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Signed Order Flow Continuationtrade with the tape, not against it

Evidence: StrongProfessionalOrder Flow · Continuation

Cumulative delta is aggressive buy volume minus aggressive sell volume, kept as a running total. It tells you who is behind a move.

The setup: price and cumulative delta rising together. Then price pulls back but delta does not make a lower low — nobody is selling aggressively, the buyers have simply paused. Entry on the resumption, in the trend's direction.

This is deliberately a continuation setup, not a divergence one. The research showed order flow moves price in the same direction; trading against it is the opposite of that finding.

Category
Order Flow · Continuation
Timeframe
M5 primary · M15 secondary
Suitable pairs
CME FX futures — 6E, 6B, 6J, 6A. <b>Not on a spot broker feed.</b>
Session
CME regular trading hours and other high-liquidity periods
Indicators / tools
An aggressor-tagged tape: per-bar delta and cumulative delta. An exchange feed is mandatory.

Valid setup

S67 · SIGNED ORDER FLOW CONTINUATION — VALID SETUP CME 6E futures · M5 · trade WITH the flow — this is the direction Evans & Lyons actually documented LONG 1.08212 1.08351 1.08490 1.08629 1.08768 1.08906 1.09045 ENTRY on the resumption close SL below the pullback low +2R reference 1R +2R 1 2 3 4 5 ① Price and cumulative delta rise together — aggressive buyers are the ones moving it. This agreement is the setup's precondition, not a bonus. ② Price makes its high; CVD makes its high with it. ③ Price pulls back — but CVD does NOT make a lower low. Nobody is aggressively selling; this is buyers pausing. ④ Entry when price resumes and closes back up ⑤ Continuation. If CVD had fallen with price, there would be no trade — see the second chart. 1.08602 1.08496 1.08444 swing high pullback, flow intact Per-bar delta (buy − sell aggressor volume) 0 Cumulative delta — pulls back in price, but NOT in flow CVD

Exact rules

Entry

  • Symbol: a CME FX future — 6E, 6B, 6J or 6A. Do not apply this rule to a spot symbol.
  • Precondition: over the last twenty to forty bars, price and cumulative delta are both making higher highs.
  • Pullback: price makes a lower low, but cumulative delta's matching low is at or above its previous low.
  • Trigger: a candle closes above the pullback high.
  • Enter at the next bar's open. Mirror the rule on the short side.

Stop loss

  • 0.4 × ATR(14) below the pullback low.
  • If price goes below that low the pullback was a reversal, not a pause — and delta should have broken down by then too.
  • Risk 0.5%–1%.

Take profit / exit

  • The next structural reference: the previous swing high, or a clear pool of liquidity.
  • A minimum of 1:2, measured before you enter.
  • Flow-based exit, worth testing: when cumulative delta breaks its sequence of higher highs, leave — even if price is still up.

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Trading carries risk and most retail accounts lose money. Nothing on this page is financial advice or a recommendation to trade. The chart is an illustration of the rules on constructed candles — it is not a record of a trade and not a backtest.