Quote from davidfed:
Been watching the CL June spread. Since the open its been a 1 point market the whole time and the volume is low. As of 10:16 (Eastern time) volume =3864, bid -97 ask -96. Doesnt appear that theres much money in market making here. maybe different market feel on different days [/B]
Here are the CL June stats for the week of Feb 7, 2011...
Hour, Data Points, Average Bid Size, Average SPREAD, Average Ask Size
0...... 0........0.0..... 0.0..... 0.0
1...... 1358.... 3.9..... 5.3..... 3.9
2...... 5337.... 3.0..... 4.9..... 3.0
3...... 10263....3.3..... 4.4..... 3.3
4...... 9722.... 4.6..... 5.0..... 4.6
5...... 12178....8.5..... 5.0..... 8.5
6...... 10040....3.9..... 3.5..... 3.9
7...... 17621....3.6..... 3.6..... 3.6
8...... 50028....4.9..... 3.4..... 4.9
9...... 76068....6.7..... 3.0..... 6.7
10......80002....7.5..... 2.1..... 7.5
11......80256....6.6..... 3.2..... 6.6
12......62078....7.6..... 2.0..... 7.6
13......55793....6.6..... 1.7..... 6.6
14......56004....7.4..... 2.9..... 7.4
15......22383....5.5..... 2.8..... 5.5
16......14412....4.4..... 4.2..... 4.4
17......0........0.0..... 0.0..... 0.0
18......2598.... 1.5..... 8.1......1.5
19......2194.... 2.3..... 5.2..... 2.3
20......3552.... 3.1..... 5.4..... 3.1
21......7319.... 2.4..... 5.5..... 2.4
22......5732.... 2.9..... 5.8..... 2.9
23......6637.... 3.3..... 5.7..... 3.3
This is from IB's feed, data point = any change...
So close to 100K data points for each hour slot...
For example, 14 = 14:00-15:00, Ave Spread = 2.9 ticks...
The midnight hour and 17:00 are set to zero, bad data.
The average SPREAD between 9:00 and 16:00 = 2.5 ticks...
That is like a liquid stock with a bid/ask of 90.00-90.25
There's def money to be made here...
But you need quality infrastructure like CGQ...
Plus some quality custom programming with their API...
All designed and run by an experienced Quant...
Forget about manual, just give you a headache.