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What is Order Flow Imbalance (OFI)?

A research measure (Cont, Kukanov and Stoikov, 2014) of the imbalance between supply and demand pressure at the best bid and ask. It explains a large part of contemporaneous short-term price changes; explaining is not predicting.

In context

Delta counts only aggressive trades. OFI also counts the adding and cancelling of limit orders at the inside. So a mass cancellation of bids (pulling) produces negative OFI even if not a single contract trades. OFI is, in that sense, closer to a measure of the whole contest at the inside, not just the part that ended in trades.

From Chapter 10: Liquidity, the Order Book and the Tape

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Related terms

Imbalance (footprint)ShortAsk (offer)Bid

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Education only. Not financial advice. Trading involves substantial risk of loss.