Among All the Other Oddities Today...

And I truly mean odd, actually not in the sense of scratching one's head and saying, "That's odd", but in the sense that one thing after another all day, all connected, all moving toward the same direction of overwhelming fear and VERY sudden at that. I detailed the events in the last post, but through most of the day there were beginnings of this behavior and then extremes. Whatever it was, I'm guessing it started pre-market and it seems as the Wall SAtreet Whisper made its rounds, first institutional assets saw these strange, rapid fear-based events and finally the dumb money which is generally considered to be stocks (Credit and Bond traders being some of the best informed, currency and futures traders and then stocks).

In our world where HFT dominantes approximately 70% of the liquidity, do you find it strange that as the market is making highs with the debt debacle settled and no holiday in sight, suddenly HFT trade dropped off when you'd expect it to be at its busiest, all the way to 3 YEAR LOWS! That's almost when HFTs were just getting a name in the market.

NANEX provides details and lots of color. So just an off coincidence or did HFT pullback from the market for a reason?

Nanex ~ 18-Oct-2013 ~ Is Quote Spam Abating?

On October 18, 2013, Quote/Trade ratios dropped to 3 year lows. Charts below chronicle the average number of quotes per trade for each 5 minute period of the regular trading session (9:013 (through 10:45 ET). Each day is color coded by age - older dates start with purple while more recetal red line is in the future (after 10:30 ET on October 18, 2013).
 

Quotes/$10K Traded (accounts for trade size drop and changes in stock price)	Quotes per Trade

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