thanks for that response GSE - "iceberg orders [hidden orders]" - but automated, yes that is what I was aluding to.
good to have somebody else's thoughts on the subject, and I think we are mostly in agreement about the reliabity of the info..... but I still think looking at the market depth can still help to build picture, used together with price action and traded volume.
in my opinion, observation of a stocks market depth over period of time should give some indication of what weighting you would give it when putting it (if at all) into the equation.
for instance if a stock has been in upward trend for some time with the number of shares wanting to be bought and sold being roughly equal for that period of time, and then all of a sudden the buy side collapses and the sell side increases markedly to give say a 1:5 buy /sell ratio - that is data that would have to be right at the fore of any stock holders considerations - and a change in the buyer seller ratio would be likely to precede the share price action.
