Imbalance of total buyers to sellers.A big ratio of total buyers...

Imbalance of total buyers to sellers.

A big ratio of total buyers to sellers indicates the price is extremely unlikely to go down (and vice versa for a big number of total sellers to buyers). You can bet on this - it's reliable. But it doesn't necessarily mean the price will continue up.

Watch the course of sales for clues as to who is in control - buyers or sellers. Banks use algos because they have to. Here's a basic accumulate/distribute algo that can be used by retail traders (not that we would, but it's available).