could you please elaborate further about this bait orders?
Think of them as derived orders. The exchange (OM system) will take current market prices to create "synthetic" spread orders which will update based on the quotes of each leg. There is an order type for market makers to trade or create such spread orders. So "bait orders" are really just an order type called MO37 that the OM system for HKEX supports. It is a two sided double quote to effectively create spread orders.
Let's look at basic future spreads.
- Assume a future market of 100 at 110 in the front month and no market in the second month.
- You place a bid of 5 for the roll ie. pay 5 more points for the outer month than the front month.
- The system will then create a bit order in the second month which will update with each tick in the front month of 105 bid.
So if someone else comes in and sells the second month future at 105, you will get the fill at 105 and you sell sell the front month future at 100 to the other party on the bid. The 105 bid in the second month is "the bait" order.
For quote requests for a spread, you'll need to put in two quotes at the same time. That is done via order type MO37 and that is the order type that apparently caused the problems at the exchange.
Hopefully this is somewhat clear but if not, check HKEX or other exchanges that use the OM system and search for "bait" and MO37 and you'll probably get better explanations and examples.