Winkler Trading Station
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Order flow learning plan

6 / 12 months

The full training plan of the mentoring programme, month by month. It is open here so you can see what is really taught before you book.

To the mentoring programme

8–12 h

per week

40 %

chart replay

300+

capstone trades

ES / NQ

main markets

How the plan is built

Every month is made of blocks, every block of lessons. At the end of a month there is a gate: something you use to check for yourself whether the material has stuck. The material builds on itself – the gate of one month is the basis for the next.

The months one by one

Shown: 12 months · 48 blocks · 192 lessons

01

Foundations and futures

Fundamentals

From zero to a confident understanding of futures, platform and risk.

Block 01 What is trading?
  1. Trading, investing and speculating
  2. Exchanges, brokers, clearing houses and trading venues
  3. Buyers, sellers and market participants
  4. Why markets rise, fall or move sideways
Block 02 Futures basics
  1. What is a futures contract?
  2. Contract size, multiplier and notional value
  3. Tick size, tick value, point value and P&L
  4. Margin, leverage and daily settlement
Block 03 ES and NQ futures
  1. E-mini S&P 500 future – ES
  2. E-mini Nasdaq-100 future – NQ
  3. Micro futures MES and MNQ
  4. Differences between ES and NQ
Block 04 Trading hours and rollover
  1. Globex session and cash session
  2. Premarket, US open, lunch and closing session
  3. Holidays and shortened trading days
  4. Futures rollover and the shift in volume

Monthly gateCalculate a futures trade including tick value, position size, fees and maximum risk without help from the platform.

02

Chart reading and price action structure

Fundamentals

Describing price movement objectively before order flow is interpreted.

Block 05 Candlesticks and charts
  1. Open, high, low and close
  2. Candle body, wick and range
  3. Time, tick, volume and range charts
  4. Why single candlestick patterns are not enough
Block 06 Market structure
  1. Higher high and higher low
  2. Lower high and lower low
  3. Trend, balance and transition
  4. Break of structure and failed break of structure
Block 07 Support and resistance
  1. Horizontal price zones
  2. Swing highs and swing lows
  3. Previous day high and previous day low
  4. Overnight high and overnight low
Block 08 Dow theory and price action
  1. The basics of Dow theory
  2. Primary trend, secondary trend and correction
  3. Trend confirmation and divergence
  4. Market phases in the logic of price action

Monthly gateExplain market structure, daily levels, trend direction and three alternative scenarios on an unfamiliar chart.

03

Platform, orders and market mechanics

Fundamentals

Understanding how an order actually reaches the market.

Block 09 The NinjaTrader working environment
  1. Installation and workspace layout
  2. Chart Trader and SuperDOM
  3. Instruments, sessions and data series
  4. Replay, playback and the simulation account
Block 10 Brokers and data feeds
  1. Broker, introducing broker and FCM
  2. AMP Futures and NinjaTrader Brokerage
  3. CQG, Rithmic and alternative data feeds
  4. Exchange, data and commission fees
Block 11 Order types
  1. Market order
  2. Limit order
  3. Stop market and stop limit
  4. OCO, bracket order, GTC and day order
Block 12 Matching and execution
  1. Bid, ask and spread
  2. Aggressive and passive orders
  3. Price-time priority and queue position
  4. Partial fills, slippage and requotes

Monthly gatePlace 100 replay orders, compare fill quality and explain a contingency process for platform or data failures.

04

Auction theory and Volume Profile

Fundamentals

Reading the market as a continuous process of price discovery and auction.

Block 13 Auction Market Theory
  1. The market as a price discovery process
  2. Balance and acceptance
  3. Imbalance and price discovery
  4. Rejection and failed auction
Block 14 Volume Profile basics
  1. Volume by price
  2. Volume Point of Control
  3. Value Area High and Value Area Low
  4. High volume and low volume nodes
Block 15 Profile structures
  1. D-shaped, P-shaped and b-shaped profiles
  2. Double distribution profiles
  3. Thin areas and low volume zones
  4. Incomplete auctions and poor highs and lows
Block 16 Daily context
  1. The previous day profile
  2. Overnight inventory
  3. Value area overlap and value migration
  4. Open inside or outside the Value Area

Monthly gateClassify 20 daily profiles and define acceptance, rejection and target areas before the open of each trading day.

05

Footprint, delta and order flow

Fundamentals

Reading aggressive executions and passive price reaction together.

Block 17 Footprint basics
  1. How a bid-by-ask footprint is built
  2. Traded volume at each price level
  3. Bar delta and delta percentage
  4. Footprint POC and maximum volume
Block 18 Imbalances
  1. Diagonal bid and ask imbalance
  2. Imbalance ratio and minimum volume
  3. Stacked imbalances
  4. Imbalance without a price reaction afterwards
Block 19 Cumulative delta
  1. How cumulative delta is calculated
  2. Session reset and continuous delta
  3. Price and delta in agreement
  4. Price and delta divergence
Block 20 Absorption and exhaustion
  1. Aggressive volume without price progress
  2. Passive buyers and sellers
  3. Absorption versus exhaustion
  4. Confirmation through reclaim or break of structure

Monthly gateAnalyse 100 footprint sequences and explain why strong delta on its own is not a long or short signal.

06

Basic order flow setups

Fundamentals

Joining context, trigger, invalidation and execution into one playbook.

Block 21 The pullback setup
  1. Determining trend and context
  2. Pullback into VPOC, HVN or a structural level
  3. Footprint confirmation on the retest
  4. Entry, invalidation, stop and target
Block 22 The breakout setup
  1. Defining balance and range
  2. Recognising initiative activity
  3. Breakout acceptance versus failed breakout
  4. Entry on the break or on the retest
Block 23 The reversal setup
  1. Location at the extremes of the day
  2. Sweep and missing price progress
  3. Absorption, delta and reclaim
  4. Confirming a reversal instead of catching a falling knife
Block 24 The trading process
  1. The premarket plan
  2. Scenario, trigger and invalidation
  3. Position size and the daily loss limit
  4. Screenshot journal and end-of-day review

Monthly gateAt least 100 documented replay trades, ten faultless test trades and a complete premarket and review process.

07

DOM, order book and liquidity

Advanced

Understanding visible market depth, the queue and individual order events.

Block 25 Level 2 data
  1. Market by price
  2. Visible market depth
  3. Bid and ask liquidity
  4. The limits of aggregated level 2 data
Block 26 Reading the DOM
  1. Liquidity added and liquidity removed
  2. Pulling and stacking
  3. Liquidity walls
  4. Dynamic behaviour at the inside market
Block 27 Queue and fill mechanics
  1. Orders ahead
  2. Queue depletion
  3. Cancel versus execution
  4. The probability of a passive fill
Block 28 Level 3 and market by order
  1. Individual order events
  2. Add, modify, cancel and trade
  3. Replenishment and iceberg hypotheses
  4. Why order data does not prove who is behind an order

Monthly gateDocument one liquidity zone event by event, from the way it builds through the test to its resolution.

08

Advanced order flow

Advanced

Analysing speed, large executions and the reaction of liquidity as one sequence.

Block 29 Big trades
  1. Defining a large trade relative to the market
  2. Fixed threshold versus volume percentile
  3. Big trade clusters
  4. Price reaction after large executions
Block 30 Speed of Tape
  1. Trades per second
  2. Volume per second
  3. Interarrival time
  4. Acceleration and cooling off
Block 31 Sweeps and aggressive sequences
  1. Multi-level sweep
  2. Initiative buying and selling
  3. Sweep with price progress
  4. Sweep without price progress
Block 32 Heatmap and the reaction of liquidity
  1. Historical market depth
  2. Resting liquidity
  3. Pulling before the test
  4. Replenishment after the test

Monthly gateExplain one advanced order flow event as context → liquidity → aggression → passive reaction → price reaction → invalidation.

09

Professional trading models

Advanced

Turning repeatable order flow sequences into complete setup models.

Block 33 The continuation model
  1. Initiative move
  2. Stacked imbalance
  3. POC and value migration
  4. Continuation after a controlled retest
Block 34 The momentum model
  1. Pace acceleration
  2. Sweep and depth consumption
  3. Momentum entry
  4. Signal decay and time stop
Block 35 The failed auction model
  1. Testing the end of an auction
  2. Aggression without acceptance
  3. Return into the old Value Area
  4. Target at the VPOC or the opposite extreme
Block 36 The absorption reversal model
  1. Extreme location
  2. High volume with little progress
  3. Reclaim and change of structure
  4. Entry after confirmation

Monthly gateCollect 25 replay examples for each model – valid, invalid or skipped – judged by identical criteria.

10

Statistics, backtesting and edge

Advanced

Separating a robust effect from chance, lucky selection and market direction.

Block 37 Trading statistics
  1. Hit rate and payoff ratio
  2. Expectancy in R
  3. Profit factor and average trade
  4. Drawdown and losing streak
Block 38 Collecting the data
  1. Data contract and feature definition
  2. Labelling events and trades
  3. Cleaning the data
  4. Avoiding look-ahead bias
Block 39 Backtesting
  1. Manual backtesting
  2. Rule-based backtesting
  3. Realistic costs and fills
  4. In-sample and out-of-sample
Block 40 Robustness
  1. Walk-forward analysis
  2. Long and short results kept apart
  3. Bull, bear and sideways phases
  4. A parameter plateau instead of the best parameter

Monthly gateA research report on at least 200 trades, broken down by costs, long and short, market, session, regime and out-of-sample results.

11

Risk, execution and the trader's development

Advanced

Protecting performance through technical and psychological control of the process.

Block 41 Money management
  1. Risk per trade
  2. Daily and weekly loss limits
  3. A staged drawdown model
  4. Risk scaled to volatility and setup quality
Block 42 Trade management
  1. Fixed stop and structural stop
  2. Fixed target and liquidity target
  3. The trouble with moving to break-even
  4. Partial profit versus a full exit
Block 43 Execution quality
  1. Entry slippage
  2. Exit slippage
  3. Missed trades
  4. Post-fill markout
Block 44 Psychology as process control
  1. FOMO and overtrading
  2. Revenge trading
  3. Departures from the rules
  4. Break, lockout and restart process

Monthly gateAssess 30 trading days for rule compliance, setup quality, execution, emotion and one point to improve.

12

Your own strategy and the final stage

Advanced

Developing, validating and running a complete strategy package under control.

Block 45 Strategy design
  1. Stating the causal mechanism
  2. Determining context and market regime
  3. Defining trigger and entry
  4. Setting invalidation, stop and target
Block 46 Strategy validation
  1. Null hypothesis and baseline
  2. Cost and slippage stress test
  3. Walk-forward test
  4. Comparison across ES, NQ, long and short
Block 47 Paper trading and small live
  1. Replay sign-off
  2. The simulation phase
  3. Shadow trading
  4. The gate to small live trading
Block 48 Monitoring and optimisation
  1. Expected versus actual performance
  2. Feature, fill and regime drift
  3. Adjust, pause or retire the strategy
  4. The research and improvement cycle

Monthly gateDefend a capstone with at least 300 trades, a playbook, a walk-forward test, paper results, kill rules and a live monitoring plan.

Target level

What participants should be able to do reliably after six or twelve months. It is the aim of the plan, not a promise about the outcome.

After 6 months

Explain futures, market structure, Auction Theory, Volume Profile, footprint and delta – and trade simple setups by rule in the replay.

After 9 months

Use DOM, liquidity, Speed of Tape, large executions and advanced order flow sequences across several setup models.

After 12 months

Specify a strategy of your own, test it with realistic costs, validate it by direction and regime, and monitor it under control.

The plan is the frame; the pace follows the participant. The booked term is not extended by it.

You bring your own platform, broker, data feed and replay data; the Trading Station is not part of the programme.

This learning plan describes teaching. It is not investment advice, it contains no trading recommendation and it says nothing about future results. Anyone who trades futures can lose their capital in full.

Ready for the order flow?

An account takes a minute. Then 14 days of the whole station: footprint, delta, order book, tape – no payment details.

Afterwards from €49.99 / month or €999.00 once · books from €9.99 · final prices

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