Nanex Research
Nanex ~ 16-Oct-2013 ~ Panthers on the Loose?
On October 16, 2013, starting about an hour before the European open at 3:00 ET, an unusually large buy
order appeared near the top of book in the December 2013 eMini (ES) futures contract:
5 lots of 1000 contracts, or orders to buy 5,000 contracts total. That is a huge order,
even during regular trading hours.
About 2 minutes before 3:00, the buy orders
were moved up to the top of the book. Trades that appear at this level until 2:59 were executions
against other existing orders in the book
(and not against the large buy orders). Just before selling began in earnest at 4 seconds after 3am, all
5 orders, comprising 4,599 contracts 1 were canceled. This behavior is similar to the Panther case. It shouldn't
take the regulator more than an hour to figure out who did it, and a day to find out
the intent. We'll wait.
1. December 2013 eMini (ES) Futures Depth of Book - Tick Chart (how
to read).
2. December 2013 eMini (ES) Futures Depth of Book - 1 second interval (zoomed
out from above).
3. Here it is earlier that morning.
4. Same behavior about 30 minutes before 3:00 ET.
5. Shortly after 3:00 ET.
6. Last time it was seen (as of 7am).
1. Note - this paper originally reported all 5,000 contracts were canceled. Though this does not materially change the nature of this paper, a hat tip
to reader @bfarzin for pointing it out.
Nanex Research
Inquiries: pr@nanex.net