Price Formation and Liquidity Surrounding Large Trades in Interest Rate and Equity Index Futures

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of the direction of trade initiation and trade size on the resiliency of financial futures markets by analysing quote prices, bid-ask spreads and depths. The price and liquidity reactions reveal the unexpected information content of large trades, together with the motivation for exchanging a futures contract. In the market adjustment process, the size of quotes posted by liquidity providers are shown to play a more important role in futures markets than in previous research for equity markets. The liquidity cost of a large futures trade is mainly a pecuniary externality borne by other traders by impairing their continued ability to trade.