yeah id agree with that. although obviously this information isnt available if trading at a bucket shop, but if you are trading the true interbank market i guess it would be - and is also available in fx futures markets.
a lot of that size is put up by automated systems and autospreaders. the rest is also put up by other scalpers who pull the orders as soon as they get hit. i guess rotter is the best example of this (spoofing)
the use of the order book to read the market has lost a lot of its appeal imo - whether you trade stocks, futures or whatever. time & sales is more useful as you cant argue with what has printed - and so peoples intentions.
perhaps a useful exercise for people would be to look at the inside bid/ask size on whatever instrument they trade, and figure out why the size is always against the trend. eg if the market is moving up, you will often see say 400 on the bid, but 1000 on the ask. why are more people on the ask if the market is going up? doesnt traditional order book reading suggest that there should be more size on the bid than the ask?
figuring this one out will help people starting the journey to understand the markets a lot more clearly and lead them to being more productive traders, rather than searching for what isn't there, argueing over someones rights to a bit of software, or thinking they're smart by bashing vendors. none of which helps them achieve where they want to go.
