How to read the NEPSE floorsheet (and what broker numbers can and can't tell you)
What each column of the NEPSE floorsheet means, how broker buying and selling is added up into accumulation and distribution, and the limits of reading broker flow.
4 min read
The floorsheet is the full list of trades on NEPSE for a day: every single match between a buyer and a seller. Most investors only look at prices, but the floorsheet also shows which brokers were on each side. That's the raw material behind broker accumulation and distribution views, and it's easy to misread.
The columns
Each row is one completed trade:
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Contract number | The trade's unique ID |
| Symbol | The company traded |
| Buyer broker | The number of the broker whose client bought |
| Seller broker | The number of the broker whose client sold |
| Quantity | Number of shares in this trade |
| Rate | Price per share |
| Amount | Quantity × rate |
| Time | When the trade matched |
One large order often appears as many rows. If someone buys 5,000 shares and the sellers are spread across twenty orders, the floorsheet shows up to twenty separate trades, all with the same buyer broker.
Broker numbers
NEPSE has 91 licensed stockbrokers, each identified by a number (for example, broker 58). The floorsheet never shows who the investor is. A broker number stands for all of that broker's clients put together: individuals, institutions, and the broker's own account if it trades.
Accumulation and distribution
Adding up a broker's trades in one stock over a period gives its net position:
Net quantity = shares bought − shares sold
- A broker with a large positive net quantity over weeks is accumulating: its clients bought more than they sold.
- A broker with a large negative net quantity is distributing: its clients sold more than they bought.
People watch this because big, steady net buying through one or two brokers can mean a large investor is building a position, while heavy selling concentrated in a few brokers can mean someone is getting out.
What broker flow can't tell you
This is where most readings go wrong:
- One broker, many clients. A broker with 30,000 net shares bought may have one big client or three thousand small ones. The floorsheet can't tell them apart.
- Same broker on both sides. A trade with the same buyer and seller broker is usually two different clients of that broker, not a broker trading with itself.
- Trades, not orders. The floorsheet only shows what matched. It says nothing about orders still waiting in the queue, which is what market depth shows.
- Timing. Accumulation over the past month says what happened, not what happens next. Positions can be sold the following week.
- Window choice changes the story. A broker can be a net buyer over one week and a net seller over three months. Check more than one window before drawing a conclusion.
Broker flow is best used as context next to price, volume and fundamentals, not as a signal on its own.
How to use it well
- Start with concentration. If two or three brokers account for most of a stock's net buying, that's more meaningful than the same amount spread across forty brokers.
- Compare windows. Look at one week, one month and three months together. Consistent net buying across all three is stronger evidence than one busy day.
- Look at the price at the same time. Accumulation while the price is flat or falling tells a different story from accumulation into a sharp rally.
- Check volume. Net buying of 5,000 shares means little in a stock that trades 500,000 a day, and a lot in one that trades 10,000.
Where to find it on NepseLytics
After signing in, the floorsheet page shows the live and historical floorsheet with filters by stock and broker. The broker pages add up every trade into net buying and selling per broker and per stock over any window, and each stock page has a Brokers tab showing its top net buyers and sellers. An account is free.
Broker flow describes past trades. It doesn't predict prices and isn't investment advice.
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