Order FlowAdvanced
Absorption, Exhaustion & Trapped Traders
When heavy aggression fails to move price — and who's stuck.
Absorption is when heavy, aggressive volume hits a level but price refuses to move — a large passive participant is soaking up every market order.
It's one of the most powerful order-flow tells because it reveals a big player defending a price. If delta shows strong aggressive buying but price fails to make new highs, buyers are being absorbed by a resting seller — and those aggressive buyers are now trapped.
Related reads on the tape
- Exhaustion — aggression fades and volume thins at an extreme; the move is running out of fuel.
- Trapped traders — when absorbed aggressors are forced to cover, their exit fuels the reverse move.
- Iceberg orders — a level that keeps refilling with volume yet won't break, hinting at a large hidden order sliced into pieces.
Absorption near a Market Profile or Volume Profile reference (POC, VAH/VAL, a naked POC) is especially high-conviction, because two independent lenses agree.
Absorption and imbalance in AlgoPloy are defined on a closed candle at a fixed canonical band, so the same setup is always the same claim — alertable and screenshot-able.