Most day traders primarily operate in the world of stock index futures and stocks. However, the demand for commodities will always exist and has accompanied humanity since its beginnings. All currently known theories for determining future market movements were developed by traders in the commodity futures markets, as these are more strongly oriented towards supply and demand. This book aims to identify significant intraday movements in selected commodity markets at an early stage. It is intended for advanced traders who aspire to become full-time professionals. Basic knowledge of TPO, volume profiles, and order flow was covered in my 2022 publication, "The Next Generation of Day Trading," and is not explored in greater depth here. These thought processes occur rapidly in day trading and are not suitable for everyone. However, they come closer to reality than any other attempt to predict future price movements in markets. A crucial aspect is that the timing of market entry or exit is decisive for success or failure, regardless of whether one is trading in the short, medium, or long term. In this sense, every market participant is a day trader. What makes this book unique is its diary-like structure, featuring well over 200 current charts from 2023, linking key zones with intra- or intermarket relationships. All the trading approaches presented here are largely unknown. The final section of the book also introduces filters for short-term gold trading, based on two decades of observation.

Working professionals in Europe typically only have the early European evening hours to monitor the market. Domestic markets are less suitable, as institutional trading ceases at this time. It is the US markets that offer opportunities for traders during the European evening hours. This book is not intended for beginners but builds upon my 2022 work, "Volume Profile, Market Profile, Order Flow - The Next Generation of Day Trading," which explained essential fundamentals. In this respect, this book also serves as a supplement for full-time day traders, as it addresses further important topics and analytical methods. Unlike scalping, the approaches presented here focus on trading situations where the probability of significant price movements is increased. Furthermore, it is made clear that there is no holy grail of setups that can be forced into a rigid set of rules. 49 graphical illustrations are designed to help advanced traders improve their market understanding and optimize their trading style. Profile zone and order flow analysis alone do not guarantee successful trading, as trading in general requires additional qualities that lie within oneself. These qualities must mature through a process based on observation, experience, and determination, ultimately giving a trader the necessary instinct for a profitable trading opportunity. The latter part of the book summarizes a few aspects that every trader should observe in themselves.

This book was written after several years of research regarding the crypto market. It is suitable for traders looking for short-term trading opportunities in both market directions. 

It may be the first book to describe some principles of auction theory, as well as filters for the crypto market. Against this background, this book is a pioneering work, as it shows ways to assess this market more accurately from a holistic perspective than with conventional technical trading approaches.

My book was first published in a rudimentary version at the end of 2022, updated in the summer of 2025, and revised based on the latest findings. Why? While previous years were characterized by periods of insufficient liquidity, this situation has improved significantly since the beginning of 2024 and offers optimal conditions for short-term trading.

Over 100 current charts covering the year 2025 with detailed illustrations make this book a systematically structured standard work for crypto traders looking for alternative analysis methods. The analytical steps shown here allow for an objective assessment of the future market direction, although they may seem a little unfamiliar at first.  

The purpose of the trading approaches presented here is not to follow assumptions, forecasts, expert opinions, trend-following theories, indicators, or "gut feelings," but to enter the market as quickly as possible after major market participants have done so. Another highlight of this book are filters that are based on fundamental aspects but are clearly integrated into charts.

Despite my efforts to write in a simple and understandable way, this book is less suitable for beginners, as it also requires some basic knowledge of charting. It is more suitable for traders who have crashed and burned using conventional technical methods. 

The human brain can set many traps. It tends to classify things the way you want to see them. It also wants to find simple solutions and stick to things that have proven themselves repeatedly in the past. Accordingly, my book is not recommended for traders who are looking for a compromise between old and new trading approaches. Such an approach carries the great danger of falling into a kind of analytical schizophrenia.

The much-cited price action theory only comes into play to a limited extent here, because it is not the eighth wonder of the world when a price candle makes a higher high and a higher low, and vice versa. How else would a market rise or fall? Price action theory is also subject to subjective interpretation. The thesis that prices move predictably with repeating chart patterns is controversial, because otherwise there would be a large number of trading millionaires. The opposite is the case. It is estimated that more than 90% of all technically oriented traders remain unsuccessful.

For some time now, traders have been talking about profile zone and order flow analysis. In my opinion, these belong together logically and in terms of content. I was all the more surprised that, to date, there are hardly any books  that link these useful forms of analysis to small time frames at the intraday level, which are important for day traders.

In relation to the crypto market, one reason for this may be that there is currently very little software available that allows TPO, volume profiles, and order flow to be used effectively.  This book was written using Gocharting software. This at least saved me from having to work with three different charting programs, as I had to in the past.

All in all, the approaches presented here are not secret miracle methods that work at the touch of a button, as countless promises on social media channels claim. Nevertheless, you will have positive experiences if you take a closer look at profile zones.

Since there are no exact conceptual equivalents in German and English-language trading literature for some of the trading situations and approaches in this book, I felt compelled to find a few short and appropriate English expressions to help avoid cumbersome paraphrases. Markets change, and definitions often lag behind. All illustrations on the charts presented here were written in English to save time. The time axes of the charts are based on Central European Summer Time.

Writing understandable books on a complex topic requires a lot of work and, above all, time. This book is the last in a series covering all areas of trading. Sustainable success in trading consists of a "lifetime learning" process that cannot be mastered with a few "set-ups." Day trading is the premier class of trading. With this in mind, one should also ask oneself a fundamental question before delving deeper into this area. That question is:

Can an amateur team compete in the Champions League?

I would like to thank my web designer Evangeline, who once again took on all the work involved in completing this book. PDF files of my books are available for purchase on my website for study purposes.

Perhaps after reading this book, you will see the crypto market in a different light.

November 2025

Many books describe forms of financial securities analysis. It was therefore more surprising to me that my book on profile zone analysis and order flow for day traders, published in 2021, attracted great interest. Apparently, there were gaps in knowledge in this area. 

I also received questions about whether order flow and profile zones can be used to analyse shares. I took up this topic with curiosity, as I had already made my first attempts to analyse shares with TPO profiles in 2019. Unfortunately, however, I couldn't find any suitable software that provided enough data to process the order flow of a large number of shares and graphically integrate my preferred filters into the analysis. Attempts to use a data provider for Nasdaq shares failed due to technical problems with the integration into my order flow software at the time. As a result, I had to interrupt my work on this project repeatedly.

Although I initially wanted to abandon this project, I then found a software program that had been developed in India (Gocharting). I had been watching this software for some time, but at that point it only processed order flow data for the Indian stock market. In March 2024, I learned that the developers of this software had made the leap to the West, acquired CME data feed licenses from the US futures exchanges. They also offered order flow data from US stocks. This allowed me to continue my work.

When the book was finished, a new obstacle arose. The data feed provider for stocks was no longer available. I then set out to find a replacement, as I did not want to offer my book without available order flow material. Dx-Datafeed has been providing the data feed for Nasdaq stocks for most retail trading platforms for $29 per month for quite some time. A list can be found in chapter 7.4.3. 

This book contains more than 230 current charts that are intended to illustrate that stock price movements are not random phenomena, but in many cases are based on factors that can be determined objectively. To avoid repetition and not unnecessarily prolong the book, the basic principles of my basic book are only briefly presented here. 

However, taking specific characteristics into account, auction theory and order flow analyses can be applied to any market. This is demonstrated using two current trading examples from the interesting Indian market (section 10.3)

Analyses of this kind can only be carried out with order flow software and require some basic knowledge of chart analysis. The good news is that, unlike in the past, highly professional order flow software is now affordable for every interested investor and trader. A less favourable aspect is that you must invest some time in the learning process to be able to use the methods presented here effectively. 

A major advantage of these approaches is that they reduce the need to analyse external information that feeds an entire industry and armies of analysts. As early as the 1950s, it was proven in the US that most stock market letters do not lead to better performance. 

Successful investing requires the best possible timing. Another problem faced by many investors is finding the right time to sell or hedge a share that has made good gains, depending on the particular objective. This book also presents strategies that any investor can use without having to resort to complex and costly models. 

When analysing financial assets in general, a fundamental question arises: Are markets efficient? Do they really contain all available fundamental data at all times? If this were the case, there should be no excesses. And what is the fair price of a share? Conventional valuation formulae often prove to be vague or inaccurate, and it would also be too easy to simply calculate future movements. Recent attempts to value shares using AI models have also failed to produce significant results. 

George Soros was one of the first analysts to question the theories of classical valuation models, albeit in a different way. In his book "The Alchemy of Finance", published back in 1989, he argues that markets are rarely in perfect equilibrium, but are always dominated by a "prevailing bias", which he calls "reflexivity". According to Soros, this leads to movements that have begun continuing reflexively (I see an upward movement—I continue to expect an upward movement). However, as soon as it becomes apparent that this expectation is wrong, a trend can reverse just as quickly and lead to excessive movements in the opposite direction (Appendix).

This can be observed live almost daily in intraday high-speed mode. If you look at the behaviour of the markets, you often get the impression that institutional market participants also make rapid changes of opinion in some situations, which appear to be bipolar mood swings. 

The founder of the TPO market profile, Peter Steidlmayr (see appendix), commented on the question of efficiency that markets may not be "efficient" but "effective" as they test price zones that are above or below a mean value for acceptance or rejection in a continuous auction process. This probably comes closest to reality. Pricing processes of this kind are much faster today than in Steidlmayr's time. This is perhaps what makes profile zones one of the most important methods of analysis, as they attempt to objectively assess the three fundamental elements of the market: Price, time and volume. 

Markets in the 21st century do not follow the calculations of an Italian mathematician from the 13th century (Fibonacci). Nor do they move in line with the patterns of 18th century Japanese rice traders (candlesticks). And last but not least, they do not move predictably along geometric shapes or mathematically calculated indicators of a pseudo-science called technical analysis, which has never been empirically proven. When Warren Buffett was once presented with a chart and asked what he could see from it, he is said to have replied: 

"I don't know how to turn it around!" 

On a fundamental level, there were also some puzzles that became apparent before this book was published. At that time, the stock market had already been in a situation for several months that some advocates of classic ratios described as “heavily overvalued” but showed no signs of a correction.

This book provides an introduction on how to navigate through the constant ups and downs of the markets with less stress, without following a 24-hour circus of assessments. However, even this book cannot guarantee success. Anyone expecting a mechanical trading system here will be disappointed, because nothing is more important than the context in which the approaches shown here should be applied. This context is presented in the form of additional filters that simplify the fundamental environment for significant movements in graphic form. This way, the seemingly irrational and complex components of the market can be reduced to the essentials. 

As I originally come from the commodities sector, separate chapters have been dedicated to the oil and gold sectors, as the dynamics of these commodities also have a strong impact on the shares of the respective sectors. Another highlight of the book is the chapter on analysing the price of gold and gold mines. It presents fundamental filters that have emerged from decades of observation and have withstood the test of time. If you use them correctly, you can come to some remarkable conclusions. 

Success on the financial markets also depends on things that many people do not take for granted. Most people today are taught to make decisions as part of a team. However, when it comes to analysing stocks, you should base your decisions less on expert forecasts. This book is intended to provide a framework for developing a solid foundation for a better understanding of the market. Finally, you should keep the shortcomings that exist in everyone under control. If you don't know your weaknesses, sooner or later the market will uncover them - and that can be costly.

 Since this book is also published in other languages, I have conveniently written all illustrations in the charts in English. The time zone indicated on the timelines is CET, in some cases local time. In order to use this book specifically as a manual, emphasis was placed on a detailed table of contents. For those who prefer a digital learning process, the book is also available for purchase as a PDF file on my website. Charts were created with Gocharting software, in exceptional cases with Tradingview and Atas.

I would like to thank my web designer Evangeline for the technical realisation of this manuscript.  

December 2025