Returns and Order Flow Imbalances: Intraday Dynamics and Macroeconomic News Effects

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Takahashi, Makoto
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914080061652992
author Takahashi, Makoto
author_facet Takahashi, Makoto
contents We study the interaction between returns and order flow imbalances in the S&P 500 E-mini futures market using a structural VAR model identified through heteroskedasticity. The model is estimated at one-second frequency for each 15-minute interval, capturing both intraday variation and endogeneity due to time aggregation. We find that macroeconomic news announcements sharply reshape price-flow dynamics: price impact rises, flow impact declines, return volatility spikes, and flow volatility falls. Pooling across days, both price and flow impacts are significant at the one-second horizon, with estimates broadly consistent with stylized limit-order-book predictions. Impulse responses indicate that shocks dissipate almost entirely within a second. Structural parameters and volatilities also exhibit pronounced intraday variation tied to liquidity, trading intensity, and spreads. These results provide new evidence on high-frequency price formation and liquidity, highlighting the role of public information and order submission in shaping market quality.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_06788
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Returns and Order Flow Imbalances: Intraday Dynamics and Macroeconomic News Effects
Takahashi, Makoto
Trading and Market Microstructure
Econometrics
We study the interaction between returns and order flow imbalances in the S&P 500 E-mini futures market using a structural VAR model identified through heteroskedasticity. The model is estimated at one-second frequency for each 15-minute interval, capturing both intraday variation and endogeneity due to time aggregation. We find that macroeconomic news announcements sharply reshape price-flow dynamics: price impact rises, flow impact declines, return volatility spikes, and flow volatility falls. Pooling across days, both price and flow impacts are significant at the one-second horizon, with estimates broadly consistent with stylized limit-order-book predictions. Impulse responses indicate that shocks dissipate almost entirely within a second. Structural parameters and volatilities also exhibit pronounced intraday variation tied to liquidity, trading intensity, and spreads. These results provide new evidence on high-frequency price formation and liquidity, highlighting the role of public information and order submission in shaping market quality.
title Returns and Order Flow Imbalances: Intraday Dynamics and Macroeconomic News Effects
topic Trading and Market Microstructure
Econometrics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06788