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Verbally quoting the Inside Market...for Scalpers mostly
@John47 what does it matter? The data is the same. It would be better to add context. I'd just any of the following:
Ten twenty five by ten fifty, 75 @ ten fifty
Ten twenty five heavy by ten fifty
The context not self-evident is what is more important for the tape reader. This is basically the way I do it in my head and it is a good way to read the tape. But I add extra context which is more important.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals and Crypto.
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Always thought it was you bidPrice FOR Quantity, but maybe that's when your giving orders rather than quoting them. Bit of a moot point now since nobody calls in orders to the pit any more. Of course when quoting in the pit you often didn't know exact quantities. So the quote might be X by Y size up, or X by Y light bid. Additionally the thing nobody has mentioned yet is any color on the orders. X by Y, small paper bid, locals on offer. Also as a crude trader it was common to here small bid coming of the crack which would mean the bid in the pit was somebody who was bidding crude based upon a bid in the gasoline or heating oil pit as he was trying to leg a crack spread. Then you knew if the Gasoline or Heating Oil bid got hit you'd lose the crude bid. 'Ohh the good olde days'
Bid FOR or BID on...I don't think notice the difference as long as Price was before quantity. Maybe that was just how the NYMEX did it. But the rest I've all heard used at CME.
Ie...in ES just cause its what everyone knows...you may hear "Market is 15 Bid AT 15 half....paper on the 15 Bid...15 quarter trade.....quarters go BID small....quarter Bid stiffens....PAPER coming up 15 quarter Bid....quarter's BID hard...Halves trading on the offer....paper lifts 15 half offer....Half BID, papers buying!....three quarter offer getting pulled...three quarter GOES BID"
etc.
"PAPER" I think is a universal Pit term to describe essentially what the online community calls "Other time frame"...i.e. big players. The market movers. Additionally....back in the old days "Paper" could also refer to a known resting order that locals would be able to trade around or Lean on....if you traded spread markets I'm sure you know all about this....ie in your example....if there is a big, resting buy order in the Crack spread (long crude, short Gasoline)....and the Gasoline market is going Bid (rallying, buyers, etc)....traders/locals would Bid Crude....if they get filled and it moves against them they're not hitting a stop....they're hitting the Bid in Gasoline to put the spread on and be long w/ the paper bid in the spread market.....a way spread traders had more outs to make money.....I.E. in that scenerio....Local bids Crude, if he's filled and Crude rally's, he makes money on his outright position.....if it goes against him and he's able to sell his lean in Gasoline....he could still be long a Bid ("Have edge") in the spread market and be able to lean on the paper in the spread market....and potentially still leg out of the position for a win. Many millions were made by spread traders doing just that haha.
GO BID/GO OFFERED....if the market is rallying, it's "Going Bid"...if breaking, it's "going offered".
A "TRADE"...an HVN...a price that's been traded alot, bought and sold, easy to buy or sell....no edge to being long or short...."Market ranging all afternoon, 15 Bid AT 16....15 half trade"...."I thought we were going to break all day and kept trying to sell 16's and scratching, ending up just a 16 trade into the close"....
LEANS.... A lean is essentially a Pit trader or scalpers "Stop" so to speak...the language I was taught was "It's the next best trade on the board".....I.e. market trading 15 Bid At 16....you think it's going to rally and you get long 15 halves, you're looking to sell 17's (or whatever)....but if you can't and market moves hard against you...your next best option is to get out on the 15 Bid where you believe there are some buyers and you'll be able to get out....you're 17 offer to lean on the 15's.
SPOOS...I've never heard anyone at the CME say "ES"....the S&P's were always "The Spoos"...rhymes with Ooze haha.
Haha in the first few minutes of that video, I wonder if that guy even realizes he's doing the floor arb, it was so second nature to those guys they did it without thinking.
So interesting how this business has evolved so dramatically. 20 years ago a guy like him was the epitome of an independent Local/trader. Now there are tons of online traders making great money that relate to the market in completely different ways.
I actually came across a rueters article discussing exactly what this thread is illustrating....the way the Pit lingo is slowly disappearing as the industry evolves.
PS....Ben Lichenstein used to put out an ES Squawkbox....live audio of him verbally calling out the S&P market in real time, all day, open to close. If you want to hear a guy really putting the language in this thread to use during a real open, I'm sure there are recordings out there. Tradersaudio I believe it was called. The sound, how quiet or frenetic the action was, gave as much or more information as what's actually trading to those guys. Which was really why anybody listened to a squawk box.