You're talking about a kind of Level II, but it doesn't show layers of waiting, just the current waiting orders for the current price, so I don't know how much use it would be for longer than a few minutes. Do you or anyone know how to set IB's tradestation not to log you out?
No, it shows up to 5 price levels on the Bid and Ask side. So, lets the say current market is at 9571x9572, market depth will show me the size on 9571, 9570, 9569, 9568, and 9567 on tjhe Bid side and vice versa on the Ask side. -FastTrader
Consider this scenario: I want to go long 50 Contracts, but the liquidity or depth is very thin, So i put in an order above the offer to sell 500, people looking at depth see this as some sort of support, so more shorts suddenly appear assuming the 500 offer will act as a buffer, I managed to buy my 50 into this breif selling, then I pull my order for 500 above the offer. Job done. This is a well known method (market abuse) for getting filled at the levels you want by bringing in more volume, you can see it day in day out in the pit and on the electronic exchanges, just watch those big orders get pulled before they get filled.
IB TWS users: Right click on the symbol's row, left click on Market Depth. IMHO don't waste your time, it's totally unuseful and deceiving.
I more favorable method locals use is the drop the floor trick. They insert large orders, usually in the 1000-1500 range, at 3 levels under the current price. When enough longs are on board they pull the orders and sell into the coming long covering panic . If you watch the market depth on ES you will see it soon enough. TM Trader
Notice the market depth on the YM is a little bit delayed. IB claims the fix is in the works for a while now, but nothing yet. TM Trader
big size flashing in the direction i want to go scares me, more often than not it seems to be fake. if the big size is real, the price should move, not just sit there. long YM @ 9543.