That's the total volume traded on all ECN's. If you want a more accurate estimate of how long you will wait, you need to look at the rate of trading at the bid on the ECN you placed your order on at the time you placed your order. Which ECN you choose to place your order makes a difference: if 60% of the volume traded on NASDAQ and 20% traded on ARCA, and you had your order on ARCA, your chances of getting filled were lower than if placed on NASDAQ. If you have access to the NASDAQ bookviewer or the ARCA bookviewer, you should be able to see your order moving up
Where do you get this information from about the breakdown between the exchanges? (Note, it was to Nasdaq.)
Generally, for a NASDAQ-listed stock like CTIC, you would want to place your order on NASDAQ. As for statistics: Put your mouse over "Market Statistics" on the menu at the top of the page http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=MarketShare Also try https://www.arcavision.com/
I would recommend to hide your bid... maybe a black box program is able to step in front of you (although unlikely if it is consistently a 1 cent spread). It's very strange that you won't get filled on a CTIC considering it averages 32 million shares traded. I doubt it is an issue with your broker if you have access to most ECNs. BTW when I place a bid or ask, any ECN fills me... I don't have to specify if I don't want, whichever is best price gets automatically filled. I used Lightspeed btw.
my experience on these lower-priced high-volume stocks is that there are a lot of peg bid/offer orders active, so whenever the stock ticks, a fair amount of size already stacks on the ecn's. Manual entry on these invariably often only fills when the prices moves through you. I have had the same problem myself. You could try EDGA, sometimes it gets cleared without the prices moving through you, but you miss any rebates.
"71 million shares have traded today. The level 2 shows on a typical best bid/ask only about 100k shares, and there are times in the day it can sit there a long time. Hence, I think there is more to it than what you are saying." A fair chunk of volume on that stock may be double-printed darkpool fills. Additionally, reserve orders on the ecn's have made displayed size totals substantially less reliable for very active stocks.
Generally, hidden orders have lower priority than displayed orders. If you hide your order, you can only be filled after all displayed orders at your price level. This is not a good idea for CTIC
1. What do you mean by double-printed? Are these real trades? 2. I thought displayed orders get filled before reserve or hidden orders (After posting this I just realized giggolo posted the same thing in response to the moderator). If so, it doesn't explain how it seems I'm not getting closer to the front of the line.
Thank you. From the second link got the following information about CTIC, of 77 million shares trade: Exchange Volume Market Share Volume Market Share NASDAQ TRF 50,009,795 64.9% $91,125,994 64.5% NASDAQ 12,720,432 16.5% $23,757,838 16.8% BATS 5,577,208 7.2% $10,221,321 7.2% NYSE Arca 5,450,846 7.1% $10,203,703 7.2% National Stock Exchange 1,598,968 2.1% $2,925,028 2.1% International Stock Exchange 1,468,766 1.9% $2,694,969 1.9% Boston Stock Exchange 79,123 0.1% $145,151 0.1% New York Stock Exchange TRF 71,468 0.1% $130,478 0.1% NASD ADF 17,100 0.0% $29,770 0.0% Chicago Board Options Exchange 11,900 0.0% $21,804 0.0% Chicago Stock Exchange 500 0.0% $940 0.0% Total 77,006,106 -- $141,256,996 -- As of Jun 02, 2009 06:05:43 PM EDT. Does anyone know the difference between NASDAQ TRF versus simply NASDAQ?
A clear example of someone who has no idea what he's talking about or doing moderating a trading chatboard.