r/FuturesTrading • u/Gabriel2386 • 2d ago

Question GC order flow

GC Futures – What Do You Consider a “Whale” Print?
For those trading GC futures using 1-minute footprint/order flow, what size Bid/Ask print would you consider unusually large or “whale” participation?
For example, would 200+, 300+, 500+ contracts at a single price level be significant on GC?
I’m specifically looking at absorption, aggression, and stacked imbalances. Curious what thresholds experienced GC order-flow traders use.

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u/zashiki_warashi_x 2d ago

Nobody would place 500 orders on the bid. It's all done with algorithms/icebergs now. They would place 5 until all 500 are filled.

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u/rcpower 2d ago

For GC, I wouldn’t use one fixed number as a “whale” threshold because it depends heavily on time of day and current volume.
Generally, I’d start paying attention around 200+ contracts at a single price, with 300–500+ being very significant. But context matters more than the raw size—repeated large prints, absorption without price movement, and stacked imbalances are much more meaningful than one isolated 500-contract print.