When I reviewed some classic cases recently, I found that many retail investors aren’t actually lacking theoretical knowledge—they’re lacking the ability to truly understand the language of the order book and price action. Opportunities happen every day in the stock market, but since your capital is limited, you must train your sense of the market before going into live trading. This is the foundation for retail investors to profit.

I’ve noticed several obvious order-book/price-action features during main-force accumulation that are worth paying attention to. For example, jump-price order sweeping: strong institutions will sweep through the entire sell queue by using prices far higher than the sell 1 level, making this accumulation method more visible and easier to recognize. There’s also a more covert approach—during the early stage of accumulation, they may create an illusion of pressure at resistance levels. But modern accumulation theories have changed compared with the old, blatant method of pressuring large orders openly. Now the main force more often stops sweeping upward and instead quietly accumulates shares within a narrow range, forming a sideways trend on the intraday chart. It looks like a shakeout, but in reality it’s an accumulation strategy.

There’s also the “pointed-corner wave” accumulation, which is the simplest and easiest to identify. After the main force quickly clears out the sell orders above, fearing being detected by the market, it pauses buying. Then the price quickly falls back, forming a pointed shape. This is a very clear order-flow characteristic.

The methods used for distribution (distribution/selling into the market) are also worth studying. On limit-up days, the most common distribution tactic is repeatedly opening and closing on the limit-up board to lure buyers, or suddenly canceling large orders that were posted with the limit-up board. Another method is distributing by pressing the book with a super-large order—this is a technique that speculators especially like. On the intraday chart, it often forms a single horizontal “one-character” line shape. The main force first posts huge sell orders on the offer side to attract attention, then manufactures a large number of buy orders to get follow-on traders to rush in, and finally slams the price down to distribute the shares. This kind of distribution has three obvious features: first, a flood of uniformly red buy orders; second, there are large “supporting” orders below; and third, the sell orders at a fixed price above are never fully filled.

Bearish “false selling” to induce shorts before a rally is also a common order-flow pattern. After the main force finishes shaking the market out, before unleashing a big rally, it often stacks a large number of sell orders near important resistance levels to create a false impression—tricking investors into selling. This is essentially the final “inducement to short” move. Once those sell orders are swept away, the subsequent price increase can be huge, and it may even hit the limit-up.

In real trading, there are some patterns worth remembering. Stocks that open low, then rise steadily with large trade amounts, can be bought randomly. But stocks that open high and then drop with large trade amounts must be sold immediately. If you enter the 60-minute decline ranking at the end of the day, you should sell first, because there may be a bearish catalyst. After a volume-driven breakout, if the price gets pulled back, the decline is usually not shallow—at that time, you should sell near the top. If the intraday chart shows sudden selloffs followed by rebounds several times, be careful: this can indicate the “dealer” is distributing shares to the buying side. This is called “deep-water rebound risk.”

You must also remember six classic order-flow patterns for running the market. A high open and low close with a W bottom that does not break yesterday’s closing price indicates the dealer intentionally designed the price action earlier in the day. A low open and high rise that breaks yesterday’s closing price shows the dealer deliberately opened low to absorb shares and adjust technical indicators. After a strong push higher in the morning followed by strong sideways consolidation that ignores the market’s up-and-down, it shows the main force has strong control, and a further rise is inevitable. Three-wave impacts that drive toward limit-up with continuous large orders and moving averages staying aligned—this is the classic “strength” pattern that you must remember. After a low open and high rise, moving sideways at yesterday’s closing price serves to get the late follow-on buyers out; once turnover is sufficient, then it steps up to the next level—pushing higher in a steady, step-by-step manner.

Right now BTC is around 77.76K and ETH is near 2.14K, and overall market volatility isn’t big. But no matter what the market does, understanding the essence of order-flow language is the key. Don’t expect that the words of one or two people can make you a pro—live trading is the best teacher.