Yea, it seems to be the case that traders are pulling bids quicker than they are taking the offers, or lifting the offers in the last few sessions. Hence prices are falling much quicker than they are rising.
One example from today. This also addresses your comment that the SPY's lead the QQQs by 15 seconds or whatever. I disagree that the SPYs are leading the QQQ's. It all depends on what the market dynamics are doing at that particular second. First trade I took this morning was based on this very relationship.
SP's sold off to 893 then found a bottom right on the open(11/19). SP's rally up to 898 and take a look at the SOX at this time...sitting there like a bump on a log, and almost downtrending with a 5 SP rally! The SOX lately has led this market around by the hand, you have to be aware of this. I knew this and was ready to hit the bid in the QQQ's as soon as the SP rally lost steam. Sure enough, at 6:50(PST), the SP's lose the juice and what happens next....the naz/qqq's/sox takes a hold of this market and we sell off. I hit the bid in qqq's at 6:49 at 25.75 as soon as the SP's rollover....and still uptrending. The naz rolls overs and leads the market, SP's, lower.
So it all depends on what sector is leading the market around.
I covered some QQQ's at 6:54, more at 7:11, and last of it at 7:18. Not because the SOX/NAZ was running out of the juice , but b/c the SP's were gaining strength in the banks/broker sectors. So in this case, it was the SP's taking a hold of the market. Don't get me wrong, not trying to pretend like I have the answers. This has just been what I'm using lately, b/c my bread-butter trading, scalping NYSE, is frigging' dead. So bad it seems like i need to adapt or fail!
Later all. Todd.