The PPI report is a lesson in how algos and real people operate in markets

Once in awhile, real people can still get an edge trading economic data.

The PPI move has been almost-entirely reversed but it took 9 minutes, which is a long time in terms of markets. What happened is that the algos puked on the headline m/m reading of +0.5% compared to +0.2%. The three-ticks miss was higher than any estimate.

However, it happened directly due to three-tick lower revision to the March number from +0.2% to -0.1%. On net, the year-over-year numbers were entirely in-line at 2.2% y/y.

The resulting price action looked like this in AUD/USD and similar elsewhere:

If you’re trading economic data, that was your window.

In the old days of trading –before algos took over– there were many economic data and news trades that offered a similar 5-10 minute window of opportunity to front-run other real people and figure things out more quickly. Now, those are harder to find but– as today shows — not impossible.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.