Latency and liquidity provision in a limit order book
Latency and liquidity provision in a limit order book
This paper empirically analyzes order flow dynamics in a limit order book (LOB) using high-quality Nasdaq data for five large-tick stocks. The authors study the mean cumulative net order flow at the best quotes before and after market order arrivals. After a market order, they identify four distinct phases: a platform-latency phase with zero net flow, a response-latency phase with slight positive flow, a high-speed reaction phase with strong negative flow at the same-side quote and positive flow at the opposite-side quote, and a lower-speed reaction phase with positive flow at the same-side quote and negative flow at the opposite-side quote. The high-speed reaction phase is attributed to high-frequency traders canceling limit orders, while the subsequent refill phase is consistent with stimulated refill. Before a market order, net flow is negative at the same-side quote, indicating adverse selection avoidance, with a slight reversal just before the order. The findings suggest that liquidity providers balance adverse selection and waiting costs, highlighting the need for multi-mechanism models of strategic liquidity provision.
Highlights
- 1Identifies distinct phases of net order flow after market order arrivals: platform-latency, response-latency, high-speed reaction, and lower-speed reaction phases.
- 2Provides empirical evidence of stimulated refill at the same-side best quote and net outflow at the opposite-side best quote after market order arrivals.
- 3Shows that net order flow before market order arrivals is negative at the same-side best quote, consistent with adverse selection avoidance.
- 4Demonstrates that strategic liquidity providers consider both adverse selection and expected waiting costs.
- 5Uses high-quality Nasdaq data with nanosecond precision to capture fine-grained order flow dynamics.
Methods
- MEmpirical analysis of limit order book data from Nasdaq for 5 large-tick stocks (MSFT, INTC, YHOO, MU, CSCO) over six months.
- MCalculation of mean cumulative net order flow at best quotes after conditioning on price-maintaining market orders.
- MBootstrap resampling to estimate standard errors of mean cumulative net order flow.
- MNormalization of order flow by mean queue length to facilitate cross-stock comparisons.
Results
- RAfter a market order, net order flow at the same-side best quote shows four phases: zero (platform latency), slightly positive (response latency), strongly negative (high-speed reaction), and positive (lower-speed refill).
- RAt the opposite-side best quote, net order flow is strongly positive during high-speed reaction, followed by negative net outflow.
- RBefore a market order, net order flow at the same-side best quote is negative from at least 10 seconds prior, reversing to slightly positive just before arrival.
- RThe progression through phases is approximately contemporaneous across all five stocks despite differences in trading activity.
- RPlatform latency is about 10^-6 seconds, and response latency extends to about 10^-4.5 seconds.
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