i see what you mean about knowing if the 1000 shares the specialist is refreshing/ in other words if a specialist has 1000 at the offer at 49.99 and everytime someone hits it for 1000 or even 2000,1000 shares still shows up. however,id some guy then hits iut again for 200 shares and 800 show up,it would be a good idea tio immediately grab those remaining 800 shares on the assumption that the specialist just unloaded a big order at 49.99 and is done. this is usually good for .20-.30 cents. now with only showing 100,its much tough.what i do is this.if 100 shares are offered at 49.99 and as you see prints of 1000 or 2000 at that price and still see 100 shares,its an obvious refresh. i would then have my buy order for lets ay 1000 shraes at 50.03,so when the specialist is done at 49.99,i immediately hit buy at 50.03 ensuring that i get a good fill and then sell higher on the ensuing squeezewhat can happen is the specialist just initiates a new refresh at a few cents higher at 50.05 and that can suck. nothing is fool proff but i have great success doing this.this works weell on a momo stock with news.
Don't make any assumptions, just watch what's happening. If you see refresh on the bid, and the seller hit's the bid immediately, and keeps hitting it until grabs it all (several K shares), the seller is aggressive, and the stock will likely to move lower. Think about it, the seller just found good liquidity and grabbed it without moving the price! And he probably has more to sell. If you see bid refresh, the seller paused for a bit, then plus tick bid, then another refresh on the higher bid - the buyer is aggressive. He doesn't want to wait till seller hits the whole hidden size. He knows something, he wants to buy that stock and tries to attract the seller by lifting the bid... It's all on the tape...
I know exactly what fx is talking about. The reserve order will not show on the book until the the "nyse" quote is at that price. Thats all he's really saying.
Ya, not long, only about 8 or 9 years. What I am referring to is the fact that many people refer to 'Level II' like it is some standard data presentation that is created and distributed by the Nasdaq market place. While in fact you are correct that the term Level II was originally used to describe the montage used by OTC traders that included MM quotes, I would argue that the term is now more commonly used as a catch all phrase to describe any equities montage that includes quotes for MM's, ECNs, Regionals, and the specialist in the case of NYSE listed stocks. Different providers display things in different ways and include different 'direct' ECN book integration into their displays. Hell I even no one firm that actually integrates the NYOB right into its montage. I guess my point being that right or wrong, people now seem to use the term "Level II" to identify any montage that shows depth of market. Auto
I do not subscribed for NYOB because the value to have it is close to zero. But this is true, that specialist quotes are not displayed on NYOB, but do display on the top of NYSE book. You'll see those refresh bids/offers if you pay enough attention. Just look at the NYSE BBO and see where prints are. Tape doesn't lie...