hey im new to trading and i have a couple questions: 1 what causes bid and ask prices to stay the same (or the bid to be larger than the ask) for long periods of time; if someone wants to buy for x dollars and someone else wants to sell for x dollars then wouldent these orders be executed instantly and not be there for me to see? 2 does a gtem order stay open until canceled or just till the exteneded hours + normal trading day for that date are over 3 while watching the bid and ask size for long periods of time i will sometimes see it changing rapidly between something like 33x60 and 33x104 then back to 33x60 and repeating like that quite a few times so im sure its not just different people placing orders. what is this behavior for? I have read that sometimes market makers will manipulate the bid and ask size for their own advantage .. is this something similar? I also sometimes see the bid and ask size changing rapidly in quantity and price as if there was huge volume being traded but yet the traded volume does not change (i see this in all stocks even low liquidity ones)
usually that's because the system that is offering the quotes and data is screwed up not because the bid is > ask