Nanex Research
Nanex ~ 26-Sep-2012 ~ Natural Gas Bottle Rocket
On September 26, 2012 at 10:04:12, trading in the November 2012 Natural Gas Futures exploded with 2,495
contracts rocketing the price 2.7% in about 175 milliseconds. The notional value of
the 2,495 contracts is about $80 million.
When viewing the impact on prices in corresponding Natural Gas ETFs (UNG, BOIL, KOLD,
UGAZ ) it becomes clear that NYMEX was overloaded from processing the mass of
trades in the November 2012 contract. In fact, prices in the ETFs returned near the
starting point, before prices in the futures peaked! One unexplained anomaly - the mini
contract version of this contract (symbol QG) did not react to the price move until
well after it was over.
We also
found significant activity in Natural Gas futures options (symbol
ON) in the minutes and seconds before the move began which suggests this may have been
intentional..
1. NG November 2012 Natural Gas Futures - 100 millisecond interval chart showing trades and quote spread. Contract volume in lower panel.
2. NG November 2012 Natural Gas Futures - 100 millisecond interval chart showing quote spread. Quote rate in lower panel.
3. Compare 5 millisecond interval charts.
4. Compare 1 millisecond interval charts.
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