Don, Matt's a friend of mine. That segment and the previous one I thought were a waste of air time. The markets were never fair and never will be. When I worked at Worldco back in the day, my firm as well as yours I'm sure used bullets. There was nothing legal about bullets Don. But we both used them and made money on them. It's seems in life when people are making money, all is well with the world, but when people lose money, suddenly there is outrage. We need to take the hypocrisy out of this issue and call a spade a spade and move on.
The guy from Bright was complaining why should he not get the benefit of the fill at 14 when he is risking capital during the flash crash. Why should he get the benefit of the fill when someone is willing to pay an extra penny for it? He makes it sound like he is using real $ to buy the stock @ 14 and the guy willing to pay .001 more is using play money. Daytraders since time past step in front of specialist in the good old days during "cleanup prints",why was it ok then and not now albeit at a sub penny level? Kinda like the guy who curses at the slow guy driving in front of him in a 25mph zone and the guy on his tail for going too fast . Mav is right , call a spade a spade..
The market structure is stripped of displayed liquidity the more sub penny trading happens. It is in most of our self interest for this practice to end. That is the spade. Good job Dennis! Keep up the good work.
Whose interest? Prop firms? Come on, this does not affect mom and pop investors. It only affects Johnny daytrader and Johnny daytrader has been screwing over the public for years. Now that Johnny daytrader is not making money, we need to change the system. Market structure? What about the OTC market? If we are going to bring transparency to any market, let's start there.
The point is that nobody cares about the OTC market. Our markets are supposed to be the best in the world and many businesses rely on that consistency and reliability every day. The current structure is fine for normal trading days, but when the shit hits the fan there's nobody left to provide any sort of liq because they're all out of business. That matters to everyone, not just daytraders. Investors don't trust the markets <u>due to market structure</u>.
I agree with starting with the OTC. We can hopefully agree to disagree in that I honestly feel that exchange members, traders, and others who risk their money providing liquiditiy should at least be offered an equal playing field to those who don't. A MM, DPM, whatever has certain "rights" but also have certain responsiblities to maintain markets etc. I have no problem with these guys. The fact that sub-pennies are being used is no big deal either....as long as everyone trades in the same denomination. I never thought bullets were "bad" or illegal, simply a tool that we could use, again, no big deal. But if you were invited to a poker game, put up your money, and then were only dealt 4 cards instead of 5, or the guy sitting next to you could see the cards dealt and you couldn't.....well, you get my drift. And I agree that "mom and pop" investors shouldn't care...as they shouldn't care about a transaction tax, but I think a pretty big part of our industry cares, don't you? Of course "where you stand depends on where you sit" on these issues. All the best Mav! Don