> if you only want to know, if there is any record, then drop the order by
> part
> else try "order by Spread_ID, Action_Time" (that's like your SPREADID_INDEX)

That made the difference!

The execution plan is now: PLAN (SPREADACTIONTABLE ORDER SPREADID_INDEX)

And indeed, the actual query executes substantially faster. Thank you very much, I learned something new today :)

Regards,

Dan.