Nanex Research
Nanex ~ 17-Dec-2013 ~ Liquidity During a Drought
Andrew Haldane from the Bank of England
once quipped that High Frequency Trading (HFT) provides liquidity during a monsoon,
but withdraws it during a drought. But there's more to this phenomenon, than the whim of a select group of high speed traders. When you have
a market that is based primarily on speed, only the very fastest traders are going to
want to participate during economic news releases, even, so called market makers whose job is to provide liquidity. This leads to a significant liquidity
vacuum during times of market stress. Liquidity evaporates so completely during
economic news releases, that a normal sized order order placed during this time can
cause a spectacular price move that may even result in a
trading halt. Even in Treasury Futures.
Fortunately, this did not happen during the 8:30 release of the
Consumer Price Index on December 17, 2013. But the potential was there.
We use the term liquidity to mean how many orders are resting in the exchange limit
order book that can absorb aggressive trades without impacting the price. You should
be aware that this term is often confused by people who should know better, such as
the European FIA Chairman.
1. March 2014 5-Year T-Note (ZF) Futures Depth of Book (how to read).
2. March 2014 T-Bond (ZB) Futures Depth of Book.
3. March 2014 eMini (ES) Futures Depth of Book.
4. March 2014 Dollar Index (DX) Futures Depth of Book.
Nanex Research
Inquiries: pr@nanex.net