AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) shares caught a nice tailwind on November 12 after flashing a Power Inflow alert, one of those proprietary trading signals that order flow enthusiasts track religiously. The signal fired at 10:04 AM EST when the stock was trading at $228.47, and what happened next is exactly why traders pay attention to these things.
The Setup and the Move
Right before the Power Inflow signal triggered, ABBV had experienced a slight pullback following an earlier morning rally. Nothing dramatic, just the kind of pause that makes you wonder if the momentum is done. But then the order flow data told a different story. Following the signal, AbbVie started climbing steadily, eventually hitting $233.90 before 2:45 PM EST. That's a 2.38% pop from the signal price, which is a pretty decent intraday move for a pharmaceutical giant.
What made the move interesting wasn't just the price action. The order flow analytics showed a significant shift toward buying activity from both institutional players and retail traders right after the signal fired. That kind of coordinated buying pressure across different market participants is what gives these signals their predictive value.
How the Power Inflow Signal Actually Works
The Power Inflow alert comes from TradePulse, and it's designed to catch meaningful shifts in order flow during the first two hours of trading. The idea is straightforward: when you see a strong trend toward buying activity based on volume, timing, and order size data, there's a decent probability that bullish price movement will continue throughout the day.
Order flow analytics essentially give you a peek behind the curtain at what's actually happening in the market. Instead of just looking at price and volume, you're examining real-time buying and selling trends across retail and institutional traders. You get insights into who's doing what, when they're doing it, and how aggressively they're positioning. For active traders, that's valuable intelligence that can help identify strategic entry points before the broader market catches on.
Why This Signal Mattered
The timing of this particular alert makes it a textbook example of how order flow analytics can reveal underlying momentum that isn't immediately obvious from the price chart alone. ABBV looked somewhat stagnant right before the signal, but the order flow data was telling a different story about what institutional and retail traders were actually doing. A trader who acted on the Power Inflow signal and entered shortly after 10:04 AM could have captured that 2.38% intraday gain, demonstrating how these signals can provide an edge in identifying bullish momentum before it fully materializes in price.
For AbbVie, the move higher reflects renewed buying interest at a moment when the stock might have looked like it was losing steam. That's the whole point of tracking order flow—finding opportunities where the smart money is positioning before everyone else piles in.