somethin unusual on the level 2

playing need for speed on 1 screen and level II on cable on the other screen with small orders scattered around.

suddenly i see this 200+ order that shows up at 1.4485

market was at 1.4490s at the time
that was like 5 min ago or so

its the first time i see somethin like that. ive seen big orders but usually the average size of orders at busy times is big so its nothing too unusual

again

this time euro
market at 2572 bid

111 contracts sittin at 2570 while everything else is in the single digits
at 2571 a big order too of 79 contracts

whats up?

market hit 1.2571 which had 79 contracts and jumped up a few pips

then it hit 1.2570

111 contracts went down to 80 contracts

then market dropped 3 pips in a flash to 67 and continued down to 2560

was it a fake order or somethin

wheres the pros regarding this?

mr-forex? others?

with the many depth of market and order flow threads popping up i was curious to know more if this was a pattern or not

someone i know told me this was probably a fake order to create the illusion of support

almost feels like im on to somethin
maybe its the lack of sleep

Of course you are on to something, you're actually working at analyzing orders. The fact of the matter is there is not one thread here at FF that even touches what OFA is, it's all just veiled and glorified chart reading.
The guys who are really doing OFA are tracking both DOM behavior via computer processing, as well as tracking actual trades and or liquidity consumption again with high end computer based processing. OFA could be a sit and stare at the depth type of thing, but that is the Fred Flintstone version. You have to remember that more often than not you are trading against robots nowadays who make decisions at lightning speed. If you want to beat the robots, you need a robot.

There is a ton more going on in the depth than we can see anyways. While you sat and watched liquidity change with your human eyes, you only saw a portion of the change in depth that actually occurred within the snippet of time since you last saw it change. OFA involves so much data that it really is a computers game now. There are tricks you can do with both DOM and volume streams to tackle it the flintstone way, but it's far from optimal.

Another hurdle you'll have to overcome is finding quality data, and it's a lot tougher than it sounds. I've found that you get what you pay for. If you want quality raw data it's gonna cost you, sometimes big time depending on what your needs are.

boxingislife, aren't you commenting on the unusuality of the order size, rather than the actual workings of order flow?

Maybe a big trader wants to stay under the radar, and if your broker isn't a true ECN, his orders won't be seen by other traders/brokers/banks.

Rob

First it's important to know where big orders are sitting (or are spoofed), on the bid or ask.

Before trading blindly on these huge numbers you have to monitor and notice previous support/resistance levels on the market deph and read the hole context.

Third,this is a multi currency market.
To understand if a curreny is bought or sold in a period of time f.e. EURO you have to watch simultaneously orderflow on the other crosses and currencies.

When the big boys are buying the EURO (GBP) it will affect the USD and YEN which are sold at the same time.

When a huge order is taken out (500 lots on the ask) it doesn't mean automatically that price will fall.It also can rally very fast.
Reading the context is very important.

Can you be more specific about the size of the orders? Could it be the that a participant is pinging?

There are many tactics that are played on the order flow.

The liquidity/order sizes vary from 5 to 100 lots on the EUR/USD (best bid/ask price).

One example:

Most time the intentions are veiled and hidden behind algos which split the orders in small pieces and execute them over time.

If an institution decides to sell a huge order (500 lots or multiple) they can place it evidently on the depth.
When price hits this level the order gets triggered and size drops.

Price falls when there are not enough buyers and no mumbo-jambo is going on the bid.

The hole order won't get executed at this price.
The institution can wait,adjust the price level down or cancel the rest.
If there is liquidity they can also sell directly the bid.

Other example:

On Thursday due to ECB intervention huge ask sizes were often taken out quickly and Euro rallyed.

If Huge order is exucted at ASK, or in other words a BUY order occures, that means there will be a HIGHER ask offered on the next tick as a result of DEMAND. This actually means -

It absolutely WILL drive the price UP

Not necessarily.

By reading the context by watching multiple MD: when this order on this pair was taken out but suddenly no more buyers on the upper ladder and price stops,something is strange.
A potential indication of falling prices.

You're right about large orders being spilt by robots, but there are guys out there who can detect this with special programs. You can do this the fred flintstone way to though.

This all boils down to a few simple things. Whether you are trading manually or with a robot, it is essential that you be an informed trader. Informed traders EXPECT to profit based on whatever information they are using. Informed traders are often profitable over the long haul and therefore trade with size. It's all about seeing conviction in the flow.

It's not as simple as just trading with large orders. Large orders can mean very differant things. Once you identify size in the market, you need to rule out several things before your pull the trigger, too many things for anything but a computer to do because of the time factor.

Hi Boxing,
Maybe if could upload some pics we could visualize better the situation and give u a better reply.

Lubo.