The spread spike at the start of each minute
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 7:41 pm
Watch the spread on a liquid pair tick by tick and an odd pattern sometimes appears. Right around the turn of the minute, especially at the top of the hour, the spread flickers wider for a moment.
Several things can cause it. Scheduled data releases happen at the top or half of the hour. Algorithmic traders and liquidity providers often update quotes on a fixed cycle. Some risk systems refresh their pricing at regular intervals.
For a scalper, that flicker is usually harmless but occasionally costly. An entry sent in that moment fills at a worse price. A stop triggered by a brief spike closes a trade that would have worked.
A simple adjustment is to avoid sending orders in the first second or two of each minute, particularly on the hour. It sounds fussy, but over hundreds of trades it can add up.
Logging spread at one-second resolution will show whether it happens on a given broker.
Does the minute-open flicker show up on your platform?
Several things can cause it. Scheduled data releases happen at the top or half of the hour. Algorithmic traders and liquidity providers often update quotes on a fixed cycle. Some risk systems refresh their pricing at regular intervals.
For a scalper, that flicker is usually harmless but occasionally costly. An entry sent in that moment fills at a worse price. A stop triggered by a brief spike closes a trade that would have worked.
A simple adjustment is to avoid sending orders in the first second or two of each minute, particularly on the hour. It sounds fussy, but over hundreds of trades it can add up.
Logging spread at one-second resolution will show whether it happens on a given broker.
Does the minute-open flicker show up on your platform?