Institutional Order Flow Shield [MarkitTick]💡 The Institutional Order Flow Shield is an advanced, overlay-based technical indicator designed to peer inside the standard price chart and extract granular order flow dynamics. By utilizing lower timeframe (LTF) intrabar data, this tool reconstructs buying and selling pressure, helping traders identify hidden accumulation, distribution, and manipulative market practices such as order spoofing and iceberg execution. It acts as a comprehensive shield, filtering market noise through volatility and trend alignment to deliver high-probability signals.
✨ Originality and Utility
Standard volume indicators often fail to distinguish between aggressive buying and aggressive selling within a single candle. This script solves that problem by drilling down into intrabar price action to approximate order flow delta.
● Key Differentiators
Intrabar Reconstruction: Rebuilds volume delta without requiring expensive tick data or footprint charts.
Manipulation Detection: Specifically engineered to detect "Spoofing" (pulling large limit orders to fake price direction) and "Icebergs" (large hidden orders executing in smaller clips).
Adaptive Decision Matrix: Does not just fire raw signals; it weights them using a confidence scoring system based on VWAP, EMA trends, and Relative Volume (RVOL).
🔬 Methodology and Concepts
The core engine of this indicator relies on several interconnected mathematical and logical frameworks to process market data.
● Order Flow Approximation
The script requests lower timeframe data (defaulting to 1-minute candles) and calculates where the close occurs relative to the high-low range of that LTF candle. It allocates volume to the "Buy" side or "Sell" side proportionally. Wick rejections are also factored in to adjust the final volume delta, reducing the impact of passive limit orders getting filled at extreme highs or lows.
● Spoof and Iceberg Logic
Spoof Detection: Triggered when a massive volume spike is followed immediately by a sharp volume drop and a price reversal, indicating that the liquidity was pulled (faked) rather than executed.
Iceberg Detection: Identified when volume surges past a smart threshold (based on a multiplier of the volume SMA) while price stalls, indicating a massive hidden limit order absorbing market aggression.
🎨 Visual Guide
The indicator provides a rich, non-intrusive visual experience on the main chart, utilizing color-coded bars, labels, and a comprehensive dashboard.
● Chart Elements
Bar Colors: Candles are painted bright green for confirmed bullish signals (confidence > 50%) and bright red for confirmed bearish signals.
ACM / DST Labels: Green "ACM" labels indicate accumulation (bullish order flow), while Red "DST" labels indicate distribution. Hovering over these labels reveals a tooltip with confidence score, VWAP alignment, and volume impact.
BPL / APL Labels: Orange labels denoting Bid Pulls and Ask Pulls (Spoofing events).
BWL / AWL Labels: Cyan labels highlighting Bid Walls and Ask Walls (Iceberg events).
WBD / WAK Labels: Faded cyan labels indicating massive Whale Bid or Ask entries based purely on relative volume spikes.
● The Sniper Dashboard
Located by default in the top right corner, this table provides a real-time summary.
Net Whale Flow: The cumulative delta of massive order events.
Decision Matrix: Displays the current overall bias (e.g., "STRONG BUY" or "WAIT/NEUTRAL").
Signal Confidence: A percentage score grading the strength of the current setup.
Filters: Real-time status of RVOL, VWAP Position, EMA Trend, and ATR Gates.
Event Counters: Tracks the total number of spoofing and iceberg anomalies detected during the session.
📖 How to Use
This indicator is best used as a confluence tool for day trading and scalping.
● Trade Execution Guidelines
Identify the Trend: Check the dashboard to ensure the EMA 50/200 trend aligns with your directional bias.
Wait for Manipulation: Look for Spoof (BPL/APL) or Iceberg (BWL/AWL) labels. A Bid Pull (Spoof) often precedes a move lower, while a Bid Wall (Iceberg) can act as solid support.
Confirm with Accumulation/Distribution: Enter a long trade when a green "ACM" label appears, confirming that aggressive buyers have stepped in. Ensure the dashboard's "Signal Conf." is high (above 60-70%).
Risk Management: Place stop losses behind identified Iceberg walls. If an Ask Wall (AWL) is broken by price, it often triggers a short squeeze, offering breakout opportunities.
⚙️ Inputs and Settings
The script offers deep customization through its settings menu, divided into functional groups.
● Order Flow Engine
Intrabar Timeframe (LTF): Determines the granularity of the internal volume calculation.
Flow Batch Length (bars): The rolling window used to sum up recent volume delta.
Flow Sensitivity Ratio: Adjusts how much larger the average buy size must be compared to the sell size to trigger an accumulation signal.
● Spoof & Iceberg Detection
Min Spoof Volume Diff: The minimum volume drop required to flag a pulled order.
Spoof Pull Threshold (%): The percentage drop required compared to the previous bar.
Iceberg Avg Multiplier: How many times larger than the average volume a bar must be to trigger an iceberg alert.
● Smart Filters
RVOL Filter: Requires the current bar's volume to be above a specific relative threshold, keeping you out of low-liquidity chop.
ATR Volatility Gate: Suppresses signals on extremely tight, flat candles based on a minimum ATR percentage.
VWAP / Trend Filters: Toggles the alignment checks that feed into the confidence scoring.
🔍 Deconstruction of the Underlying Scientific and Academic Framework
The foundation of this indicator rests heavily on Market Microstructure Theory and Order Book Dynamics.
● Volume Delta Estimation Models
Because trading platforms often do not natively supply bid/ask tick data for all assets, the script utilizes an intrabar price-proportion heuristic. This aligns with academic models like the Lee-Ready algorithm, which infers trade direction based on price movement relative to previous prints. By applying this to LTF data and rolling it up, the script effectively calculates a weighted approximation of order flow toxicity (the imbalance of aggressive market orders).
● Liquidity Illusion and Spoofing
Spoofing is a recognized manipulative practice where liquidity is posted to the limit order book to create a false impression of supply or demand, only to be cancelled before execution. The script attempts to quantify this mathematically by monitoring sudden, severe variance in Relative Volume (RVOL) coupled with strict directional price reversals. When volume drops below the pullback threshold immediately following an injection phase, the algorithm flags the structural anomaly.
● Bayesian-Inspired Confidence Matrix
The Decision Matrix behaves similarly to a naive Bayesian classifier. It starts with a base event (e.g., an accumulation phase) and updates the probability (Confidence Score) of a successful follow-through by checking independent market state variables: Mean Reversion metrics (VWAP), Volatility (ATR), and Momentum (EMA crossover). This multidimensional filtering ensures that order flow anomalies are only traded when the broader statistical environment is favorable.
⚠️ Disclaimer
All provided scripts and indicators are strictly for educational exploration and must not be interpreted as financial advice or a recommendation to execute trades. I expressly disclaim all liability for any financial losses or damages that may result, directly or indirectly, from the reliance on or application of these tools. Market participation carries inherent risk where past performance never guarantees future returns, leaving all investment decisions and due diligence solely at your own discretion.
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