools? Should I just watch the DOM? I guess some of these questions are answered just by watching the order flow tools and seeing if I notice anything. I don't have the money to buy and test all these fancy tools/products though. Sorry for the long post and hopefully it makes some sense what I'm asking, thanks for all the help to anyone who responds.
 
vruton said:
I've been following the Forex markets for a while now, I've been pretty much a breakeven trader, and have recently been looking at making the change to futures as they seem to be where professionals trade. I've recently found out about order flow, by that I mean footprint charts mostly. I'm lost at how to learn more about order flow and if it's just a waste of time or not.

I know there are lots of different products and styles of order flow trading. There is footprint charts, the DOM, volume profile. I've searched online but haven't found any solid information on using these tools to actually help you in your trades. I'm only demo trading futures right now, looking at the YM and ES but open to other markets as well.

It seems like every other thread I read the ideas all are opposite. One person says you should just watch the DOM, another person says the DOM is useless and same goes for footprint charts and volume profile. All the vendors claim their product is the best and without their product you don't have a chance to trade successfully.

I guess overall I'm just looking for some advice as to where to start. Should I keep focusing only on TA as I have while trading Forex? Should I try to combine TA and some order flow tools? Should I just watch the DOM? I guess some of these questions are answered just by watching the order flow tools and seeing if I notice anything. I don't have the money to buy and test all these fancy tools/products though. Sorry for the long post and hopefully it makes some sense what I'm asking, thanks for all the help to anyone who responds.
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Start with the various vendors free YouTube vids of some of this sites sponsors. You’ll get a good comparison and contrast that is specific to the product.

To know the good, you have to sift through the bad. There’s no way around it.

And it’s not that it’s bad per se - just not what would resonate with your current stage of development as a trader using those specific tools at this moment in time.
 
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Sprout said:
Start with the various vendors free YouTube vids of some of this sites sponsors. You’ll get a good comparison and contrast that way that is specific to the product. To know the good, you have to sift through the bad. There’s no way around it.
And it’s not that it’s bad per se - just not what would resonate with your current stage of development as a trader using those specific tools at this moment in time.
More...


Thanks for the tip. I've seen quite a few but I'll check out some more. Most of the ones I've seen don't really show how to use the information. I know some offer paid training so maybe you have to take that to learn more but I'll watch some more videos and see if any of the tools look more promising than the others.
 
vruton said:
Thanks for the tip. I've seen quite a few but I'll check out some more. Most of the ones I've seen don't really show how to use the information. I know some offer paid training so maybe you have to take that to learn more but I'll watch some more videos and see if any of the tools look more promising than the others.
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If I remember correctly, Peter Davies of Jigsaw does a pretty good job in giving value without the need to ante up.
 
Sprout said:
If I remember correctly, Peter Davies of Jigsaw does a pretty good job in giving value without the need to ante up.
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Yea I just signed up for some 12 part free video course that they have so I'm going to check that out and see if I can figure anything out from it. I've never looked at the DOM before so we'll see what happens. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
There is Time and Sales based Bid/Ask Delta and there is Dom based Pulling/Stacking, both can be back-tested nowadays. Staring at the Dom will most likely end up with you just wearing glasses and agitating any innate ADHD you might have.
 
They said:
There is Time and Sales based Bid/Ask Delta and there is Dom based Pulling/Stacking, both can be back-tested nowadays. Staring at the Dom will most likely end up with you just wearing glasses and agitating any innate ADHD you might have.
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Is the time and sales delta the same as the delta you get when looking at the footprint charts or are you talking about something else?

I've seen lots of people say similar things about the DOM as you did but then others say it's still useful so I guess for now I'll watch the free Jigsaw videos and see if it's helpful at all.
 
Yes, footprint charts - bid/ask delta are T&S based.

I am not sure if Jigsaw allows you to statistically test what you are seeing but observation is the first part of the scientific method and Jigsaw is probably the best for you to view and then form your questions.

Not sure if you have access to SierraCharts though your broker but in the link below there are some studies I recently saw that would allow statistical testing on pulling/stacking in the dome.

https://gumroad.com/sstfrederik
 
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