The thinking logic of the vast majority of retail traders is: where will the price go up or down? I predict the direction in advance and then open a position. The thinking logic of market makers is completely the opposite: what is the current sentiment of retail traders' positions? Where are large numbers of stop-loss orders concentrated? Where are concentrated herd long and short orders? How can I create volatility to harvest liquidity? These two modes of thinking directly create a huge gap between profit and loss.

Market makers are essentially liquidity providers in the market, and they are also the dominant force behind price fluctuations. They have large amounts of capital, can temporarily change the short-term supply-demand balance, and create classic chart patterns such as false breakouts, false reversals, and wick sweeps. All their operations have only two goals: collect counterparty chip inventory, trigger retail stop-losses to harvest liquidity. The order flow tool is the only channel through which ordinary people can view the main force on an equal footing and deconstruct their operational methods.

Let's first talk about liquidity harvesting, which is the core driving force of short-term price movements. Rapid price surges or plunges are rarely pure trend continuations; in most cases, the main force is probing the dense stop-loss zones above and below. The order flow order book clearly marks the levels where stop-losses are piled up: a large number of short stop-losses above, and a large number of long stop-losses below. The main force uses news and small fluctuations to induce retail traders to pile up stop-losses, then briefly pushes the price to pierce through the stop-loss levels. Massive stop-loss orders are executed together, forming rapid price moves, and the main force uses this to complete chip exchange.
Traders who do not understand market maker logic are easily trapped into chasing breakouts or sell-offs the moment support or resistance is pierced, falling right into the liquidity trap. With order flow, we can locate dense stop-loss zones in advance, avoid chasing the trend, wait for liquidity to be released, and then re-enter following the real capital trend.

Next, let's discuss trap order layouts, which are also common patterns frequently seen in daily charts. Bullish traps come in two types: large fake support orders and active small-scale sweeps of overhead resistance. The former involves placing huge buy orders at low levels to create a false impression of strong buying power, while secretly selling in batches; the latter involves a small breakout through resistance to attract chasing long funds, followed by large sell orders that crash the price back down. Bearish traps follow the opposite logic: large sell orders pressing at highs, false breakdowns of support, luring retail traders into short positions before a rapid rebound.
It's hard to distinguish real breakouts from fake ones by just looking at candlesticks, but order flow can clearly tell whether the main force's orders are genuine support or temporary deceptive setups by analyzing order placement and cancellation, trade sizes, and order book imbalance. By reviewing order book data over the long term, you can develop your own unique recognition criteria and no longer be swayed by false price movements.

Many people think market makers are out of reach and that only institutions can master these insights. But this is not the case. The core of market maker thinking is to step out of your own long/short position perspective and observe the market from a holistic capital standpoint. Instead of subjectively predicting market direction, you observe retail crowd behavior, order book capital anomalies, and liquidity distribution, and trade following the main force's actual operational rhythm, rather than going against large capital flows.

Order flow is just a tool; market maker thinking is the core. Merely looking at order book data without understanding the logic of capital operations can only let you see surface-level numbers. Only by interpreting orders with the underlying game logic can you achieve stable and controllable short-term trading profits.