Taker flow records completed action
A taker buy matches against an ask; a taker sell matches against a bid. Aggregating their quote notional over a short window shows which direction consumed more liquidity. This classification concerns order behaviour, not the existence of a buyer and seller on every trade.
Executed flow is historical the moment it arrives. It shows what just happened, not how much liquidity will be present for the next order.
The order book records current advertised capacity
Nearby depth indicates how much visible limit quantity would have to be traded through at the sampled moment. It can help explain why the same taker notional has different price impact in a thick or thin book.
Resting orders are reversible before execution. They can be cancelled or replaced, and hidden liquidity is not visible in standard Level 2 data.
Four combinations, four contexts
Strong taker buying with thin asks describes aggressive demand meeting little visible nearby resistance. Strong buying with thick asks describes similar aggression encountering more displayed supply. The mirror cases apply to taker selling and bid depth.
These combinations are descriptive. A thick side can vanish, replenish, or absorb flow without producing a large price move. That is why Market Tug never labels pressure as a forecast.
Why Market Tug uses a 70/30 combination
Model mp-v1.1.0 emphasizes executed trade flow at 70% and uses nearby Level 2 imbalance at 30%. The weighting keeps completed action primary while preserving useful liquidity context.
Those weights are versioned model parameters. They cannot be changed as a design preference; any revision requires evidence, fixtures, a comparison report, an ADR, a new model version, and owner approval.