Greetings, Is there anyway to bypass the best bid or offer? for eg. let's say the offer is 12.60 on NSDQ. Could I using a different ECN trade above the 12.6 without touching the 12.60 offer? I know generally you are not allowed to do this and you are always supposed to hit the best bid of offer but I was interested to know if there were any exceptions. many times I'll offer and a print will go off above me without hitting me and I wanted to know how this was possible. thanks
Give a real example, with as precise information as you can provide (specifying down to the second you placed the order, or even the microsecond, if available), and people here may be able to tell you what happened. Such cases could occur due to internalized trades (brokers trading against their own client's orders and keeping the order from the open market); such trades are presently allowed, and need not be reported until 90 seconds after the fact, as far as I know.
as long as they sweep the top of the books it is allowable via Reg NMS. If you want to do it, use ISO orders sweep the top then trade thru.