Market microstructure studies how prices actually form: the dynamics of limit order books, the economics of market making, price impact of large orders, and the information content of order flow. It is the layer where trading strategy meets market plumbing, and it matters to anyone whose backtest assumes fills at mid-price.
Two branches dominate this collection. The theoretical branch models order books with queueing theory and stochastic control — mathematically rich, but check whether the model’s assumptions (Poisson arrivals, constant spreads) survive contact with data. The empirical branch measures impact curves, adverse selection, and liquidity patterns from tick data; its perennial weakness is dataset access, so pay attention to which venue and period a result comes from before assuming it generalizes.
Related hubs: High-Frequency Trading & Execution, Statistical Arbitrage, Crypto Markets & DeFi.
Explainers from the corpus: VWAP prediction: methods and benchmarks →
In high frequency trading, accurate prediction of Order Flow Imbalance (OFI) is crucial for understanding market dynamics and maintaining liquidity. This paper introduces a hybrid predictive model that combines Vector Auto Regression (VAR) with a simple feedforward neural network (FNN) to forecast O
We study liquidity on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), identifying factors at the platform, blockchain, token pair, and liquidity pool levels with predictive power for market depth metrics. We introduce the v2 counterfactual spread metric, a novel criterion which assesses the degree of liquidity conc
In decentralized finance, any individual can pool their assets into an automated market maker (AMM) – herein we focus on the constant product market maker (CPMM) – in exchange for a claim on a fraction of future pool assets and fees earned from the market making operations. This position is repres
In this paper we propose an estimator of spot covariance matrix which ensure symmetric positive semi-definite estimations. The proposed estimator relies on a suitable modification of the Fourier covariance estimator in Malliavin and Mancino (2009) and it is consistent for suitable choices of the wei
Given two time series, A and B, sampled asynchronously at different times {t_A_i} and {t_B_j}, termed “ticks”, how can one best estimate the correlation coefficient ρbetween changes in A and B? We derive a natural, minimum-variance estimator that does not use any interpolation or binning, then deriv
This paper considers a Markovian model of a limit order book where time-dependent rates are allowed. With the objective of understanding the mechanisms through which a microscopic model of an orderbook can converge to more general diffusion than a Brownian motion with constant coefficient, a simple
Short-horizon price-trend prediction from limit order books in equity and intraday electricity markets requires models that combine predictive quality with low single-sample latency and a small serialized model size to keep pace with rapid and continuous market updates. We introduce MBOFormer, a 7,2
This paper develops a robust mathematical framework for Constant Function Market Makers (CFMMs) by transitioning from traditional token reserve analyses to a coordinate system defined by price and intrinsic liquidity. We establish a canonical parametrization of the bonding curve that ensures dimensi
We propose a structural framework for the geometry of financial order books in which liquidity, supply, and demand are treated as emergent observables rather than primitive economic variables. The market is modeled as an inflationary relational system without assumed metric, temporal, or price coord
This paper explores neural network-based approaches for algorithmic trading in cryptocurrency markets. Our approach combines multi-timeframe trend analysis with high-frequency direction prediction networks, achieving positive risk-adjusted returns through statistical modeling and systematic market e
Traders on financial markets generate non-Markovian effects in various ways, particularly through their competition with one another which can be interpreted as a game between different (types of) traders. To quantify the market mechanisms, we empirically analyze self-response functions for pairs of
While financial data presents one of the most challenging and interesting sequence modelling tasks due to high noise, heavy tails, and strategic interactions, progress in this area has been hindered by the lack of consensus on quantitative evaluation paradigms. To address this, we present LOB-Bench,
An empirical stochastic analysis of high-frequency, tick-by-tick order data of NASDAQ100 listed stocks is conducted using a first-order discrete-time Markov chain model to explore intraday order transition dynamics. This analysis focuses on three market cap categories: High, Medium, and Low. Time-ho
This paper addresses the challenges faced in large-volume trading, where executing substantial orders can result in significant market impact and slippage. To mitigate these effects, this study proposes a volatility-volume-based order slicing strategy that leverages Exponential Weighted Moving Avera
In this paper, we study the effects of fill probabilities and adverse fills on the trading strategy simulation process. We specifically focus on a stochastic optimal control market-making problem and test the strategy on ES (E-mini S&P 500), NQ (E-mini Nasdaq 100), CL (Crude Oil) and ZN (10-Year Tre
In this study, we leverage powerful non-linear machine learning methods to identify the characteristics of trades that contain valuable information. First, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our optimized neural network predictor in accurately predicting future market movements. Then, we utilize th
Fiat-pegged stablecoins are by nature exposed to spillover effects during market turmoil in Traditional Finance (TradFi). We observe a difference in TradFi market shocks impact between various stablecoins, in particular, USD Coin (USDC) and Tether USDT (USDT), the former with a higher reporting freq
Decentralized Exchanges are becoming even more predominant in today’s finance. Driven by the need to study this phenomenon from an academic perspective, the SIAG/FME Code Quest 2023 was announced. Specifically, participating teams were asked to implement, in Python, the basic functions of an Automat
This research extends the conventional concepts of the bid–ask spread (BAS) and mid-price to include the total market order book bid–ask spread (TMOBBAS) and the global mid-price (GMP). Using high-frequency trading data, we investigate these new constructs, finding that they have heavy tails and sig
A growing number of contributions in the literature have identified a puzzle in the European carbon allowance (EUA) market. Specifically, a persistent cost-of-carry spread (C-spread) over the risk-free rate has been observed. We are the first to explain the anomalous C-spread with the credit spread
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