1 tick profit on a 20 bags order is $25,000. It seems to me that you will move the market with such an order. Right now for SEP09 the offer is 17,000ish and the bid is 1,200ish Does it mean much that the ratio is 14:1 offer to bid?
Huh? 1 tick on 20k contracts is arnd $500k, no? Well, sure looks like it's the ratio is as you say... Whether those 16 bags on the offer are geniune or not, is another matter altogether although, I think, for Eurodollars it might very well be real. If you try to sell 20 bags in one go, you will sure move the mkt (at the mom, looks like 5 ticks or so).
ed's settle to three month libor so as GEU9 gets closer to settlement it'll be pegged essentially. U9 has been trading around 9956 to 9957, implying libor .43 to .44....3 month libor came in at .44 friday I believe. So it'll just range around what it thinks libor will come out on settlement day, w/ the range getting tighter and tighter. Monster size in the book is common w/ a lot of expirations. Sometimes real sometimes not.
Yes, in my experience, there's a lot less fun 'n games in front eurodollars than in other ccies. As a result, it's probably fair to expect things to happen in an orderly fashion as John describes. However, you never know...