Quote from RangeTrader:
Smaller traders can just exit with a profit if possible and re-enter the next resistance/support area.
Big traders trading thousands of cars have to continually average because the market doesn't have enough liquidity for them to just move in and out.
I once saw a cme trained pro trader managing 500 cars in overnight session and just nailing it. He had to average/in out through each cycle in the trend because he was just in too large of a position for the liquidity level of the market. Shifting too many cars at once would move the market and cost him.
If you hang around ToS chats long enough you sometimes see some pro traders come in and show off in the pre-market session.
The other retail traders that were hanging out in the chat were just in shock at how he was playing trades perfectly through what others would call "noise". Of course... He said by judging the volume moving past that it was likely there were only around 3 big players in the market with him working it at the time.
The weird thing about the market is that even though you see a lot of contracts going past... One big player in the market has a HUGE influence on the natural market motion. I'm not exactly sure the exact amount... But, to not move the market you have to be trading like 1/10th of the average minute to minute volume over like 10 minutes.
Anyone know the exact numbers? Cramer once demonstrated how he could move the market around to show off. LoL... When your hand moves the market you lose money though. A lot of the liquidity that appears to be there on the L2 tends to appear and disappear a lot.
The only people that know for a fact how liquid the market is trade hundreds to thousands of cars. I tell you though... At key turning points not all that many cars go past in the key areas as the best prices.
Not many at all...