Price clustering in financial markets has been identified by previous studies. However, few studies have examined the phenomenon in the futures market. This paper presents price clustering for the Nikkei 225 stock index futures contract on the SIMEX. An extremely low percentage of odd-tick trades appears at the opening for the first trading session, while moderately low percentage occurs at the opening and the closing for the second trading session. GARCH estimation results document that the degree of price clustering increases in the periods with high volatility, bid-ask spreads, and transaction frequency. Price clustering tends to occur on the last trading day which the futures contract is to be presented. Generally, the results support the negotiation hypothesis of price clustering proposed by Harris (1991).
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