Quite possibly the more pertinent question: has "tape reading" and "trading order flow" been outmoded by the the bots and the black boxes and the "shake" algorithms ? The fact of the matter is; the more dominant algos are: quote stuffing, order queue gaming, flipping, order crossing to falsely simulate "liquidity takers", etc. etc. etc. etc. In other words, why get fucked ?
Well put. Incidentally, I hadn't heard of the order crossing ones -- that's brilliant. Years ago there used to be good information there, but after seeing price constantly fall on upticks I stopped paying attention. Now I know.
I will not allow my clients to use volume studies. Volume gets gamed to the Nth degree. Read Sun Tzu all over again. We get paid on price and price alone. Style points are reserved for reality television series.
Is that so? That's disappointing. While I don't use it for my strategy, I like to look at volume profiles to get a feel for how well price is holding above/below certain levels. Time and volume have often corresponded, but I wouldn't be too surprised if the latter was gamed. How so, if I may ask?
Maybe read my other posts on the topic. Why would you trust volume ? Everything in the markets is gamed - by design. Seriously. You get paid on price and price alone - check your statements.
Worth a look. Why not trust it? Volume-by-price distributions correspond with price-by-time. I highly doubt any entity can artificially manipulate a liquid futures instrument within a particular price range for an extended period of time. If they can, then your own ability to read price is just as susceptible to being gamed. In a balanced market, price tests extremes then pulls back where lower risk transactions are executed. When demand changes, price moves. ES's volume profile on 9/01 is a prime example of how volume follows suit: fits the market profile pattern of price moving from balance to imbalance to a "T". It's not in my playbook, it's just a tool for reference. And as long as I've been watching them, they've resembled the same patterns those market profile folks described way back in the day.