Tools / 03 Flow
The cumulative delta makes a new high, but price doesn't: buyers are being absorbed. Reading delta and price together while you trade is hard. The study reads both for you and marks the moments that matter.
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The cumulative delta is aggressive buyers minus aggressive sellers, reset at the cash open and for globex, with its own VWAP and bands. On its own it says who is aggressive. What matters is how price reacts to it.
The cumulative delta makes a higher high, but price stays below its previous high. Buyers are in control and still can't move price: limit sellers are absorbing them.
After an absorption, buyers have two options. Keep pushing: they buy more and price goes up a little. When they understand they can't break through, they reverse their position and price goes the other way.
Price makes a higher high, but the cumulative delta doesn't. Same on the other side: a lower low without the delta. In one example, the delta stays almost flat while price climbs 15 points. On the S&P 500, that's a lot.
The study shows you the weak moves.
A wall is a price where a lot of limit orders were waiting, buy or sell. In the video, one sits right on SD-1: someone with size didn't want price to reach it, and kept the market balanced.
Small marks compare a bar with the last two or three bars only: micro absorption, micro missing participation. They show local weakness, not a trade.
A mark shows who is losing. What you do with it depends on your level and your plan.
Micro patterns describe two or three bars. Read them inside the bigger picture.
Walls come from the order book, so they need a feed with market depth.