Disparity

[puze]

Just noticed this

https://www.bitstamp.net/market/order_book/

Apart from the obvious, can anything else be understood about future price movements when such a difference in volume exists between bids and asks?

[odolvlobo]

I don't think you can gain any information from the orders in the order book because a large portion of the trades (probably the majority) are market orders and never show up in the order book. In addition, the orders in the order book are not binding and they don't expire, so it might show some kind of sentiment of some unknown age, at best.

[puze]

A bit more here...

http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/bitstampUSD_depth.html

One of the reasons I ask about this is that over on IRC a few days ago, someone asked a similar question, specifically if it indicated "pressure" on buyers. I wasn't certain what he meant, and he got no answer to his question.

[puze]

I don't think you can gain any information from the orders in the order book because a large portion of the orders (probably the majority) are market orders and never show up in the order book. In addition, the orders in the order book are not binding and they don't expire, so it might show some kind of sentiment of some unknown age, at best.

Thanks for that - I posted my reply before I should have read yours.

They're good points - things that I didn't consider.

I would imagine though that if a significant difference existed between the two close to the current market price (ie within a dollar or two) then this might put some pressure on buyers to rethink their bid price.

Dunno.