Springsnow: I felt that "The Market Maker's Edge" was a very poor book, seeming to be more about day-trading in the early nineties, and sharing little about the world of the "big-firm" trading desks. Just reading this site provides far more detailed information about the internal operations of market pros. I'm afraid I don't have a better suggestion. As far as the actual exchange rules, NASD did "the right thing" - it has always published their rules for all to see: http://cchwallstreet.com/NASD/NASD_Rules/ I think it's disgusting that the NYSE does not do the same. The same company (CCH) also provides the NYSE rules (for $800), but I remember getting a free 1- or 2-week trial from them at some point, which may be enough for you. You might ask them. I think it's funny that the NYSE doesn't even provide a link to their website, only giving the address and phone numbers. It's amazing how much time and money they've spent on their web site and yet it continues to fail to provide any useful information for traders, seemingly focused only on "marketing" the NYSE :-(
Since i ordered "markets makers" i'll have to read it now and see what i can learn out of it... might find something usefull as i'm a noob as far as nasdaq and nyse are concerned... I'll try to get a week trial to get a chance to read the complete nyse rules because 800 dollars seem a bit costly to my test.. thanks for the info I went through MANY threads here (E.T) but didn't really find what i was looking for concerning ecn's and how they work, how orders are executed... any link or book?