Beyond The Markets

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INDICATOR · BEGINNER GUIDE

INSTITUTIONAL FLOW

Shows who is in control candle by candle, and how the big funds are positioned.

◆Every price tick counted◆Buy / sell pressure◆Hedge fund positioning◆Crowded-trade gauge
Institutional Flow on a live chart WHAT YOU SEE · GOLD 5m · FRI 30 OCT 123456
1Green bar: more ticks went up than down on that candle.
2Red bar: more ticks went down. Taller = more one-sided.
3Gold line: the average of the last 10 bars.
4The price: gold fell 133 points while the bars stayed mostly red.
5Pressure: last hour, 4 hours, today and 7 days.
6Big players: how hedge funds are positioned (CFTC, weekly).

Use it in 5 steps

  1. Switch it onCharts → Basic Indicators (ƒx) → tick Institutional Flow.
  2. Check the big pictureBig players: are the funds leaning one way, and adding?
  3. Check who is in controlLast hour and Last 4 hours: buying, selling or balanced?
  4. Trade with bothA setup is stronger when pressure and the funds agree with it.
  5. Watch for crowdingGauge over 80 or under 20: be careful chasing that way.

Selling won through Friday

Selling won through Friday

Gold 5m, Fri 30 Oct. Selling stayed ahead through London (−2.6%) and New York (−3.7%), and gold fell from 3,983 to 3,875. Small one-sided numbers, kept up for hours, move price a long way.

The dashboard

The dashboard

  • Buy / sell pressure: last hour, 4 hours, today and 7 days.
  • Most net buying / selling at: where buyers or sellers were strongest.
  • Big speculators: % of hedge fund positions that are long.
  • Contracts added: what they did over 1 and 3 weeks.
  • 1-year gauge: 0 = most short of the year, 100 = most long.

Golden rules

  • Background, not a signal. Use it to confirm a setup, never on its own.
  • Ticks, not bank orders. MT5 can’t see real orders; up and down ticks are the closest honest measure.
  • The CFTC report is weekly: Tuesday’s positions, out on Friday.
  • Always use a stop loss and risk 1% or less per trade.
🔔 Get told when it fires: click Alerts, choose Institutional Flow and tick “Strong buying or selling on a candle”.
BEYOND THE MARKETS
beyondthemarketstrading.com · Indicator guide 33: Institutional Flow
For education only, not financial advice. Buy / sell pressure is counted from price ticks since 29 Oct 2026; CFTC data is from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Trading carries risk.

For educational purposes only. The results in this guide come from testing on past prices. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and real spreads, slippage and delays can make results worse. Nothing here is financial advice, and trading carries a high risk of losing money. Read the risk warning.