What is Order Flow? Intro to NinjaTrader’s Order Flow +

The Order Flow + suite of premium features available for NinjaTrader 8 helps traders identify buying and selling pressure through the analysis and visualization of trade activity.

NinjaTrader 8 users can now track the order flow with precision to better position themselves in a fast-moving electronic market. This additional perspective can proactively prepare traders for market moves and confirm movement in a specific direction.

What is Order Flow?

The concept of order flow created a new paradigm for technical analysts searching for innovative ways to interpret the market. Visualization of the order flow delivers additional insight on price action and helps predict potential future support and resistance levels.

There are two main data components which contribute to the order flow: Depth of Market data and Time & Sales data.

• Depth of Market or DOM, is a measure of the total quantities of limit buy or sell orders currently active at each price level. Because limit orders must specify both price and quantity, having access to this data provides a useful view of what other traders are thinking. DOM data is most commonly displayed in a price ladder, such as NinjaTrader’s SuperDOM.
• Time & Sales data is the effect of past filled trades on price. This continuously accumulating historical price and volume data contributes to the overall picture of order flow, revealing important inflection points for both support and resistance. Time & Sales data incorporates the following:
• Price
• Quantity
• Time of the fill
• Other information about the execution including whether the fill occurred at the ask or bid price

Get a Front Row Seat for the Market Auction

NinjaTrader’s Order Flow + allows market participants to simultaneously visualize both Depth of Market and Time & Sales data. Essentially, traders can now have a look directly into the market auction process itself. Viewing this cross-section of the market can be helpful in finding significant price levels or inflection points which order flow traders may use to plan their entries and exits.

In our upcoming Order Flow + blog series, we will highlight the individual tools included with NinjaTrader’s Order Flow + suite of premium features and detail how each is used.

• Order Flow Volume Profile
• Order Flow Volumetric Bars
• Order Flow Market Depth Map
• Additional Order Flow Tools
• Order Flow Cumulative Delta
• Order Flow VWAP
• Order Flow Trade Detector

The NinjaTrader chart above includes 3 days of E-mini S&P 500 Index Futures (ES) data on a 15-minute time frame. Order Flow + VWAP and Volume Profile indicators have been added to help visualize significant price levels.

Ready to learn more? Check out the NinjaTrader Order Flow + feature list.

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