How could this really be helpful to anyone who isn't on the inside? All this really does is take away another tool active traders have. This is just a peek into the future of the markets, things will only get worse for those of us who aren't a part of "wall street"
It's not about transparency. It's about different trading styles. Inca will not break up a round lot to fill an odd lot. Island will. With one book, which do they use? Will the institutional person want his order picked off in odd lots? Even if they put the whole platform to OUCH, there will be delays based on the "proactive" nature of a "book check" method. Island has it's own style, like Arca has it's own style. Both cater to a specific style of trader.
And answer me this: In a fast moving market when all you want to do is GET OUT, my execution times to Island are 20 milliseconds whereas my execution times to Arca and all of it's proactive capabilities are at 300 milliseconds. Which do you prefer under that type of situation? Nice to have that option when needed..............
If you want to shave milliseconds and avoid the "book check" (best market - smart router) feature, it can be done at both INCA and ARCA... If you only want to post to the book and not be exposed to any other market places, in the way ISLD does, it is only a matter of order coding. The question is... does your broker allow it?? Many have access to both ARCA and INCA, bt how many allow the user to choose to post it or route it? Zero that I know of....
Does anyone know if the new merged INET book will be proactive outside of ot's own ECN? I mean, I can see getting best price between Isld/Inca books, but will this be another Arca situation? We don't need that. I hope they at least keep in internal for speed purposes. Any ideas?
I talked to a rep at INET a few days after the merge. Apparently they were calling all subscribers to see if they had any questions and asked him the very same one you did. He said that shortly after the new year INET orders would be proactive. Didn't give a certain date. It may be slightly slower...but at least if you want to sweep bids/offers you wont get crappy fills.