This has been a running debate in our office. One guy trades just a handful of socks and swears by NYOB. I think it's a little naive to think they are going to show exactly where the buying and selling are. How many times have you seen the stock trade TOWARDS the size? How many times have you seen a big bid or offer just disappear, right when you need it?
nyob is not totally worthless... any of you guys try and trade amex????? I don't think so. nyob gives me and idea of how liquid a stock is (which is helpful for position sizing etc...) it also gives me an idea of how many levels there are... (eg. 1 every 10 cents, 1 every 50 cents... helps me establish risk/reward ratio......) those are just 2 examples of how nyob is usefull. mnx
Totally agree with you guys, NYOB is often misleading, and can be used only as a reference, but not a reliable info source. By the way, want to thank Maverick74, Steve Tvardek and all of the guys who took part in a very precious and insightful discussion on tape reading. Your posts gave me more confidence to rely more on my own tape reading skills rather than being deceived by spec tricks and manipulations.
No problem Gella, although Mav74 is the real genius when it comes to that stuff. I am merely a student . But my trading is definitely benefiting from discussions like that. As far as the NYOB, it is VERY deceiving but it def can be used to your advantage if you know how others traders use it to their advantage.
I don't understand how people can say the Open Book is worthless. Maybe it's not helpful for their style of trading, but every day I see fast moving stocks react to large orders showing up in the book.
NYOB is not worth what they charge for it, but its not worthless either. Any feature or additional data vendor (in this case, the originating exchange) add-on that provides substantive and significantly more data than the base level (entry level) service offering has its "value statement" made for it. NYOB relies on the honesty and individual compliance of each specialist team to keep it updated with current, as of the quote, data, which they often times (without obligation or enforcement) "choose" not to do, hence the frequent complaints from so many traders across so many desks. If you're profitable and can afford another brick off the pile before you earn Dollar One, then its worth it. If you're starting out, then you should cut your teeth at the lowest price / cost entry level so that you can charge (pay for your desk fees) from your earnings and not from your principle.
Hey is anyone getting specialist fills outside the NBBO? I see a lot of prints on AMD and PFE going off, I place specialist bids and offers but it times out or doesn't get filled. But the Time of Sales clearly shows there are huge orders getting filled on "N".usually a cent or two cents out. Any thoughts. Rather PM me. thanks.
I trade AMD occasionally and i find that those prints happen when the stock is trending with huge buyers/sellers, or when the stock gets out of control off a big futures move or reversal. You have to get a feel for it, but you can normally see when the spec is going to print down or up cause he spreads himself and closes the book, and cleans up many levels at an extreme price.