How much info do big guys know about your positions ??

Hi !
How much information market makers ( and other big guys ) know about your account and your positions ?

For example there is an XYZ stock. Does the Market maker know how many people are short that stock at any given time.

Do they know how much leverage is used by traders or investors for long or short positions ?

How do they determine how much down or up they need to push the stock in order to force traders or swing investors to get out of their positions ?

Of course I understand that market makers don’t look at the individual accounts of traders etc. I thought maybe they have some kind of Software that can determine how much up or down they need to push the stock in order to force investors to get out of their positions.

Of course some of you will say there is no manipulation, market makers just determine the movement of the market and they go with it. I don’t agree with that. I think from time to time individual stocks get heavily manipulated. And trading goes against all odds and rational explanation.


Thank you !

 

There must be a supercomputer somewhere connected to all the exchanges and brokerages.

Or maybe George Bush just calculates it all in his head, the brilliant man that he is!

 

Well it is just a question that has a reasonable thought in it. But thanks for reply, it seems like you disagree… You don’t know that for a fact you just believe that it is so.. I respect your point of view.

 

I am just playing. I am not one to believe in conspiracy theories. However, at the same time, I would not be surprised if it was ever discovered that this was true.

 

Trying seducing an Single Market Maker trader, into revealing or his or her secrets.

Do a search on AOL CHATS for SINGLE MARKET MAKER

 

My personal suspicion is that "they" know exactly where your individual entry price is and can manipulate the market so that you will not easily see a profit or they will try to stop you out. I am not sure if they can tell how much you are leveraged or whether or not you are a PDT trader on 4-to-1 intraday margin, since that would also mean that your broker is providing them that info.

Many will say that this is just paranoia, however too many times I have seen prices start to move in my favor but stop dead at exactly my entry price. I will either stay there or repeatedly bounce off this number, never allowing a profit. As soon as you close the position, magically prices will move through this price point and you end up feeling like a fool for having been played one more time.

Echo

 

Al Gore tackled this just after creating the internet and prior to his solution for global warming.

 

"Many will say that this is just paranoia, however too many times I have seen prices start to move in my favor but stop dead at exactly my entry price. I will either stay there or repeatedly bounce off this number, never allowing a profit. As soon as you close the position, magically prices will move through this price point "

Don't want to open a debate for the contentious posters here, but I'll just say:
You're not alone in your observations.

1) No way a human can think/act in milliseconds to just happen to fade/repel your order entry, like two magnets on opposite poles. Specific aggregate order information and sense/act algorithms are required to react this quickly. I've often thought PTDR status was more useful as a tag to filter/identify short term retail traders than help them against losses (but that's just the cynic in me speaking).

2) Ever notice how 95% of retail traders fail, yet GS trading desk always seems to be fantastically successful. Gee, maybe they just harbor the world's most intelligent and fast thinking TA geniuses: NOT.

Not to say that you can't be profitable (you can find an edge using strategy/selection/money mgmt. even when the odds are stacked against you), but anyone who tries to say that there is a level playing field between retail traders and market makers is either naive or just downright snowballing themselves.




"I have never adhered to the view that wall street is uniquely evil, just as I have never found it possible to accept with complete confidence the alternative view, rather more palatable in sound financial circles, that it is uniquely wise." -- J.K. Galbraith

Opening quote from 'Greed Merchants'

 

I don't know what you mean by 'your account' but of course they know where your stops are. They don't need a direct line to your broker to know this. They regularly run your stops in order to force you out of your position. They can print the stock wherever they want ( to a certain extent) in order to trigger stops. They know where intraday punters have been buying or selling and know how much heat they will be able to take before relinquishing their positions. They know all of this because they're professionals.

This is on an intraday basis. For information on how stocks are marketed, and how and why holders of large blocks of stock sell their inventory, read 'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator', and there are probably a bunch of other sources of information on this.

All of this is well known, and doesn't for a second mean that money can't be made. Either you know the game and play by the rules or you get fleeced. If you're trading the big liquid issues, no market maker is bigger than the market.

 

There is one simple answer: Brokerages, Clearing Houses and MMs collude with each other and work together to the detriment of traders.