For my own entertainment, here's a video of the first "interesting" thing that I observed in hindsight on ZC price ladder, Friday Feb 27th (GMT in display). More to follow as and when I have the inclination to watch ZC replays. Path of least resistance on the day was to the upside. A stealthy buyer seems to place an ice-berg on the bid at 390.25. It takes six minutes for him to soak up 852 contracts, before lifting 500 from the offer. Was that a +EV spot to buy also? In summary: Time = GMT 4:21:00 Price = 390.25
nice "double whammy" lets say trader X sees we are trading towards a high (stop orders,short leaners) .. he starts to build a (long) position (refresh/Iceberg) .. as soon he has everything bought he lifts the offer along the way he allready positioned his sell orders .. (probably out most of his position @391.25.... price ticked above the high.. then trader X may fade the breakout (he ignitiated)... hits the bid.. to catch some downside ticks aswell !?! .. or was it trader Y who faded ? .. doesnt mather.. just a few ticks.. but size mathers ..
I have noticed similar occurrences on the Bund also. If you watch the DOM for long enough these things start to stand out from the norm. Are you trading any of these setups?
Have placed countless trades on bund, on the basis of staring at the price ladder. Couldn't do any better than break even though. Haven't traded corn. I'm exploring whether the price ladder is easier to read for obscure products such as corn ("obscure" in the sense that it isn't a mega-product like ES or FGBL).
I agree apple. Two things I am considering and these are based on posts from Garachen. Quote from "Garachen". This is all best done with a contract that is not super news sensitive and where there are a good proportion of manual traders vs algo traders. Esoteric Agricultural products may meet that description.
Yep. Great posts from garachen and I had exactly that in mind when I started watching less popular products
Fascinating action on the price ladders today, but due to lack of interest I'm inclined not to continue posting here. Just wanted to give fair warning, as I do myself find it frustrating when an ET thread runs cold with no explanation.