Definition of "order flow"

Beginner Questions
1

Hi:

Does anyone know what “order flow” is?

2

By typing Order Flow in the Advanced Search box above, I found you this

http://forums.babypips.com/other-top-newbie-questions-and-problems/9560-order-flow-where-get.html?highlight=Order+flow

3

Thank you very much Carlos! That answered my question. I should have done the search myself before asking the question.

4

Many people believe that “knowing” where orders are will give you an edge, but the reality is that in forex it doesn’t. Why? Well because the volume we see in forex is 100% manipulated, especially when brokers “B-book” your orders. Even if you could see where the buyers and sellers are, the reality is no indicator in the world will be able to tell you where/when fresh volume will hit the market.

5

That’s a very misleading statement- first of all, forex is not 100% manipulated as you state it here. It is the largest and most liquid market in the world, larger than the stock market. It is also decentralized, and about as transparent as a market can be.
That being said, it’s possible that an influential person (Draghi, Trump) saying something controversial could spike the market, but they can not control it. Policies and interest rates influence the markets, and they are publicly known. Even when Soros ‘broke the bank of England’, this was out of the control of the Bank of England.

Next, not all brokers ‘b-book’ their clients, and the ones that do, only b-book clients with track records and odds of taking losing trades, additionally, they a-book their winning clients.

The charts do indicate where large orders could be waiting, and this is also where the whales transact with each other. These levels are highly visible to any trader looking for them.

Finally, price action and price momentum usually tell traders where the market intends(wants) to go, usually from one key price level to the next. At these levels, no-one, not even the banks, can predict what will happen, even if they can see the orders there. Traders can be at their safest trading only the moves between these key levels, and avoiding volatility at or around these levels as well as news announcements. Trading news announcements is one of the biggest causes of losing trades for retail traders, as is trading lower timeframes e.g. under 60min.