thats what I would say. I also imagine when you have supercomputers collocated at the CME/Nymex, and you're trading a large size you need to fade into and out of a leg to trade your position. You would therefore have some complex algorithms, designed by the smartest software engineers whose sole purpose is to understand the order matching specifications and are therefore able to execute your orders in stealth and at the best possible execution. So was it accumulation at 8518? I would need to see it in context and what happened before (on the chart, at this level and on the tape) and what happens immediately after are just as important imo.
I've spent a lot of time watching CL time & sales (not dome bid/ask) flow to gauge what type of size is scaleable before slippage is a constant issue. I consider shown bid/ask to be worthless information and only executed trades on time & sales to be of any value. You can see a lot of 100-lot orders trading without moving the market 1 cent, all day long. Those orders on time & sales are often broken into pieces like: 24 12 4 7 3 1 1 4 4 5 3 2 etc... executed to the same 10th of a second. Those are clearly someone's entry or exit on 100-lot that is broken into the other side of opposing trades True block orders for 50, 100 and more contracts often clear 1 cent above the ask or 1 cent below the bid. Those are likely off-exchange trades OR part of spreads where both legs of the spread fill at once. Perhaps the other side of those spreads in back-month contract likewise clear at -1 cent premium for execution but big spread traders factor in slippage as part of the natural process. Bottom line is CL traders can clear 50-lot and 100-lot orders with acceptable slippage but that won't happen in tick-banger fashion all over the chart. There is a difference between flipping one-lots twenty times a day and working 50-lot orders inside one or two directional pushes per day. In the end there is good money to be made trading 1-lots and vulgar profit potential trading big blocks. It's all good, any way you opt to slice it
All out @TP 84.76 around 3:30 am this morning. (A truck full of shorts) ready for the next one. (looking for sell)
GM Just woke up. In my dream right before I woke up I caught a 70 tick ride up on CL while trading from a smart phone. But then I inadvertently made a 6E trade without knowing it, and a few minutes later a message popped up which said, "We closed out your position in 6E for you." And it had wiped out my account. :eek: I really did have this dream. Hey, I was up at 3 AM downloading indicators for NT 7. The life of a trader.