Wag: I would have to agree with you on that one. The only person with ANY clout regarding the "Den of Specialist THIEVES" are the listed companies themselves. Although the only place to go for a CFO of a large listed co is another crooked NYSE specialist panel, you may get better marketmaking for a week. It is harder for them to steal with pennies now. A neat trick they employ now is called "Condition Q". This is a trick in which The Specialist freezes the book due to an order imbalance. This results in a larger than normal spread on a NYSE traded stock while Mr Specialist catches up.....or figures out his net long or short advantage.
A related unconfirmed tidbit........a co-worker filed a complaint (specialist held an order...through DOT.....printed above his limit; 3 prints; in size; last being over a minute after he entered the order) about MU.....allegedlly it was taken away from him a few days ago......obviously this isn't solely based on my co-worker's complaint......assuming it is even true......I believe it was/is an SLK stock...
The first thing you should do is ask your executing broker that sends your order to the floor to check it out for you. That's what they get paid for(customer service). If you deserve a price adjustment then you will get it. If you don't then you will get nothing. As a last resort you can goto surveillance, but that is by mail and takes a month or so. Good luck. Jeff-- www.tradeoes.com
Has anyone ever had a trade busted by the NYSE? I had the following situation once: It was BAC in the first half hour of trading, pretty volatile and heavy volume. I put a bid in for I believe it was 86.82 (with the market being at 86.82), but before my order had a chance the market moved to 86.82 at 86.84, so I changed my bid to 86.84. Maybe half a minute went by with not much happening, except that the quote moved to 86.84 at 86.88, I did not get a fill, then the futures started dropping and I canceled my bid. Approximately 20 seconds after my cancel request I received an execution (no surprise there...), but it was at 86.88. I am assuming I could have had the trade busted, since I never had a bid that high on that day. But the stock took off and I sold for a profit a few minutes later. I have two questions now: If I had had the trade reversed, would the other party have been affected or would the specialist have to eat the .04? Also, is it possible for the exchange to come back afterwards (after my position has proven profitable for me) and bust my trade since it was not consistent with my order? I know that ISLD occasionally busts my trades after they turn out to be profitable for me, but I have never had anything like that happen with the NYSE. I think of the monkeys at ISLD as little drug dealers, pimps, or bank robbers, whereas the NYSE guys are the mafia-bosses. They wouldn't get their hands dirty with the kind of scams ISLD is running. Any comments?
Let's put this in a bit of perspective, just for discussion. We have the ability to trade, real time, in the biggest "game" in the World. We place thousands of orders every year apiece. Once in a while we may feel that we "got screwed"....and yet, our traders get "price improvement" about 20% of the time (another reason not to use market orders or NX). I am not trying to "justify" anything that may be considered unscrupulous, but from what I've seen over the years....I cannot imagine a Specialist risk his job and livelihood to screw somebody out of a couple thousand shares. Don't get me wrong here....we go to bat for all legitimate complaints...with proper documentation....and we, also, clear with SLK, and get price adjustments all the time. Just a discussion point. Don
Specialist risk his job by clipping? Who is going to fire him? That would be like firing a Senator for comping free lunch at restaurants. Specialists are the biggest crooks in the world. Like kids in a candy shop. When was the last time you heard of a specialist going to jail, going bankrupt, etc. Just do the math on any other profession that involves the transfer of money, and you will find that they are almost never found guilty of doing anything wrong.....are we to believe that they are more moral and ethical than other members of society? Ya, right.
Amen to that! And let's not forget that we are CONSTANTLY creating a "false" market for the specialist by CONSTANTLY putting in orders and cancelling them... ...if you're blindly enveloping and get screwed once in a while, I'd consider that to be an excellent overall job by the specialist...and how many times does he hold your order (while you're freaking out and trying to cancel) only to give you an extra nickel or dime for your inconvenience?? Personally, I think they do an excellent job (unless the volume is light, in which case you shouldn't be trading size with them anyway...) just my .02