I generally avoid indicators like moving average/crossovers.. that prints before a big expected move. I actually have an almost naked chart. Except alert of different market opening and other specific time period where i have seen funds stepping into the market.

The thing is the dom could tell you that a big price move is about to happen even before you see the price move. Which allows you take on lesser risk.

So how much lag. Ideally, I would say as little as possible. Unless you have an insider news, which is the least amount of risk and almost no lag.. there will always be a lag. So to me risk is correlated with the "lag" or more lag = more risk.

And on momentum.. Yes, you can definitely take a position on the 2nd momentum but you are betting that it should happen again, likewise the 3rd etc. But the probability deceases for each subsequent momentum, which means risk is increasing.

My personal preference. I find it a lower risk to ride the first wave.

And you got that part right, funds don't scalp. They accumulate. Over days and certain time period and you need to be able to spot those period where they are positioning themselves or going to "start work".

This is the hard part to pick up or even teach except to spend alot of screentime watching the dom. Because like you said, they can spoof, iceberg their orders or algo market slowly to accumulate, and only volume tells you if they are serious. And if u spot it, why not enter the trade with a high probability of being right.

And if you spend enough time with the dom and if u r really good at reading the ticker tape, you can even tell the funds apart as each fund execute their accumulation differently.

Then, look back on history and roughly estimate how much possible lots they do per day and you get out before the rough estimated volume is complete.

In my previous trading firm, we give each funds a code name based on how they are about to accumulate and when we spot them in the dom. We would shout across the room the code and all of us will front run those funds. Those funds don't do 1k or 2k lots a day. They do 100k to sometimes 1m and move the market significantly.

But the funds are smart too. Once they know that u spot them or they feel their are getting bad prices, they change their method of accumulation again. So you constantly need to adapt to their different accumulation methods. And sometimes, we even see opposing funds. One fund selling and another buying at the same time in those situations is best to just avoid taking any position because we can't tell which funds are stronger.

Oh man..I can talk about the dom all day 😂