Video lesson · SignalsBitcoin ETF flows: how to read daily inflows and outflows
Bitcoin ETF flows — how much money went into the coin's spot funds in a day and how much left. The lesson takes 2:24; its full text is below the video.
Narrated in Russian. English subtitles are on by default.
ETF Flows in short
What does ETF Flows show?
The pane shows the net inflow or outflow of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the chart coin on every trading day, in millions of dollars. A green bar up means more money came into the funds that day than left; a red bar down means more left than came in. It works for coins that have spot funds with a history of flows: BTC and ETH today. For other coins the pane is empty and the legend says "no data".
How to read ETF Flows?
- The height of a bar is the day's total in millions of dollars; its colour and direction show whether money came into the funds or left.
- On the daily chart a bar stands on the candle of its day. On 4h, 1h and smaller charts the day's total stands on every candle of that day, so a day looks like a step of one height.
- On 3D, 1W and 1M charts a bar is the sum of all trading days of the candle.
- Funds do not trade on weekends and holidays, so those days have no bar. There is no bar for today either: the day's total appears on the next day, once it is final.
- The legend shows the day's total under the cursor with its sign: an inflow with a plus, an outflow with a minus.
How to use ETF Flows?
- Watch the runs: several days of inflows in a row show steady demand through the funds, a run of outflows shows money steadily leaving them.
- Compare with the price: a price rising on fund outflows or falling on inflows is a divergence worth noticing.
- Turn on "Cumulative total" to see how much money has come into the funds or left them over the history on the chart.
- A single large bar describes a day that has passed and does not tell where the price goes next.
- Set an alert on the value on the daily chart or larger: the day's total arrives after its candle has closed.
What do you often see on ETF Flows?
- Funds tend to follow price: they buy into rallies and sell into declines.
- Inflows near bottoms are rarer than on an ordinary day.
- Fund wallets move after the daily total is known, so there is no lead.
- One big bar describes the past day, not the next one.
Where can I find ETF Flows?
In the Liqwall terminal: the Indicators button, the Signals section, ETF Flows. The “Open in the terminal” button on this page opens the chart with it already added.
Lesson text
0:00What ETF Flows is
How much money came into bitcoin ETFs yesterday, and how much left? ETF Flows shows it as a bar for every trading day.
0:10How to add ETF Flows to the chart
Press the Indicators button, open the Liqwall list and type ETF Flows in the search. The bars appear in a separate panel under the chart.
0:20How to read ETF Flows
The indicator works for bitcoin and ether. A green bar going up means more money came into the funds that day than left. A red one going down means more left. The height is the amount in millions of dollars.
On the daily chart the bar sits on its own day's candle, and on the hourly chart the day's total stretches as a step across all its candles. There is no bar on weekends and holidays, and today's appears tomorrow, when the total is final. Turn on Cumulative total and a running-total line appears: how much came in or left in total over the history on screen. Watch the streaks.
Several days of inflow in a row mean steady demand through the funds. Several days of outflow mean money is leaving.
1:07An example on a real chart
An example. Bitcoin, September. On the 15th and 16th money flows out of the funds — almost 750 million dollars in two days. And the price slides toward 75 thousand.
From September 17 the picture turns around. Nine trading days in a row — only green bars. On the 21st almost a billion comes in a single day. In total more than 3 billion dollars came into the funds during this streak, and bitcoin rose from 76 thousand to 87 thousand 400.
And the opposite case. On October 7 and 8 — two red bars in a row. More than 700 million of outflow. And over those days the price fell from 85.5 thousand to 80.3 thousand.
1:58What to pair ETF Flows with
Keep Smart Money Zones next to it. There the fund flows are gathered into accumulation and distribution zones. Corporate Holdings will show whether public companies were buying on those days, and Macro Correlation — how the market is linked to stocks.
2:15The takeaway
Funds show where the big money goes, and a streak of bars reads better than a single day.
Add the indicator to the chart and look at it on your own coin.Free account — no card needed.