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What Is Order Flow Trading?

In trading software, order flow refers to the stream of buying and selling in a market: the trades that have happened, and the orders still waiting to trade. Order flow trading, as the term is commonly used, means paying attention to both when making a trading decision, usually alongside a price chart.

This guide explains what the main order-flow displays show. It does not teach a way to trade them, and it does not rank or recommend tools. Where a term is defined by a software vendor rather than by an exchange or regulator, it says so. To compare specific tools, see where to go next.

Educational content only. This guide explains how order-flow displays work; it is not investment advice, and no display or tool described here predicts or guarantees results. Trading carries risk of loss.

Quick answer

  • In trading software, order flow covers two things: executed trades, which have already happened, and resting orders, which are waiting and can still change.
  • Displays show one side or the other: a Time & Sales list shows trades, while a depth-of-market ladder shows resting orders. Heatmaps, footprint charts, and delta are tool-specific terms.
  • The limits matter: resting orders can be cancelled, displayed depth alone can mislead, what you see depends on your data feed, and the displays are information, not forecasts.

What order flow means

Research use can be more specific. An NBER working paper on currency markets (Evans and Lyons, 1999) describes order flow as a measure of buying and selling pressure: the net of buyer-initiated and seller-initiated orders. The authors measure it from time-stamped trades, each recorded as a purchase or a sale.

In trading software the phrase is used more loosely. Tools described as order-flow tools typically show executed trades, resting orders, or both. That broader usage is our summary of how the term is used, not a formal definition from an exchange or regulator.

Executed trades and resting orders

An executed trade has happened. CME describes futures volume as the number of contracts bought and sold over a period, so every trade adds to it. A resting order has not: it is an order waiting in the book. A limit order is an order to buy or sell at a specific price or better, and the SEC’s investor education site notes that it is not guaranteed to execute. A market order, by contrast, is designed to execute immediately, without a price guarantee.

An exchange’s order book holds orders that are still waiting. CME describes its book as updating whenever an order is created, a trade executes, or an order is cancelled.

Bids, asks, and the spread

The bid is the highest price a buyer will currently pay, and the ask is the lowest price a seller will accept. The difference between them is the spread. The SEC’s definitions are written in terms of stocks, and CME uses the same terms for its futures order book.

What order flow trading is, and what it isn’t

As the term is commonly used, order flow trading means watching the trades printing and the orders waiting, and weighing them in a trading decision. That is TradingLoot’s summary of common usage. We found no exchange or regulator definition of order flow trading as a discipline.

In our view, order-flow information is an input rather than a strategy. The displays below record activity. What to do with it is a separate judgment, and this guide doesn’t offer one.

How it differs from a candlestick chart

A candlestick summarizes a period of trading as an open, high, low, and close. Order-flow displays break the activity down further, by price, by side, or as resting orders. That is a different kind of information. It is not a claim that it is more accurate or more profitable than chart-based analysis.

The main order flow charts and displays

Some of these displays are described in similar terms by exchanges and platforms. Others are tool-specific terms. Each section below says which.

Time & Sales

A Time & Sales record lists trades that executed. CME publishes a Time & Sales report giving the time, price, and size of trades for the previous trading day. Some platforms show a live version: MotiveWave describes its Time & Sales as a real-time display of the time, price, and volume of each trade. It shows executed trades, not orders that are waiting.

Depth of market (DOM) and the price ladder

A depth-of-market display, often laid out as a price ladder, shows orders waiting at each price. CME describes a ladder that shows how many contracts are available at each price level, with the buy orders (bids) and sell orders (asks) at each. MotiveWave describes its DOM as showing the resting buy and sell orders, with optional columns for recently executed trades, orders being added or pulled, and volume traded at each price.

Liquidity heatmaps (vendor-defined)

Bookmap describes its liquidity heatmap as a visualization of resting limit orders across all price levels, updating in real time. It pairs the heatmap with volume bubbles, which it describes as showing executed volume at each price. We haven’t verified how other platforms use the word.

Footprint charts (vendor-defined)

No exchange or regulator source we found defines a footprint chart, so this rests on vendor documentation. MotiveWave describes its footprint study, Volume Imprint, as using historical tick data to split the volume at each price into bid volume and ask volume, with five display modes: Profile, Bid/Ask, Ladder, Delta, and Volume. Bookmap offers a footprint indicator as an add-on.

Volume profile

Volume profile is related volume-at-price information rather than an order-flow display in the strict sense. MotiveWave describes it as the distribution of volume traded at each price over a given period. As described, it shows how much traded at each price, not which side started the trade.

For the auction thinking behind profile charts, see our summary of Mind Over Markets, a book on Market Profile, including how TPO and volume profiles differ.

Delta and cumulative delta (vendor-defined)

We found no exchange or regulator definition of delta as a trading-display term, so treat it as tool-defined. Bookmap’s documentation describes cumulative volume delta as a running total of volume traded by sell aggressors versus buy aggressors. MotiveWave’s Volume Imprint includes a Delta display mode.

At a glance

Time & Sales
What it showsThe time, price, and size of each trade
Executed or restingExecuted trades
Depth of market (DOM) or price ladder
What it showsOrders waiting at each price level
Executed or restingResting orders. Some tools add columns for executed trades
Liquidity heatmap (as Bookmap describes it)
What it showsResting limit orders across price levels
Executed or restingResting orders
Volume bubbles (as Bookmap describes them)
What it showsExecuted volume at each price
Executed or restingExecuted trades
Footprint chart (vendor-defined)
What it showsVolume traded at each price, split into bid volume and ask volume, as MotiveWave describes it
Executed or restingExecuted trades
Volume profile
What it showsHow much volume traded at each price over a period
Executed or restingExecuted trades. Related volume-at-price information

Order flow for beginners: where to start

  • Learn the vocabulary first. Executed trades versus resting orders, bids, asks, and the spread come before any chart type.
  • Start with one display. That is our suggestion, not a sourced rule. Time & Sales and a DOM each show one side of the picture.
  • Expect a data cost. Bookmap states that real-time futures and stock data fees are not included in its subscription price, and MotiveWave states that data is not included. Both connect to separate data providers.
  • Practice on recorded or replayed data. Bookmap describes recording live sessions and replaying them tick by tick. MotiveWave describes a Replay Mode for practicing with replayed market data and a built-in simulated account.
  • Treat every display as information, not a signal. Nothing here is a forecast.

Limits of order flow analysis

Resting orders can disappear.
A limit order is not guaranteed to execute, and orders can be cancelled. Nasdaq’s exchange data specification describes orders on the book being executed, partly or fully cancelled, or replaced. An order you see waiting may not be there a moment later.
Displayed depth is not the same as liquidity.
CME research cautions that relying on displayed order-book depth alone can lead to an incomplete assessment of liquidity. It notes that on April 7, 2025, E-mini S&P 500 futures volume was more than 99% above the first-quarter average, even though order-book depth was 68% lower than in the week of March 31. Volume records trades that happened. Depth shows orders that were waiting.
What you see depends on your data feed.
Depth data can be sold as a separate product. Nasdaq, for example, describes TotalView as a full order-book feed available through data distributors. A platform displays what its connected feed provides. Both Bookmap and MotiveWave connect to data providers you set up separately.
Data can cost extra.
As noted above, neither Bookmap nor MotiveWave includes market data in its software price. For software and data costs across the order-flow tools we've reviewed, see our order flow software cost comparison.
None of it is a forecast.
This is TradingLoot’s position, not a sourced finding. The displays describe what has traded and what is waiting. This guide makes no claim about what they imply for price or for trading results.

Tools we’ve reviewed that show order flow

Bookmap and MotiveWave are described below as examples, not a ranking or a complete list. We’ve also reviewed ATAS, an order-flow and volume-analysis platform; NinjaTrader, a futures charting platform whose order-flow tools are Order Flow+; and TradingView, which lists Volume footprint charts on its Premium and Ultimate plans.

Bookmap

Bookmap is an order-flow and liquidity-visualization platform, not a general charting tool and not a broker. It is documented primarily for futures, with documented support for stocks and crypto. Its core view is the liquidity heatmap of resting limit orders alongside volume bubbles showing executed volume, and Record & Replay lets you step back through a recorded session. Footprint and cumulative volume delta are available as add-ons. A free Digital tier includes real-time crypto data and delayed stock and futures data, and real-time futures and stock data is not included in the subscription price.

Read our Bookmap review →

MotiveWave

MotiveWave is a desktop charting and technical-analysis platform with live trading through a connected broker. Its order-flow tools sit inside the same application as its charting: footprint charts (Volume Imprint), DOM tools, and other order-flow studies, and which studies are included depends on the edition. Replay Mode lets you replay historical market data, and MotiveWave doesn’t include market data, which comes from a connected broker or data provider.

Read our MotiveWave review →

Where to go next

These pages compare tools side by side; this guide doesn’t rank them.

How this guide was sourced

Sources were checked in September 2026. Definitions and market-structure statements rely on the exchange, regulator, and research sources below. Vendor documentation is used only for vendor-specific terms and product details, and where it is the only source, the guide says the term is vendor-defined. Prediction and trading-advantage claims in vendor and other marketing material are not repeated here. The product details also follow our reviews: Bookmap September 29, 2026, MotiveWave October 2, 2026, ATAS September 30, 2026, NinjaTrader September 28, 2026, and TradingView October 1, 2026. See our Methodology for how we research and verify.

Exchange, regulator, and research sources

Vendor documentation (terms are vendor-defined)