What a depth of market window would show, and why retail rarely sees it

[Amanhasnoname]

Futures traders watch a ladder of bids and offers, with sizes at each level. It shows where orders are waiting and how fast they get consumed. Forex has no central exchange, so there is no single ladder.

Some brokers offer a depth of market view anyway, usually from their own liquidity pool. It is useful, but it shows only what that broker has, not the whole market. The sizes shown may also be partly decorative.

A real indication of order flow in forex comes from comparing across venues, or using futures as a reference. The CME's currency futures show actual traded volume and a real order book, and they correlate with spot moves on major pairs.

Without access to either, a scalper is mostly inferring flow from price action, spread behavior, and tick rhythm. That is a weaker tool than people admit.

It is worth being honest about this limit, since many order flow courses imply a visibility that does not exist in spot forex.

What sources of order flow information are actually used in scalping, and how reliable do they prove?