Learning volume, order flow and fundamentals
Twenty-four lessons in two halves — what the chart is doing, and why it did it — written in the order they make sense to read. All of it is finished and published.
Free, with no account and no purchase — you do not have to own anything of ours to read it.
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Fundamental and timing analysis
Twelve free lessons on trading the fundamentals: the economic calendar, GDP, the US dollar index, interest rates and the yield curve, PMI, CPI and employment data, market sentiment, and building a strategy.
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Building a fundamental trading strategy, step by step
Instrument, market, timeframe, bias, position size, hedging tool, hedging timing and whether a second instrument is needed — the eight decisions in the order that stops you reopening them. Lesson 12 of 12, free.
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The economic calendar and streaming news
What the previous, forecast and actual columns mean, how to work a calendar before the week starts, one payrolls release read across three markets, and why unscheduled news behaves differently. Lesson 4 of 12.
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GDP, and what it does to a currency
What gross, domestic and product each mean, why the first estimate moves the most, and why the same growth beat pushes a currency pair and an equity index in opposite directions. Lesson 5 of 12, free.
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The global markets, and the instruments that track them
The seven global markets and the categories inside each — commodities, equities, forex majors, minors and exotics, money, derivatives, ETFs and crypto — and what a CFD really is. Lesson 2 of 12, free.
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Market sentiment and the speculative sentiment index
Why a correct forecast can still lose money, what the ratio of open long to open short positions measures, why it is read against the crowd, and how to use it for sizing rather than entries. Lesson 11 of 12.
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Monetary policy and the rate decision as a tradeable event
The three tools of monetary policy, why two identical rate cuts produced opposite reactions, how to read a rate cycle rather than a single meeting, and how to check what is already priced in. Lesson 9 of 12.
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Money, interest rates and the central bank
Why the interest rate is the price of money, what M0 to M3 measure, how a rate rise reaches commodities and currencies, and how to read a Fed statement, a dot plot and market-implied odds. Lesson 7 of 12.
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The releases that move the tape: PMI, employment, retail sales and CPI
Why fifty is the only level that matters on PMI, why average earnings beat the jobs number, why core retail sales and core CPI are the ones to read, and what their disagreements tell you. Lesson 10 of 12.
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Reserve currencies, resource currencies and market bias
Why the yen, franc, dollar and gold rise on bad news while the Australian and Canadian dollars fall, what that does to a pair, and how to set a market bias before looking for a trade. Lesson 3 of 12, free.
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The US Dollar Index: four indices, four answers
Why four dollar indices give four answers, why DXY is more than half euro, and why gold and crude oil move against the dollar while the S&P 500 has no stable relationship with it. Lesson 6 of 12, free.
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Why price moves: events, non-events and sentiment
The three causes of a price move, why the surprise against forecast matters more than the number itself, and why "the market is random" is a statement about the observer. Lesson 1 of 12, free.
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The yield curve, and how bonds lead currencies
Why bond prices and yields move opposite ways, what a normal, flat or inverted curve is forecasting, and how the ten-year yield spread between two countries prices their currency pair. Lesson 8 of 12, free.
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Volume and order flow analysis
Twelve free lessons on reading a chart from what traded: trend structure, volume-based levels, delta, the order book and the tape, risk management, scalping, and the contracts themselves.
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Trend, structure and Dow theory brought up to date
Dow theory brought up to date: labelling a trend with P1, P2 and P3, the close that makes a point definitive, and what volume should do across a movement and a correction.
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Entry setups: where to actually get in
Twelve entry setups for trend trading: the hammer, the double outside, Midas VWAP and delta divergence on the daily chart, and seven hourly setups ranked from very low to high risk.
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Market delta cycles, and what a divergence is telling you
What a delta divergence actually claims, the seven ordinary things that cause one, why price returns to the level it started at, and nine zones read against CPI and the interest rate differential.
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Support and resistance built from volume
Levels drawn from where business was actually done: pivots, three lengths of VWAP, the volume journal, volume profile and TPO — and the rule that a level against the trend is not used at all.
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The order book, the tape and market speed
Passive orders against aggressive ones, market by order and iceberg orders, the footprint, the tick measurements that expose algorithms, and TVVR — the complete entry system in nine steps.
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Stop hunting, and entering after it
Why price takes yesterday's low by a few points and turns: where the stops sit, fishing with the structure against fishing against it, and the six things to watch while a hunt is happening.
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Risk and trade management
The daily, weekly and monthly ceilings, the formula that turns a stop distance into a position size, why the exit sets the breakeven win rate, and how pyramiding grows size out of profit rather than principal.
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Scalping with range bars and aggressive data
A range bar closes on movement rather than on the clock, which shortens the stop. Ten footprint signals, thirty-two states of a trading day with the win rate for each, and the filters that separate a scalp from a coin toss.
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Trading currency futures: contracts, rates and covered interest parity
Reading a futures symbol and its month code, why the interest rate differential is in the price before anyone trades it, covered interest parity worked through with real numbers, and where it stops holding.
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The currency pairs, one at a time
Daily range, pip value and stop distance for 6E, 6J, 6B, 6S, 6C, 6A and 6N, the deviation table with its reversal probabilities, the three contracts that move opposite to the CFD, and the economy behind each.
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Stock index futures: ES, YM and NQ
Daily range, tick structure, point value and stop distance for the E-mini S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq-100 contracts, the deviation ladder each one uses, and why every level has to be set in points rather than ticks.
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What actually moves an index, and when
How few companies really carry the S&P, Nasdaq and Dow, the pre-market and after-hours sessions and what each is worth, the overlap where volatility concentrates, and when earnings land.
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Instrument specifications
Daily range, tick value, tick structure and stop distance for the seven currency futures and for ES, YM and NQ, with the three deviation ladders and the reversal probability they share. Free reference table.
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What Is Volume Spread Analysis, and Why Does It Still Work?
VSA reads the relationship between a bar's spread, its close and the volume behind it. Here is where the method came from, the three ideas it rests on, and how it maps onto the order flow tools traders use today.
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Cluster Charts and Footprint Charts: Reading Volume Inside the Bar
A candlestick tells you where price went. A footprint tells you what it cost to get there. What these charts actually plot, what delta and imbalance mean, and the data you need before either is worth looking at.
Nothing matches that. Try a shorter phrase — or ask us and we will point you at the right lesson.
The two halves of the material
One reads the chart. The other explains why the chart did that. They are written separately because they are learned separately — and most people who get stuck are missing the second one.
12 lessons
Volume and order flow analysis
Reading a chart from what actually traded: trend structure, volume-based support and resistance, delta, the order book and the tape, scalping, and the risk management that holds it together.
12 lessons
Fundamental and timing analysis
What put the move there before it reached the chart: central banks and interest rates, the releases on the calendar and the ones that are not, the yield curve, the dollar index, and the positioning that decided how far it went.
Start at lesson one
The series begins with market structure: how to decide what a trend is doing without guessing, where a movement ends and a correction begins, and why a pullback of eighty per cent can still be a pullback.
From there it runs through entries, delta, volume-based support and resistance, the order book and the tape, stop hunting, and risk. Each lesson links to the next.
The instruments, with the numbers
Three of the volume lessons are reference material rather than technique: what the seven currency futures actually do in a day, how ES, YM and NQ differ, and which sessions and releases move them.
All ten contracts are also collected into one table — daily ranges, tick values, stop distances and the three deviation ladders side by side — for when you want the figure rather than the reasoning.
Inside the bar
The footprint chart is the highest-resolution view of order flow and the one that takes longest to read reliably. Imbalance, absorption, delta divergence and unfinished auctions are all read there, and the lessons on delta and on the order book build up to it.
Our own footprint tool is still being written. The reading is the same whatever draws it.
Articles and the manual
Shorter pieces on single topics sit alongside the lessons — how one chart is read, what a term actually means, where a common reading goes wrong. There are 2 at the moment and more are being written.
Every setting in the tools we ship is documented too, with what it does and when you would change it. That is on the product page rather than behind a login, so you can read it before deciding whether to buy anything.
The structured course is a separate thing
Everything above is finished. What is still being built is a structured course — the same ground taught in order, with exercises — and that is a product, not a page. It is not on sale and there is no date to give you.
The lessons are not a teaser for it. They stay free and complete whatever happens to the course.
Stuck on something specific?
If a lesson leaves something unclear, tell us which one and what did not land. If it is a common question we will rewrite that part, and either way you get an answer.