Displayed shares at the best ask: median size and how often it covered a 1,000-share order, July 8, 2026

Name: Displayed shares at the best ask: median size and how often it covered a 1,000-share order, July 8, 2026
Creator: Strasmore
Published: 2026-07-26
License: https://www.strasmore.com/terms/

Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-07-26, from Market Order vs Limit Order, Measured.

as of 2026-07-26 ranking 5×4read in context →

Displayed shares at the best ask: median size and how often it covered a 1,000-share order, July 8, 2026 — 5 rows by 4 columns, computed 2026-07-26 from US exchange, SIP and OPRA data.
ticker	smallest_displayed_shares	median_ask_shares	pct_covering_1000_shares
IWM	40	360	7.8
KO	100	300	2.6
SPY	40	160	1
CATO	100	100	5.6
AAPL	40	80	0.6

Rows × columns: 5 × 4
Computed: 2026-07-26
Completeness: No missing values
Source: US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
Licence: Strasmore terms · free, no signup
Formats: JSON · CSV · the SQL below

What each column holds

Column definitions for Displayed shares at the best ask: median size and how often it covered a 1,000-share order, July 8, 2026, derived from the stored result.
Column	Type	Range	Notes
`ticker`	text	5 distinct values (AAPL, CATO, IWM…)
`smallest_displayed_shares`	number	40 to 100	count
`median_ask_shares`	number	80 to 360	count
`pct_covering_1000_shares`	number	0.6 to 7.8	percent

Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on 2026-07-26, and the query below is what returned them.

the exact SQL behind every number

SELECT ticker,
       minIf(ask_size, bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price) AS smallest_displayed_shares,
       round(quantileDeterministicIf(0.5)(toFloat64(ask_size), cityHash64(ticker, sip_timestamp), bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price), 0) AS median_ask_shares,
       round(countIf(ask_size >= 1000 AND bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price) / countIf(bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price) * 100, 1) AS pct_covering_1000_shares
FROM global_markets.cache_stocks_quotes
WHERE ticker IN ('SPY', 'IWM', 'AAPL', 'KO', 'CATO')
  AND sip_timestamp >= '2026-07-08 04:00:00' AND sip_timestamp < '2026-07-09 04:00:00'
  AND (toHour(toTimeZone(sip_timestamp, 'America/New_York')) * 60 + toMinute(toTimeZone(sip_timestamp, 'America/New_York'))) BETWEEN 570 AND 959
GROUP BY ticker
HAVING countIf(bid_price > 0 AND ask_price > bid_price) > 0
ORDER BY median_ask_shares DESC, ticker ASC

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