🐋
鯚の取匕

Orderbook & Tape: Seeing the Flow Behind Price

In the candle chapter we learned how to read OHLC, bodies, and wicks—the result of a battle.
The orderbook and the tape show how that result was produced:

  • Which price levels collected limit orders
  • Where buyers and sellers actually hit the market
  • Whether price moved because liquidity vanished or because someone attacked it

If a candlestick is a finished painting, the orderbook and tape are the brushstrokes that built it.

This page is not a full orderflow strategy guide. It simply teaches you how to look at these two data windows so candles stop feeling mysterious.

1. What Is the Orderbook?

The orderbook (a.k.a. DOM or depth) lists all resting limit orders near the current price.

  • Bid side: orders waiting to buy
  • Ask side: orders waiting to sell
  • Each level displays a size (how many contracts/coins are waiting there)

Here are the core ideas you must know.

1-1. Best Bid, Best Ask, and the Spread

The top row on each side matters most:

  • Best Bid — the highest buy order currently waiting
  • Best Ask — the lowest sell order currently waiting
  • Spread = Best Ask − Best Bid

A narrow spread implies good liquidity and tight competition between buyers and sellers.
A wide spread often means:

  • Liquidity just got eaten or pulled
  • Volatility spiked so nobody wants to stand between the two sides

1-2. Size by Price and “Liquidity Walls”

Large clusters of size form walls:

  • Bid wall when size stacks on the buy side
  • Ask wall when size stacks on the sell side

A wall does not guarantee price will hold. It simply tells you:

  • How much needs to be traded to blow through that level
  • How impressive the push will be if the wall disappears or gets steamrolled

Think of the orderbook as a map of who is willing to provide liquidity at each price.

2. What Is the Tape (Time & Sales)?

If the orderbook shows passive intent, the tape shows what actually executed second by second.

Each print usually includes:

  • Time of the trade
  • Price
  • Size
  • Whether it hit the bid (aggressive seller) or lifted the ask (aggressive buyer)

2-1. Aggressive vs Passive Orders

Always separate two roles:

  • Passive orders wait in the book. They say, “fill me if price comes here.”
  • Aggressive orders hit the resting liquidity. They say, “fill me now.”

The tape shines a spotlight on aggression:

  • Repeated prints at the ask = buyers eating through sell orders to push higher
  • Repeated prints at the bid = sellers dumping into buy orders to push lower

You still need context, but the tape answers, “who is pressing the gas pedal right now?”

3. Candles, Orderbook, and Tape Together

Let’s combine the three views:

  • Candles show the result for a fixed time block (Open/High/Low/Close, body, wick).
  • Orderbook shows the liquidity map that existed while that candle formed.
  • Tape shows the sequence of executions that chewed through that liquidity.

During a single 5‑minute candle:

  1. Buy walls appear, disappear, or move.
  2. The tape prints clusters of small buys, then maybe a sudden block sell.
  3. Those interactions compress into one candlestick on your chart.

Two candles can look identical even though the liquidity/tape sequences inside them were completely different.
That’s why advanced traders glance at all three windows.

4. Minimum Checklist for Reading the Orderbook

You don’t have to decode every number. Start with these four habits.

4-1. Watch for Sudden Spread Expansion

  • If a normally tight spread suddenly widens, liquidity was pulled or just got consumed.
  • Wider spreads mean worse fills and greater slippage—crucial if you run leverage.

4-2. Track Big Size Clusters

  • Note where large bid/ask walls sit.
  • Then observe whether price bounces, slices through, or consolidates near them.
  • Compare with the tape: did a breakout need a barrage of aggressive orders to chew through the wall?

This observation becomes foundational when you later study breakouts vs fakeouts.

4-3. Beware of “Ghost Walls”

Some participants post huge orders to influence others, then cancel when price approaches.

Therefore always ask:

  • Does the wall stay in place as price moves toward it?
  • Do you see actual executions near that level, or does it vanish early?

Real liquidity sticks around when touched. Spoofs do not.

5. Minimum Checklist for Reading the Tape

The tape can look like noise at first, but a few cues go a long way.

5-1. Consecutive Prints on One Side

  • Rapid ask-side prints = buyers repeatedly lifting offers → upward pressure.
  • Rapid bid-side prints = sellers repeatedly dumping into bids → downward pressure.

Pair this with candles:

  • Did a big directional candle have matching tape aggression?
  • Did a long wick form because early prints were one-sided but later got slammed the other way?

5-2. Unusually Large Prints (Block Trades)

Compare each print with the average size for that instrument/time of day.

  • After a large market buy, does price hold above that level or sag back below it?
  • After a large market sell, do buyers defend immediately or step aside?

Large trades often mark intent zones, but only if price respects them.

6. Common Mistakes When You’re New to Orderflow

Zooming in too far can make every tick feel like a life-or-death signal. Typical traps:

  1. Overreacting to tiny shifts — every one-tick pull of liquidity triggers panic trades.
  2. Confusing intent with outcome — assuming a single large wall “must” hold forever.
  3. Ignoring higher timeframes — forgetting that the candle story still drives the main thesis.

Recommended progression:

  1. Master candle structure and timeframe stacking first
    (see candles](/trading/chart-basics/candles) and [timeframes).
  2. Then use the book/tape as a magnifying glass to understand what’s happening inside each candle.

7. Where We Go Next

You now have a mental model:

  • Orderbook = map of resting liquidity
  • Tape = log of aggressive executions
  • Candles = the summary of both

Next we zoom out again to study timeframes:

  • How the same move looks different on 1‑minute, 15‑minute, and hourly charts
  • How to pick a “big picture” timeframe and a “execution” timeframe

Continue to timeframes` when you’re ready.