Market microstructure and liquidity. When depth vanishes, small orders move prices; flash crashes are microstructure events, not fundamental ones.
What to watch: Top-of-book depth; bid-ask spreads; HFT share. It arrives continuous, and the effect typically lasts intraday.
It sits in tier 3 — Flows and mechanics: Moves prices without changing anything fundamental, on horizons from hours to weeks. Who is forced to buy or sell, and when. Ignore this tier and market moves will regularly look inexplicable.
Its neighbourhood
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Also in Market mechanics, derivatives, and calendar
- Zero-days-to-expiry (0DTE) options
- Monthly and quarterly options expiration
- Index rebalances and reconstitution
- Month- and quarter-end rebalancing
- Seasonality and calendar effects
- Tax-loss harvesting and tax dates
- Holiday and low-liquidity sessions
- Circuit breakers and trading halts
- Settlement, clearing, and margin requirements
- Fed communication blackout
- Corporate buyback blackout windows
- Investor conferences and analyst days
- Jackson Hole and set-piece speeches
- 24-hour and tokenised trading
- Tax refunds and payroll-day flows
- Earnings season timing and pre-announcements