Order Flow
Order flow is the record of who traded at each price: how much was bought by buyers lifting the offer and sold by sellers hitting the bid. It shows who was aggressive inside every candle, and where that aggression stopped moving price.
A candle hides the fight
A candle records four prices: open, high, low and close. It tells you where price went in the bar. It does not tell you who pushed it there, how hard, or who pushed back.
Two red candles can look identical. In one, sellers drove price down against little resistance. In the other, sellers threw everything at a level and a buyer absorbed it all. The first is weakness; the second is often the end of a move.
Order flow is the way to tell them apart.
Every trade has an aggressor
A trade happens when someone accepts a price someone else was waiting at. The waiting side placed a limit order; the side that crossed the spread is the aggressor.
A buyer who lifts the offer is an aggressive buyer: that trade counts at the ask. A seller who hits the bid is an aggressive seller: it counts at the bid. Add those up at every price inside a bar and you get a footprint chart.
Delta: the net of the fight
Delta is buying at the ask minus selling at the bid. Positive delta means aggressive buyers did more business; negative delta means aggressive sellers did.
Delta is most useful when it disagrees with price. Strong negative delta on a bar that refuses to fall says someone is buying everything sellers offer. That disagreement is where order flow earns its keep.
Absorption: aggression that went nowhere
Absorption is heavy aggression that fails to move price. Sellers hit the bid again and again at one level, and the bar still does not close below it. Someone with patience and size is taking the other side.
On a chart this is the moment the story turns: the crowd sees a falling candle, while the footprint shows the selling being swallowed.
What NSE data can and cannot show
NSE's tick data does not label which side was the aggressor. Every order-flow tool for Indian markets infers it, usually by comparing each trade's price with the best bid and ask at that moment.
That inference is good but not perfect. In AXL Charts' own measurements, two standard methods of inferring the side disagree on about one trade in six. So read buy and sell volume as a strong tendency, not an exact count. Totals at each price, which need no inference, are firmer.
Lessons, in order
- Footprint chartWhat a footprint chart is, how to read bid x ask numbers, imbalances and stacked imbalances, with NIFTY futures examples.
- Imbalances and stacked imbalancesFootprint imbalances explained: the diagonal bid x ask comparison, the 3x ratio, and why stacked imbalances often act as support and resistance.
- Delta and cumulative deltaDelta in order flow: buying at the ask minus selling at the bid, cumulative delta, and delta divergence on NIFTY futures.
- AbsorptionWhat absorption is in order flow trading: heavy selling or buying that fails to move price, how to spot it on a footprint chart, with a NIFTY example.
- Unfinished auctions and poor highsUnfinished auctions and poor highs and lows on a footprint chart: what each looks like, how they differ, and why price often comes back to them.
- Trapped tradersTrapped traders in order flow: aggressive buyers at a bar's high or sellers at its low, caught when the next bar closes beyond the other end.
Watch
Order Flow Imbalances Explained: The Double-Edged Sword of Footprint chart
Where buyers and sellers turn truly aggressive on a footprint chart - and why the same imbalance can start a new move or mark traders rushing for the exit.
Watch on YouTube ↗Order Flow Absorption vs Exhaustion Explained | Footprint Charts for Beginners
How to read a footprint chart to tell absorption from exhaustion, and see the turn coming before it shows on the candles.
Watch on YouTube ↗Order Flow Reveals What Price Action Misses — Institutional Footprints Explained
What a candle hides and order flow shows: the trail large players leave behind them, and how to recognise it on the footprint.
Watch on YouTube ↗Order Flow Trading: How to Read Market Direction in the First 15 Minutes
Reading buyer and seller intent in the first 15 minutes of the session with order flow, to see where the day may be heading before most traders have settled in.
Watch on YouTube ↗Delta Divergence Trading Strategy for NIFTY and BankNifty | Order Flow Explained
Three delta divergences on NIFTY and BankNifty - absorption at resistance or support, the fake breakout, and divergence inside a footprint candle - and the three rules that make one tradeable: location, confirmation and a clear exit.
Watch on YouTube ↗Questions
What is order flow trading?
Reading who traded at each price - aggressive buyers at the ask and aggressive sellers at the bid - to see who is pushing price and where that push is failing.
Does order flow work on NIFTY?
Yes, on the futures. The NIFTY 50 index has no traded volume, so order flow uses the NIFTY futures contract.
Do I need the full order book for order flow?
No. Footprints, delta and absorption come from the trades themselves. The order book (depth) adds what is waiting, but the core of order flow is what actually traded.
How accurate is buy and sell volume on NSE?
NSE does not mark the aggressor, so it is inferred. Treat buy and sell volume as a strong tendency; total volume at each price is exact.