I don't use IB or booktrader. Is that like the Dom/depth of market/time+sales type stuff? Is that the how you trade? I just use chats. Although I have been looking at this for the last few days. Looks like it should be useful. No idea how to read it, though! lol
I think your setup might have something to do with this video No, I do not use booktrader now, but have done in the past when trading NQ and ES - that NQ can move very quickly indeed and the booktrader can be very effective for spotting breakouts / reversals when used in conjunction with charts. Its not nice to be on the wrong side of an open position and see nearly all the bid / offers disappear on booktrader - but it can be nice when you are flat! Sample from IB website. https://www.interactivebrokers.com/images/emailImages/booktrader_wbubbles.jpg J_S
@J_Smith It really is just a simple case of bidders and sellers posting a small-sized bid and offer to hide their true buying power. They don't want to let you, the trader, know many shares they can take onto their books, or how many shares they have in their inventory to sell. If you look at time&sales tape for that symbol, you can see two large-sized trades going through without any issues, and not affecting the price. But the smaller earlier trade with only 100 shares was able to move the price because at that time, there wasn't anyone with deep pockets hiding behind a small size bid/offer to keep the price steady.
I guess this post became a selling pitch. Thanks for your help anyways, and be careful about people claiming that they somehow managed to acquire a secret formula that enables them to earn money fail proof. Just remember what happened in 2008, all those Wall Street people leaving their offices in tears because they lost their jobs. The truth is nobody can predict what is going to happen tomorrow. Don't forget it. That is the first rule if you ever want to trade the markets succesfully.
So far I Have not seen one single correct answer to OP's question. The correct answer would be: Around 9:33:.. the bid/offer spread was relatively wide at 49.26/49.51 and two single trades on either side, even in 1 share would have caused a 1-minute bar to show a high/low of around the spread which is exactly what you are seeing on the chart. Later on, around 10:07:.. the spread tightened to 49.47/49.50... simple as that, nothing to be seen here, move along folks...
You got to be kidding, right! Who in their right mind (no disrespect to the OP) would trade something like this when there are plenty more stocks that offer far greater opportunity on a daily basis. Why fish for sprats if there are plenty salmon in the river J_S
If only. More like typical for a low volume stock such as this one. Sh.. happens. Today for instance 9:31:04 Ask $49.27, 9:31:06 Bid $49.00, Ask 9:31:08 $49.26 Spread didn't narrow to under $0.10 well after 10:00 am So I believe myself and others already DID answer the question correctly. And that answer is low volume stocks act erratically. Find bigger fish. Or waste time trying to figure out "why did it do that".