Market depth shows resistance only. None of the orders here...

Market depth shows resistance only.



None of the orders here represent aggressive buying or selling. In order for aggressive (real) buying to happen, a trader must cross the spread and lift the offer at 42.84. In order for selling to happen, a trader must hit the bid at 42.75. Otherwise nothing happens - there's no market.

The left side represents MM's & banks prepared to resist selling at whatever price they sit at. The right side represents MM's & banks prepared to resist buying at whatever price they sit. It's obvious, but it's worth thinking about the implications of this. There's also some retail traders in the mix, but we probably make up very little of the depth.

Retail traders are usually better off not putting their orders in the depth since they stick out like dogs balls to the banks who can manoeuver the price away from them. There are exceptional situations - eg. stocks with huge numbers of buyers sellers at each level. If you want to get filled, you're going to have to sit in the queue at some point.