The basics.
Start here. What markets are, order types, sessions, and the framework behind every trade.
The guide.
An introduction to the site, what we cover, and the language used throughout.
Introduction to Onlyflow
What this site teaches, why it's free, and how to get the most out of the library based on where you are now.
Trading terminology
The vocabulary used across orderflow, AMT, and fundamentals — defined plainly so the rest of the library makes sense.
The basics.
Core concepts every trader needs. What markets are, order types, and market sessions.
What is trading?
Define what you're actually doing when you trade — and why most people lose before they even click buy.
Four pillars of edge
Bias, location, execution, and risk management. The four-part framework that gives every trade a repeatable structure.
Orders & trade execution
Market vs limit vs stop, slippage, partial fills, and how order types interact with the book.
Market sessions
Asia, London, New York — when each session matters, and how to read the personality of each.
AMT & orderflow.
Auction market theory, volume profile, market profile, footprint charts, and DOM. The core of how price actually moves and why.
Auction market theory.
The framework. Understand why price moves where it does — and trade with context, not in isolation.
What is auction market theory?
The core idea: markets are two-way auctions seeking value, and price is the advertising mechanism.
Balance vs imbalance
The two states markets oscillate between — and how to trade each one differently.
Initiative vs responsive activity
Who's driving — initiative buyers seeking value higher, or responsive sellers fading the move?
Day types
Trend day, normal day, neutral day — recognizing the day type early changes your entire approach.
Open types & their meaning
Open-Drive, Open-Test-Drive, Open-Rejection-Reverse, Open-Auction — each tells you something different.
Reading context across timeframes
Daily auction inside the weekly inside the monthly — how to layer context without getting paralyzed.
Volume profile.
Where the volume actually traded — POC, value area, HVNs, LVNs, and how to use them as real levels.
Introduction to volume profile
What a volume profile is, what it isn't, and why it's the most underused tool in retail trading.
POC, VAH, VAL
The point of control and value area — where they come from, why they matter, and how price behaves around them.
HVN & LVN
High and low volume nodes — magnets and accelerants, and how to use them for entries and targets.
Composite profiles
Building multi-day and multi-week profiles to find the levels that institutional flow actually cares about.
Profile shapes
P-shape, b-shape, D-shape, double distribution — what each shape signals about who controlled the session.
Market profile.
Steidlmayer's TPO-based view of the auction. Where time, not just volume, defines acceptance.
What is market profile?
The TPO chart explained — how time at price is fundamentally different from volume at price.
TPOs & structure
How letters build a profile, how to find the POC and value area, and what poor highs and lows mean.
The initial balance
The first hour — why it matters, what extension means, and how to read the rest of the day from it.
Single prints & poor highs/lows
The structural marks the auction leaves behind — and why they're some of the cleanest setups available.
Composite market profile
Multi-session profiles, long-term value areas, and the composite POC as the structural reference point.
Footprint charts.
Bid vs ask volume at every price. The microscope on aggression, absorption, and exhaustion.
Footprint charts introduction
Bid × ask layout, delta cells, total volume — how to actually decode what you're looking at.
Delta & cumulative delta
Buy aggression vs sell aggression. The single most useful number on the footprint, properly understood.
Footprint imbalances
Single vs stacked imbalances, unfilled imbalance zones, and how they differ from absorption.
Absorption
When aggressive flow hits a wall and price doesn't move. The clearest reversal signal from the tape.
Reading footprints: a process
How to actually use all of this in sequence — context, levels, confirmation, entry and exit.
DOM & order book.
Resting liquidity in real time. How to read the book without getting fooled by it.
The depth of market explained
What the DOM actually shows you, what it doesn't, and why it's the most forward-looking data you can have.
DOM key levels
Bid stacking, ask stacking, iceberg orders, thin zones — how to identify levels the DOM is defending.
Reading the DOM
Dynamic order flow, tape, velocity — reading the DOM as a live stream rather than a snapshot.
Spoofing & layering
How fake orders manipulate the DOM — and the techniques to distinguish genuine from deceptive liquidity.
The heatmap.
Resting liquidity and executed flow visualized in real time. The heatmap sits between the DOM and the tape — showing where orders are stacking and where they're being absorbed.
Introduction to the heatmap
What the heatmap actually shows, how it differs from the DOM, and why it gives you a picture of liquidity that tape alone doesn't.
Reading bid & ask walls
Identifying resting liquidity clusters, how price behaves approaching them, and when walls are genuine vs likely to pull.
Volume absorption on the heatmap
When aggressive flow hits a wall and price doesn't move — spotting absorption in real time and what it signals about the next move.
Heatmap & DOM correlation
Using the heatmap and DOM together — what each one confirms, where they diverge, and how to reconcile conflicting signals.
Extra tools.
Standalone tools that complement the core order flow tracks — cumulative delta and delta profile.
Cumulative delta
The running total of buy vs sell aggression across a session. How to read divergences and use it as a confirmation tool.
Delta profile
Delta mapped across price levels — identifying where buyers dominated, where sellers took control, and what that leaves behind.
VWAP
Volume weighted average price — the institutional benchmark, standard deviation bands, anchored VWAP, and how to read session character using it.
Market fundamentals.
Macro, equity fundamentals, derivatives, fixed income, and microstructure. The context layer that tells you what's driving the bid. Lessons coming soon.
Macroeconomics
Equity fundamentals
Derivatives & sentiment
Fixed income
Microstructure
Macro economics.
The big-picture engine. Rates, growth, inflation, liquidity — and how each pushes risk on or off.
What is macroeconomics
Macroeconomics is the study of how an entire economy functions. Not a single company or sector, but the whole system — growth, unemployment, inflation, and the forces that govern them.
Interest rates & central banks
Interest rates are one of the most powerful forces in financial markets. When a central bank raises rates, borrowing costs rise across the entire economy. When it cuts, the opposite.
Inflation (CPI, PPI, PCE)
Inflation measures how fast prices are rising across the economy. It matters because it directly drives what central banks do with rates — and therefore what every risk asset does next.
Employment data (NFP & jobless claims)
Employment is one of the two things the Fed is directly responsible for managing, the other being inflation. NFP is released the first Friday of every month and is the most market-moving economic report.
GDP & economic growth
GDP is the total value of everything a country produces over a period of time. It is the broadest measure of economic health and the foundation of the economic cycle framework.
Risk-on vs risk-off regimes
Reading the cross-asset signals — equities, bonds, gold, dollar — that tell you what regime you're trading in and whether to trust a directional move.
Commodities as a macro lens
Oil, copper, gold — what each one signals about growth, inflation, and demand before equities catch up.
Equity fundamentals.
If you trade individual stocks or sector ETFs, the financials matter. Here's what to actually look at.
What is equity fundamentals
Equity fundamentals is the study of what a company is actually worth and why. While market structure tells you how price moves, fundamentals tell you what's driving those moves at the company level.
Earnings (EPS, revenue, guidance)
Earnings season happens four times per year and is one of the most volatile periods in the stock market. EPS, revenue beats/misses, and forward guidance determine whether a stock gaps up or down.
Valuation (P/E, P/S, DCF)
Valuation is the process of determining whether a stock is cheap, expensive, or fairly priced relative to what the underlying business actually earns or could earn.
Balance sheet & debt
The balance sheet is a snapshot of a company's financial health at a specific point in time. It shows what the company owns, what it owes, and what's left for shareholders.
Sector rotation
Sector rotation is the movement of money between different sectors of the economy as macro conditions change. As growth expectations shift, capital flows from defensive sectors into cyclical ones and vice versa.
Dividends & shareholder returns
Dividends are cash payments that a company makes to its shareholders out of its profits. They are one of the ways a company returns value to investors alongside buybacks.
Business models & moats
A business model describes how a company makes money. A competitive advantage (moat) describes why competitors cannot easily take that money away. Both matter for how you value a stock.
Analyst ratings & price targets
Wall Street analysts at large investment banks spend their careers covering specific sectors and companies. Their ratings, price targets, and estimates move markets — whether or not they are right.
Derivatives & sentiment.
Futures, options, dealer positioning, and sentiment tools. The market that often moves before the underlying does.
What is derivatives & sentiment
Derivatives and sentiment sit at the intersection of market structure and human psychology. Derivatives are financial contracts that derive their value from an underlying asset.
Futures & open interest
Futures are contracts that obligate the buyer to purchase, or the seller to sell, an underlying asset at a predetermined price on a specific future date. Open interest tracks real positioning.
VIX & volatility
The VIX is the most widely followed measure of market volatility. It measures the market's expectation of S&P 500 volatility over the next 30 days — and extremes in either direction are often meaningful.
COT reports (futures positioning)
The Commitments of Traders report shows the actual futures positions held by commercial hedgers, large speculators, and small traders. One of the most underused tools in trading.
Put/call ratio & sentiment indicators
The put/call ratio measures the ratio of put options purchased versus call options. Extremes in either direction often precede reversals in the underlying market.
Fear & greed index
A composite sentiment indicator that measures overall market emotion on a scale of 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed). Extremes are contrarian signals worth tracking.
Fixed income.
The largest market in the world — and the one that tells equity traders what's coming next.
What are bonds & how they work
A bond is essentially a loan. When a government or company needs to raise money, they issue bonds. Investors buy those bonds and receive regular interest payments in return.
What is fixed income
Fixed income is one of the largest and most important financial markets in the world, yet most retail traders barely know it exists. Understanding it separates traders who read macro from those who don't.
Yield curve (normal, inverted, flat)
The yield curve plots the yields of treasury bonds across different maturities. Its shape signals what the market expects from the economy. An inverted curve has preceded every US recession.
Duration & interest rate risk
Duration measures how sensitive a bond's price is to changes in interest rates. It is the most important concept for understanding why bond prices move when rates change.
Credit spreads
Credit spreads measure the yield difference between corporate bonds and government bonds. When spreads widen, the market is pricing in more credit risk. When they compress, risk appetite is rising.
Treasury markets & TLT
The US Treasury market is the largest and most liquid bond market in the world. TLT is the 20+ year Treasury ETF — the most traded vehicle for expressing a view on long-duration rates.
Corporate vs government bonds
Government bonds carry the backing of a sovereign nation. Corporate bonds carry default risk. The yield difference between them is the credit spread — a risk thermometer for the whole market.
Central bank policy & bond markets
Central banks set short-term interest rates. Bond markets price in expectations of those rates across every maturity. Their interaction drives most macro asset moves.
Market microstructure.
How markets actually work at the execution level. Liquidity provision, order routing, price formation, and fill quality.
What is market microstructure
Market microstructure is the study of how exchanges, brokers, and participants interact to set prices and execute trades. It explains things that candlestick charts never will.
Market makers & liquidity provision
Market makers continuously quote both a bid and an ask, earning the spread. They are the backbone of liquid markets. Understanding them explains most intraday price behavior.
Order types & execution mechanics
Market orders, limit orders, stop orders, iceberg orders — each interacts with the book differently. Knowing exactly what your order does when it hits the exchange changes how you trade.
Price impact & slippage
Every market order you send moves price. The question is by how much. Price impact is a function of order size, current liquidity, and market depth. Understanding it helps you size intelligently.
High frequency trading (HFT)
HFT firms use co-located servers and ultra-fast algorithms to trade in microseconds. They provide much of the displayed liquidity in modern markets — and take it back faster than you can react.
Dark pools & alternative venues
Not all trades happen on lit exchanges. Dark pools allow large institutions to execute block trades without revealing their intentions. What shows on tape is only part of the flow.
Tape reading & time and sales
Time and Sales shows every completed transaction in real time: price, size, and which side initiated. Reading the tape tells you where aggression is happening — the one data source that cannot be spoofed.
Trading psychology.
The mental side of trading — why discipline breaks down, how to rebuild it, and what separates consistent performers from everyone else.
The mind.
Emotional discipline, cognitive biases, and the psychological edge that determines whether your technical edge actually shows up in your P&L.
Trading psychology
Why your edge disappears under pressure, and the mental models that keep you executing your plan.
Data collection & journaling
What to track, how to track it, and how to actually learn from the data instead of just hoarding screenshots.
Building a trading plan
The minimum viable plan — entries, exits, sizing, and rules — that turns ideas into executable systems.
Risk management
Position sizing, R-multiples, drawdown, and the math that separates traders from gamblers.
Video library.
Walkthroughs, breakdowns, and recorded sessions. Filter by topic or search.
Best channels.
The YouTube channels worth following. Curated — not an exhaustive list, just the ones that consistently deliver quality education on orderflow, AMT, volume profile, and execution.
Extra resources.
Curated external resources, course collections, and reference material worth bookmarking.