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トラマスター
10/01/2026 05:32
Release： 10/01/2026 05:32
Update： 10/01/2026 05:32
トラマスター
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I have been facing the market for 15 years, through full-time and part-time work. I mainly focus on short-term to day trading in FX and commodities. The indicators and tools published here are originally practical tools I created and refined to optimize my own trading environment and to eliminate emotions by rigorously following rules. I believe the most important factor for surviving in the markets for a long time is not finding a holy grail, but maintaining a stable environment and discipline. I have developed these tools from a practical, on-the-ground perspective to reduce the burden of staring at the screen and to remove hesitation in judgment. I hope traders who feel similar challenges can also benefit from them, so I’ve organized and shared them in this form. Rather than flashy hype or unrealistic numbers, I design them with a focus on real usability and reproducibility in actual trading scenarios. I would be grateful if you could use them to improve daily trading accuracy and support market sense.
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What techniques are used by major investment banks?!

New analyst/associate training at major investment banks and prop firms like Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley rarely teaches technical indicators favored by individual investors, such as oscillator-type indicators (RSI, MACD, etc.).However, divergences are effective.


1. TWAP (Time Weighted Average Price)

  • Overview: Where VWAP weights by volume, TWAP calculates the average price by equally spacing time intervals.

  • Why it is taught in training: Using VWAP algorithms in periods with thin volume or low-liquidity names can distort prices with your own orders (signaling risk). Therefore, TWAP is taught rigorously as the most important benchmark for large players to execute stealthily and evenly without being noticed by the market.

  • Retail vs. institutional view: Retail focuses on VWAP, but institutions assume a behavior of quietly accumulating with TWAP in areas with no volume.


2. Anchored VWAP (Anchored VWAP: AVWAP)

  • Overview: Standard VWAP starts from the beginning of the trading day, while AVWAP starts calculations from a specific anchor point.

  • Reality in training: Institutional investors manage positions using VWAP anchored not only to today’s open but to events listed below as anchors.

    • Moment of FOMC or central bank policy rate announcements

    • Recent quarterly earnings release date

    • YTD, month start, SQ (major SQ)

    • Swing highs/lows (moments of trend initiation)

  • Importance: Because the average acquisition cost of all large-scale investors entering after that earnings period is visible, AVWAP becomes a strong support/resistance level.


3. TPO Profile (Market Profile) and Volume Profile

  • Overview:Not on the x-axis (time), but on the y-axis (price levels) display “Time per TPO” and “executed volume (Volume)” as a histogram tool.

  • Key figures:

    • POC (Point of Control): The price range with the most business activity during that period (the consensus price among big players).

    • VAH / VAL (Value Area High / Low): The boundary of the “fair value” where about 68% of total trading occurs (within 1σ of the standard deviation).

  • Why use it: Institutions judge whether the current price is premium or discount relative to the value area, not by candlesticks. Beginners first learn the flow of “outside the fair value (range break or excessive deviation)” and “inside (mean reversion)” using this tool.


4. Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD)

  • Overview:Not price-limited; shows the difference between aggressive buy and sell orders (market orders) as a cumulative line.

  • Role in training and on the prop desk:

    • When prices rise but CVD falls, it’s clear that market buys have slowed and large players are absorbing (absorbing liquidity) by selling limit orders.

    • By looking for divergences, determine the moment when institutions take advantage of retail traps at breakouts (liquidity absorption).


5. Order Flow / Footprint (Footprint / Order Book Heatmap)

  • Overview:Decomposes a single candlestick into price-by-price Bid/Ask volume differences, visualized numerically (tools like Bookmap and Sierra Chart).

  • Rationale: Used to track in real time large iceberg orders behind book depth and where losses were triggered (liquidity sweeps) at which price bands.


Summary: What they are really watching

Common across institutional investor education at GS and other firms is the point that we do not use trailing indicators derived from past price data (like moving averages or MACD) for trading decisions.

They focus on the three elements of volume, time, and order flow, and rigorously train to visualize where other participants have placed stops and large orders and how to trigger their executions.


↓ These are the high-functionality indicators based on those concepts. ↓

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