Dear Traders,
At Dhan, we build for traders, and weâve always believed the best way to do that is to own the technology underneath. Our own trading systems with proprietary trading engine DEXT, our own infrastructure across multiple locations, our own data & market feeds processing capabilities and also our own AI intelligence layer with Fuzz & Artham. Itâs why we obsess over the journey of every market tick, from the exchange, through our systems, to your screen.
For Order Flow, that journey shapes every number you see.
Price shows you where the market moved. Order flow shows you what happened behind that move: who was stepping in, where participation concentrated, and how buying and selling pressure shifted along the way. When we brought Order Flow to DEXT T3, and then made it more granular, many of you made it a part of how you read the market every day From the Exchange to Your Screen: How Dhan Built a Fast Market Data Platform for Retail Traders.
As more of you used it, many of you began comparing it with other platforms that you have been using before Dhan introduced Order Flow. The same instrument, the same one-minute candle, volumes almost identical, yet delta pointing one way on one screen and the other way on the next. It left many of you with the same question:
âWhich one do I believe?â
We love that youâre asking. A trader who questions the numbers is a trader who takes them seriously.
Remember - a few years back when we started Dhan and were focussing on Charts, we heard the same questions about Chart data. We then published a detailed post on this topic - How exactly charts work behind the scenes!
Now letâs do this for Order Flow Charts. So letâs take you behind the chart.
What the exchange tells us, and what it doesnât
Every trade on an Indian Exchange is recorded with its price, quantity and time. What isnât recorded is who started it: a buyer keen enough to take the sellerâs price, or a seller who got filled at a price the buyer was waiting at.
So every platform offering order flow in India has to infer the aggressor side with its own logic, and that logic differs from one provider to another. At Dhan, we infer it trade by trade from how each trade relates to the prevailing market at that moment.
Not everything on an order flow chart is inferred. Total volume, volume at each price, POC and value area come straight from what was traded. Only the split between buying and selling is worked out.
Where does Dhanâs data come from?
As a registered stock broker, Dhan receives raw market feeds directly from the exchanges, through its own infrastructure at exchange colocation facilities and multiple data centres. Our Order Flow calculations use the tick-by-tick exchange data we receive. Weâve shared what that journey looks like, from the exchange through our systems to your screen, in a detailed post.
In most third party, non-broking platforms - the data is procured via a data vendor, reseller or a data partner. In such cases, a regular market feed showing LTP and the best five bids and offers doesnât provide the same detail of data as a tick-by-tick feed. When a platform uses periodic snapshots or sampled updates, several market events can happen between two updates. A price touched and left again in between may never be seen, and the volume around it can be read differently. Speed plays a part too: the more steps data passes through, the more likely a trade near the minute change is counted in the adjacent candle.
Compared with such feeds, our tick-by-tick input gives Order Flow calculations more granular data points to work with, and as a result a better accuracy.
Why can Order Flow on DEXT T3 and Dhan Charts differ from other platforms?
Delta on DEXT T3 or Dhan Charts can differ from delta on another platform, even for the same instrument and the same timeframe. The underlying feed, how trades are classified and how the platform processes that data can all affect the result. A difference alone doesnât mean the data is incorrect.
At Dhan, we calculate Order Flow using the granular exchange tick-by-tick data we receive, giving traders a more detailed view of market activity.
Where to be careful when looking at data?
Very fast markets: when the order book changes several times within a second, individual trades are harder to classify. Across a whole candle, the picture holds up far better than any single trade.
Very cheap, one-tick-wide options: especially close to expiry, delta can swing sharply. Volume at each price is often more telling here.
The open and the close: gap openings and closing trades donât behave like normal continuous trading.
Order flow is an analytical tool. It works best as context alongside price and your own analysis, not as a signal on its own.
So how should you read Delta?
Delta is the difference between buying and selling volume in a candle. On its own, itâs just a number. What makes it useful is reading it against price, consistently, on one platform, over time. A single candleâs value matters far less than what delta is doing:
Conviction behind a move: a breakout with strong positive delta shows buyers actively driving prices. A breakout on weak or negative delta suggests the move may lack real participation.
Absorption: heavy selling while price refuses to fall often means someone is quietly soaking up that supply. The same applies in reverse at highs.
Exhaustion: delta fading as price keeps pushing in one direction can signal the move is running out of fuel.
Divergence: price making a new high while cumulative delta doesnât is something many order flow traders watch closely.
These patterns hold up within a consistent method. Thatâs why comparing one candle across two differently built platforms can mislead, and why the real answer to âwhich one do I believe?â is the one you read consistently.
Your historical data is built the same way
Order flow history on DEXT T3 or Dhan Charts goes back to 1 August for equities and 1 September for derivatives. Itâs calculated with the same logic as live data, so a candle from last month is built exactly like the one forming now.
Order Flow is live for all Dhan users and explore it on the instruments you trade.
Like many features on Dhan, Order Flow on DEXT T3 has been shaped by suggestions from the community. Do let us know how itâs helping you and what more we could add.
Happy Trading!
Bhavya
