Order Flow (OF)

Order Flow (OF) is a zone where a large participant built a position using the opposing side's liquidity. For a long it is the last SELLS before the buys: the market gathers the sellers' opposing orders so there is someone to sell the accumulated volume to, and only then drives price up (mirror it for a short — the last buys before the sells).

Order Flow delivers price from point A to point B in impulses and corrections. To continue the move, the market slows down, performs a manipulation, and continues: each new leg of the route starts with the large participant collecting opposing liquidity again. In Smart Money terms (SMC) Order Flow is close to BTS (buy-to-sell) and STB (sell-to-buy), and as a more general zone it can contain an imbalance (FVG), an MTV, a Rejection Block (RB), or an order block (OB).

It is important to understand: Order Flow is a DERIVED zone. It reflects the strength of the participant who moved price, but it is not the cause of the move — the cause is always the pull toward liquidity and the filling of an imbalance. OF is used to confirm which side holds the initiative and to locate a reaction point; we often break such zones down in the Practice section on a live chart. OF and OB are methodological concepts for finding liquidity: the Trade Model indicator maps structure, ranges and liquidity sweeps on any timeframe, which helps you locate such zones on the chart faster.