Order flow, before the trade and after it

Evaluating an opportunity

A candle can move without commitment behind it. Order flow asks a more specific question: are trades hitting the book with intent, is one side absorbing the other, and is the book deep and tight enough to enter and to get out. Spread, depth and the aggression of the tape are part of that reading.

It is one contribution to the unified decision, not a permission to trade on its own. A chart that looks ready, with flow that does not support it, is a reason to wait. Flow that looks strong, with the rest of the readings in disagreement, is also a reason to wait. Both sides of the market are read this way.

Managing an open position

The reason for a trade can leave the tape before it leaves a higher-timeframe chart. While a position is open, order flow is re-read together with price, derivatives context and the broader market. If the flow that supported the entry turns against the position, PERP KING can reduce or close it rather than hold until the stop.

That early exit is management, not a second strategy. The reduce-only stop placed at the exchange remains the protection if the process cannot act, or if price reaches it first. How that stop is placed, replaced and left to work is part of position management and protective stops.

Only flow that is current

Order flow is a picture of the present. If the book or the tape is missing or stale, new entries wait. An open position is not given a guessed reading in place of a live one. The resting stop at the exchange does not depend on that picture staying fresh: once the exchange has accepted it, the exchange can still trigger it.

The role of flow is public. The measures, the point at which flow counts as support or as a reversal, and the weight of flow against the other readings are not.

Questions