Reading order flow - institutional or retail

H

halperin

When reading the tape and order flow, as I'm very new to learning this, does it mean anything when trading the ES and you start to see lots of 400-600 print, vs 100-200. would that signal that maybe institutional guys are stepping in?

What is it in particular are you watching for when reading the tape. I know it takes many hours of practice but you have to start somewhere.
 
That or some crazy guy in Skokie trading in his undershorts.

Have you set your Time and Sales to filter out the smaller trades? Sometimes you will have to look out for the sweet spot in quantities then set your filter for the moment. It's been awhile. I used to watch from 25 to 100s depending on activity. What your really doing is slowing down the prints to a comprehensible level.

It's actually a quite day. Sounds like somebody trying to bully the market.
 
prints are all that mather , but then again on which side do the prints go off ? .. bid or offer ?
and how does the market act afterwoulds ? and at which level.. ?

basically if u see large prints going off , pay attention on how the market reacts... do the prints
get absorbed easily ? is there a refresh (iceberg)? do we stay offer or do we go bid ? (followthru)

usually the herd drives price and the "informed" trader is positioned way ahead .. imagine a
herd getting pushed down the cliff ...

you need to watch levels where most eyes are watching and how the marke acts and reacts at those levels.. i dunno but i guess that there are still "games" beeing played at the "DOM"

one needs to lure in participants in order to make money.. u need people on the "wrong" side

u need to watch which way price has the least resistance , and if price attracts more traders how the market reacts to that? basically the law of supply and demand are all u need to look out for..

check jigsaw trading and nobsdaytrading on google and u will find alot of information about it.. or go with the daytraders bible from richard wyckoff on tape reading...

good luck >;)
 
IMO big/smart money won't reveal their hand. It's almost never how it looks, even with a print. These days I categorize all outlier sizes as the same, spoof or not, as intentionally misleading or a trap.
 
I trade off order flow - if I remember correctly, if a 500 lot order crosses with another 500 lot order, then it prints as 500. If it crosses with 500 1 lot orders, it prints as 500 1 lot orders. Jigsaw Trading's reconstructed tape can help show this.

Personally, I just use MarketDelta and watch the prints at key levels. I don't put much stock in seeing a 500 lot order print. If you really wanted to move size, you are likely going to use an algo to break up the trade and minimize slippage. Then again, maybe you are putting on a big position and need to aggressively sell 2000 so you can buy more lower. Short answer - it just depends and is all contextual.
 
halperin said:
When reading the tape and order flow, as I'm very new to learning this, does it mean anything when trading the ES and you start to see lots of 400-600 print, vs 100-200. would that signal that maybe institutional guys are stepping in?

What is it in particular are you watching for when reading the tape. I know it takes many hours of practice but you have to start somewhere.
More...

There's so much BS on this forum, don't believe anything. Go work at a prop shop or look elsewhere
 
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