Flow

A market flow is a way of labelling a group of transactions that has entered the market from a consistent source. The ‘flow’ might be a producer hedging their production for Q4 next year with a fixed amount of volume to sell of a given crude contract. All the transactions that comprise the producer’s hedge would be considered part of the producer’s flow. It could also be speculative positioning one way until a trader maximises their risk tolerance. Market makers will take on a flow that needs to be executed and derisk this core flow against the flow of other contracts.