Hey Andy, great to see you on the forums, I look forward to seeing you around and reading your posts
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Regarding the quote jump, I do not have access to a Bloomberg terminal but I do see the same jump occur quite often under my level II quotes. This typically occurs RIGHT after the close (16:00:01+) and the reasoning that market makers do this purposely would make logical sense to me.
At 16.53 that would be 4:53 PM, so the market has already been closed then for almost an hour, did you mean 15:53?
I personally disagree with your boss for using the inflated numbers, especially when the next day the security reopens right where it left off before the spike. Spreads can become pretty extensive after hours as only limit orders can be utilized, with smaller securities typically equating to a larger spread.