Quote from profitseer:
Well then how bout this. You want to get long really bad, but you want to buy the bid. Wait until the bid becomes the offer, then buy at the market, and you should get filled at what you thought was a good price.
I thought I would revive this thread, because the ticks can potentially add up and make a difference, IF one can nail the optimal strategy and IF there is not an offsetting opportunity cost to capturing the spread...
I have wondered about doing what profitseer was talking about (which isn't actually capturing the spread, but is waiting for the price to come in a tick on bid and offer, so is equivalent in monetary terms to capturing the spread, relative to the initial price observed)... however, occasionally the emini just doesn't stop and you end up missing a fantastic trade... but this has to balanced against the numerous times where a tick saving could have easily been made...
Has anyone done any extensive backtesting on order placement to work out if waiting for the bid and offer to come in a tick (the monetary equivalent of capturing the spread) is actually a net positive strategy, given the opportunity cost of an occasional missed trade which ran strongly ?