"When trading is taking place at the ask (higher price) it means there is buying pressure. When trading happens at the bid (lower price) selling pressure.
To find trapped buyers use an anchored VWAP. Find the most recent large volume event anchor it there. The VWAP shows the volume weighted average price since the event. If the current price is below that it means the average trade since the event was done at a higher price. All those people are trapped and hoping for some kind of bounce to get out at break even. If the price gets up to the AVWAP it forms a resistance line because they all sell to get out of a bad trade.
Institutions show up as large size trades. Or 2000 shares show up and get filled then another 2000 immediately shows up from the same broker. And that goes on all day long.
Short covering rallys have unique characteristics that show up as relentless upward spiky price action. All day long any tiny drop will find heavy buying instantly."
I found this nugget in Reddit.
Bitcoin tips: 3GdFEYFL47pYjybbGEABm2MWJSUGCnEtrF
Source: ~~~ embed:technicalanalysis/comments/15wq5x1/how_do_you_know_what_other_traders_are_doing/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb reddit metadata:fHRlY2huaWNhbGFuYWx5c2lzfGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnJlZGRpdC5jb20vci90ZWNobmljYWxhbmFseXNpcy9jb21tZW50cy8xNXdxNXgxL2hvd19kb195b3Vfa25vd193aGF0X290aGVyX3RyYWRlcnNfYXJlX2RvaW5nLz91dG1fc291cmNlPXNoYXJlJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09bXdlYnw= ~~~