As far as late prints are concerned, there is another explanation that wasn't mentioned. Many times "phone" trades are the reason for late prints. When I traded with a contra via phone, sometimes I would wait over 90 seconds for the report. Here's an example.... I (SBSH) make ABCD and I'm bid up at 10.01 for 1K, the ask is 10.05. I get a call from MSCO. They want to sell me 2,000 at .01. I say ok, "done" get the trader's name, write out the ticket and time stamp it. I go into NWII (Nasdaq Workstation 2) and report the buy. I use a system with NWII called ACT. The buy stays there, until MSCO reports and confirms the trade through ACT. The trade will never print to the tape until both sides confirm the trade. The trades are supposed to be reported within 90-secs, anything more is a violation. The violation becomes apparent if one of the contras files a grievance with Nasdaq. I only had to report firms if they didn't ACT the trade after several hours. My firm was inthe clear because we reported the trade within 90-seconds. When you're looking for orderflow, the last thing you want to do is report a firm. You get a bad rep on the street. FYI, NITE was one of the biggest violators of this rule. They were fined several hundred thousand for reporting trades late on a regular basis. NITE was a VERY busy firm, and it could be they didn't have the time to ACT the trades. Many times big block trades are reported late because they can throw technical indicators off balance and many neophyte traders mistake "sld" trades for extra-market price action. I only look at blocks that trade through highs and lows.
Market makers are still trading, but they use the ECNs more than their MMIDS. Today's MM will bid 100 size reserve with the MMID, and offer 1000 reserve size with an ECN. This trading methodology is very easy to implement, I can set NWII to bid between 2 high and low bids for "x" shares, "x" maximum exposure at each level and "x" maximum exposure per side, per stock. While doing that I can set ECN reserves to work the other side. I enjoyed making markets, but saw that in order to survive you had to work the street to get buy and sell side business. It takes lots of money and time to convince the street to send orders your way. Some people take it too far and get arrested (SHRP). What MMs have lost in flexibility, they had to compensate using size and blackboxes. The two biggest profit centers were: trading against orderflow and payment for ordeflow. The advent of Series 55, SEC Order Handling Rules of 1997, decimalization, SuperMontage have changed the entire landscape. Most MMs have gone to prop and LLC. Just watch the technicals and do what the market tells you.
I disagree TK on one key point. Retail futures traders pay about 5 to 10 times more in commissions R/T than exchange members. In this market the edge is commission's savings. I don't know about you, but I only wish I had an extra $3-$4 for every car I've traded the last few years.