I always thought that when someone with a Globex terminal placed an order to buy - the order went into the bid column and when they wanted to sell - their order went into the offer/ask column as shown on something like J-Trader's Dome. That way they would be first in line for the best possible price. Thus it would mimic the ability to trade like on the floor. conversely, when a retail trader buys his order shows up in the offer/ask column and when he or she wants to sell it shows up in the bid column. Perhaps someone who actually has a Globex terminal could clear this up.
Anyone can place a buy at the bid/sell at the offer order if their order entry platform supports limit orders. I don't know a single pro/semi-pro/non-pro order entry system that doesn't support them.
Tea, you don't seem to understand how the market works. The number of contracts on the bid and on the offer just reflects the number of buyers / sellers at the bid / offer. Anybody can place an order to buy at the bid or sell at the offer and if someone enters such an order, he joins the queue. An order to buy at the bid or sell at the offer will be filled if another market participant HITS the bid by selling at the current bid price or LIFTS the offer by buying at the current offer price. So if someone wants to buy, his order will never show on the offer column: the order will be in the bid column if the trader wants to buy at the bid or he will just lift the offer (which will have for effect that the numbers of contracts showing at the offer will decrease when the order is executed).
Perhaps what Tea means is that, as I have observed, you are almost always at the back of the queue when it comes to getting the really good prices on a scalp for example. I know it is supposed to be FIFO but there are definately market participants that have a speed advantage. I suspect this is due to a mixture of 3 reasons: 1. Connection speed. Hell, if its a terminal at the cme running at 100Mbps or higher network speed how the hell does anyone on the net beat that? 2. Your order going thru too many (i.e. broker risk) systems as opposed to the direct connection of the GT. Another speed issue. 3. Automated orders. If you want to see how fast a human exchange updates look at the big SPOOS. S-L-O-W. The eminis can trade 150 times a second and sometimes it feels faster! If they are not already, the computers are starting to rule the roost! Here in London last year I heard that the CME were going to put a hub here to service all the prop futures houses that had sprung up after LIFFE closed its pit. Why would they do this and offer it as a service if your JTrader interface over the net was good enough to trade with the big boys?