I noticed when using the Historical V2 api that some minute bars are missing.
What does it means ?
Does it mean that no trades where done in those minutes ?
Does it mean that the stock price didn’t change ?
Thanks a lot for your answers !
LOL
“Does it mean that no trades were done in those minutes”? Yes. Bars are a summary of activity that happened in a period of time, so if there is no activity, there is nothing to summarize!
“Does it mean that the stock price didn’t change?” No. If by “stock price” you mean quote, or some midpoint between bid and ask, then chances are that has changed. Just because no trades happened does not mean the price did not change, it just means no one wanted to pay the price at that time.
What would cause the price to change if no trades are taking place? The order book can change. That is, people can place/replace/cancel their limit orders.
In some sense, the “price” of a stock - or anything exchange-traded - is an illusion. Sometimes “price” is just the price at which latest trade took place. Sometimes “price” is an average of bid and ask prices. When you’re dealing with low volume / low trade situations (where you get small and missing candles), this distinction makes a huge difference. On higher volume, this matters less.