Are you saying they're getting rid totally of the specialist after April 2006? If yes, could you provide a link as to where you got the info? Thanks.
last i heard it was suppose to be some dual model. going all electronic doesnt mean a thing when the same ax is controlling the stock. i am hoping the more electronic model means that less chance of your order being held.
would be very surprised if the specialist are eliminated. the bots step away quickly and often, they are not market makers and will not step in to smooth things out. it will have to be some sort of hybrid of what is already in place. but having said that, nothing could be as bad as the system they have in place at the moment. the specialist as we know them, are so slow that they constantly have to freeze the book so they can keep up. this makes for an "untrue" book. also, they will absolutely have to address the penny problem. having 100 pricing points makes for way too much fragmentation. sometimes it is almost impossible to transact a simple execution in a marginally fast market in liquid issues, this is unacceptable.
Drock 409 brings up some interesting thoughts to chew on. Before the liquidity quote was implemented there was a ton of discussion. The hybrid is much more of a change coming to listid traders. Tape reading may lose more of its luster no doubt, and it will lend itself to more black boxes. Will it become just like nasdaq? probably not, but the future will lie somwhere in between. for example, The guys shooting for clean up prints may lose opportunities to catch pivots with the changes coming to NX, But by the same token, guys used to scalping broker/dealers for a living wont be faced with what a KLAC or QLGC scalper has to deal with in terms of transparancy and different axes. What is for certain, is technology will continue to change the landscape. The next 24 months is sure to shake out interesting and the will sure to be some tussleing here on ET between traditional vs. automated camps.. But, if the vix continues to collapse and the que on the bid and offer in futures continues to increase it wont be good for anyone.
i recently started scalping with a prop firm i started out on the nasdaq and i was doing alright, i had days where i was starting to make lots of money just by moving tons of volume, the problem with the sun, siri, or jdsu is that when they decide to move you will be caught with your pants down, i switched to the nyse and have only been gross negative once in the last month, i like this system better cause if your quick enough and your comissions are low you can scratch almost any trade and at most you take a 2 cent loser now your losers are also being off set by full penny winners depending on which stocks you decide to play, plus bids, and offers dont get so stacked up like on nasdaq. better risk reward ratio/easier to get into trades in my opinion
when trading the volume nas stocks, did you rely mostly on the charts or level 2? I only ask because when I was looking at NYSE volume stocks, I looked more at the l2 and ob.