OrderFlow Labs

Custom Studies
Number of studies based on years of research & refinement
20+
Lines of code
17,726
Years of development
2

Job Pivot

What is it?

This pivot is an inventory analysis based upon the volume profile. The pivot is a price location that provides an equilibrium between buyers/sellers for the purpose of identifying control of the dominant participant. Above the pivot, rebid long entries are primary, seeking targets 1A and above. Below the pivot, reoffer short entries are primary for seeking 1B and below. The targets 1A+ and 1B- are meant to serve as targets or edges providing insight to the potential range upon a session (with one exception, which is compression - discussed below).

How to use:

The Job Pivot must be placed upon a time based chart, preferably 1-5 minute, then overlaid upon your execution chart. The reason being is that we are seeking information upon the most recent inventory which pertains to specific durations.

Nuances:

If price is opening well above multi-target ranges, it is common for the pivot to be sought at some point in the session.

Each target typically provides some sort of resistance or pause in order flow activity.

Compression in the range of 4 pts between targets typically prepare the user for some sort of trend-type activity, of which you can be on the right side.

On Expansive pivot / Target days, range can be expected seeking target or positioning back toward inventory.

Use with other tools:

When execution-type tools fire near the pivot or targets, they are meant to be important.

Example 1: If price is below the pivot, approaching target 4B, met with pinch and EAD, that would be seen as a long and not short opportunity.

Example 2: If price opens above target 3A and has EAD Sell, positioning can seek target 1A or Pivot. (same with inverse)

WATCH: How to use the Job Pivot

Exhaustion Absorption Detector

What is it?

The Exhaustion Absorption Detector, based upon live Time and Sales data, is designed to indescriminantly show orderflow activity with respect to the previously visualized direction. By utilizing the activity that is executed on the book, the EAD seeks to identify aggressive unidirectional trade activity.

How to use:

The EAD can be utilized to determine the potential reversal of a rotation or pause of trend type activity. Being that it is adaptive and based upon the live environment, as market's eb and flow between higher and lower volume days, the EAD will decipher such tape activity as described

Nuances:

Exhaustion and absorption can be visualized in the short-term auction. During strong trends, it is not uncommon for participants to be absorbed, allow a pull-back 3-4 ticks, find renewed interest and then continue the prior trend. As such, the EAD works best in normal (rotational) market behavior. If a trend day is identified, the EAD signals should be disregarded or seen as pause for re-entry opportunities to follow.

Use with other tools:

The EAD can be used as a standalone product; however, the efficacy is improved when confluence between pivots, Job Pinch and/or the buy/sell zones exist.

WATCH: How to use the Exhaustion Absorption Detector

Buy and Sell Zones

What is it?

The buy sell zones are an adaptive approach to expansion and contraction within market rotations. Each rotation provides an area of interest for either the bid or offer, where they need to engage in order to protect the possibility of further extension.This approach allows you to trade WITH the market trend.

How to use:

Buy and Sell zones are used to identify areas where you may want to start to look at your other tools for bid or offer for example, if you’re in a buy zone you want to then look at your DOM / Time and & Sales and watch for initiation from the bid. Once you see that activity inside of the buy zone then that allows you to place risk with well-defined stop (just below the zone). Buy and Sell zones give you a good opportunity to join the current trend without trading with FOMO.

Nuances:

Buy and Sell zone settings allow you to adjust the impulse move requirements (how large of a move is required before the zone will paint) and it allows you to adjust the percentage of the zone. We will have guidance on ES and NQ on the best settings based on our experience. You may adjust them to best fit your style. Buy and Sell zones work best when the market is rotational but with a general trend higher or lower, it is important to be aware that on highly volatile trend days that the buy and sell zones should be mostly ignored.

Use with other tools:

Combined with other tools the buy and sell zones give you an excellent understanding of the market structure of where you are in space, if you get a pinch and a buy-side initiation inside of a buy zone that is going to give you the extra confidence needed to take the trade.

WATCH: How to use the Buy and Sell Zones

Job Pinch

What is it?

The pinch represents a directional imbalance of price velocity and duration. It seeks an overshoot in participation with the current trending environment. The positioning is meant for seeking an ideal long location in order to initiate sell stops (offer lift) and entice further buyer participation. Expected results are acceleration (V shape type) to initiate sell stops and allow for rebid entry.

How to use:

I personally utilize 1k, 2k, and 5k trade candle pinch settings/overlay. With each timeframe there is an expected range of activity, the higher the timeframe the higher the range. This is especially beneficial for range type sessions.

Note: These are 3 ranges, fast / med / slow... they can be relative to settings and do not have to be exact, but meant to meet your timeframe needs.

Nuances:

Planning proceeds execution, as always. This provides insight for seeking long entry which can be taken with more aggressive approaches (immediate upon bid arrival) or (passive, upon rebid). Regardless, both setups need to see a sell-stop activity from the lows which is defined as an aggressive tape sweep from the optimal signal displaying laggard short positioning.

Use with other tools:

The accuracy becomes much more powerful when combined with a structural orderflow level from Job Pivots, SDP levels, or Buy/Sell zones. Especially when timing overlaps with the EAD (Exhaustion Absorption Detector).

WATCH: How to use the Job Pinch

Delta Dominance Detector

What is it?

The delta dominance detector utilizes an intracandle relationship of delta volume to determine if the candle has a dominant market participant. The dominant positioning will show as buy or sell delta, clearly visualizing the current market activity.

How to use:

In the event of a strong trending scenario the delta will show continuation with respect to the most recent candle to guide further extension of the auction.

It can also be seen as an indication of reversal (when paired with the Exhaustion & absorption detector) to allow for the market participant to prepare for a potential rotation within the auction.

Use with other tools:

The DDD identifies the strength of market participants but is not actionable on its own. The DDD is best paired with the Exhaustion Absorption Detector (EAD) or Job Pinch. For example, there is a strong buy delta which is absorbed by the offer resulting in three candles of two-way trade. The offer overtakes the bid and initiates in the opposite direction with strength.

WATCH: How to use the Delta Dominance Detector

Reconstructed Tape

What is it?

The Reconstructed Tape is a more visual way to view the time and sales activity through a bubble chart, what is very unique about the bubble study that we have built is that the bubble sizes are adjusted based on previous activity so that they are sized in alignment with the current market conditions, and also there is special coloring for sizing outside of the normal market conditions, this allows you to be aware of normal buying and selling and also aggressive buying and selling

How to use:

This tool is used to have a visual aid to a normal time and sales study, it can be quite helpful in visualizing very aggressive buying or selling, responsive buying or selling or exhaustion. You are able to customize the colors based on your preference and also the bubble size.

Nuances:

The reconstructed tape is not a fixed size per trade size, it is dynamically adjusting the bubble size based on the current market conditions. This simplifies how you may view what is occurring since the activity is relative to the previous activity for sizing.

Use with other tools:

The reconstructed tape can be combined with all of the tools with OF Labs as it helps you visualize what is happening from buyers and sellers, you can also add in existing tools from Sierra Chart to see heat map allowing you to see how buyers and sellers are interacting with liquidity on orderbook.

WATCH: How to use the Reconstructed Tape

Session Delta Pivot

What is it?

We have initiative (Delta) and structural (Job) pivots.

Session Delta Pivots (SDP's) were developed to assess disruptive auction activity. Though they are derived throughout the trading day between ETH and RTH; as the market is open, the ranges remain viable until position unraveling occurs for the present inventory.

How to use:

By gauging the area of most inventory aggression, we are able to capture a detailed range of participant volunerabilty, thus structurally identifying areas of interest for execution of trade placement. Upon execution, the prior areas of disruption allow for target opportunity for the current positioning.

Nuances:

This structural visualization is meant to provide insight to harmonic rotations of the desired product; ES 5 points, NQ 15 points and RTY 8 points (approx.). The SDP study is looking for a rotation outside the standard deviation, which can be described as initiation met with unwinding and leading to potential re-initiation and a reversion to the mean (RTM). Lastly, the coloring of the volume bars that produced the SDP provide insight to the directional intention of the aggression auction. A full RTM rotation of the SDP range inherently provide a 3:1 Risk/Reward by entering on extension from the pivot targeting the apposing extension

WATCH: How to use the Session Delta Pivot

Session Delta Pivot History

What is it?

The SDP History is a time tracked formulation of growth and expansion of the Session Delta Pivots. They allow the user to monitor continuation and/or turning of market auctions.

How to use:

Utilizing the SDP History entails gauging market time-framing. When they are aligned, it is advantageous to join the auction for continuation of the dominant trending type activity. As rotation of the SDP history occurs (SDP History crossing), a shift and completion of this rotation can be seen clearly, providing a tight range for breakout and followthrough expectation.

Nuances:

The coordination of higher pivots in sequence to lower pivots provides a pattern-type setup giving the user the ability to plan ahead for an alteration of the aggressive activity. These inflection points also give key insights to areas needed to be overtaken by price to execute not only a full rotation change but parameters for when the auction has failed to turn.

Use with other tools:

The SDP History is a structural map to auction conditions. It is meant to provide planning on the session or day set in order to then utilize the execution material with higher accuracy.

WATCH: How to use the Session Delta Pivot History

Weekly Delta Pivot

What is it?

The Weekly Delta Pivot is a map of the upcoming environment for the user to be able to plan market scenarios against.

How to use:

The WDP Pivot and extensions provide powerful levels of inflection that can be leaned against during range expansion as a big picture view with respect to the Session Delta Pivots (SDPs).

Nuances:

Expansion and contraction are essential to understand for this tool as it can lead to larger range extension or simply rotational environments.

Use with other tools:

Being that this is a large time-frame structural representation, it is meant to provide high probability inflection points to not only gauge market dominance but also areas of interest from other participants. Execution-type tools will be advantageous as price approaches these preparatory zones.

WATCH: How to use the Weekly Delta Pivot