Is the order book misleading?

[tradingGary]

-Have been looking at the order book for a few days/nights now and can't seem to add up the executions to the bid/ask volume. Often see a lot of cancellations and such...

I have heard plenty of times that big players influence the order book (by placing orders and canceling them, and so on)

Do people here use the order book to see patterns on where the price is heading?

What are some ways big HF/Institutional players use to mislead a regular joe like me? (I am mostly looking at futures, but interested in stocks/currencies as well)

Thanks for your input!
-Gary

[Tremblinghandtrader]

Hi Gary

What is sitting in the order book is 90% useless. What counts is what side is hitting @ market and what side is pulling orders. But with algo trading edges in order book reading has all but disappeared. Do not fall for the all too easy assumption that a lot of orders sitting in the bids will lead to prices rising.