Too funny. You put in a limit order to buy your 100 shares, it gets fillled. How has society so horribly been cheated? 85% of the time the spec wasn't even on the other side of your trade.
Hey, thats your perogative. If you feel that strongly about it, you can choose to retort and show me how I do not know what I am talking about. Either way, the current events speak for themselves.
Perogative? There is no perogative. What you are saying is misinformed and false. I am not saying that your premise that specs are crooks or not is false because it makes no difference to me. Only your explanation of how you claim they rip you off. 85% of the time, you are not even trading wth a spec. Even in NYSE stocks, you can route to an ECN of your choice (if it trades there), so why route to the NYSE? And if current events "speak for themselves" why bother spewing it on ET? What is to be gained? Truly, I don't understand. nitro
u just don't understand...im talkin 'bout the way mkt reacts to news or deep imbalances often present and trends intraday; naz won't do that and don't get me wrong naz is good for quick openin' plays but heck u can forget da same exposure to gains and the lesser risk of losses, nevermind da fact that da buyin' come in all day long without a freakin' massive sell program kickin' in and drivin' da stock down $2 in less than 2min. make nyse go electronic and it will be inevitable boxes will dominate da field. the way orders are handled also slow things down and create a very fluid environment without sudden spikes that shake u out of pos; is that bad? weight the 2 things; spec might screw u up sometimes but where the hell do u find such a kind and trendin' mkt? and by da way if u don't like nyse way of handlin' orders why on earth don't u route to ecns....do u need to get filled with that penny price improvement that bad to make some money? ror
I am a trader, not a paid basher. I can't imagine who would pay me to say these things. Let me know if you can find somebody to pay me for bashing NYSE. I say you question my motives and my trading because you lack the ability to support your position with a rational argument and/or factual evidence. I say you haven't got what it takes to argue your position instead of attacking the people you are debating. I challenge you to show me I am wrong!
Bitstream, if your question was directed to me, then the answer is that I no longer route orders to specialists. Period. I also persuaded Interactive Brokers to modify its SMART order router so that both NYSE and AMEX can be excluded from it. I also persuaded them to add a new feature which SMART routes to NYSE only when immediate automatic execution by DIRECT+ is guaranteed to prevent any specialist order-handling; but this feature doesn't actually work and was, unfortunately, never debugged.
All you have to do is put each route you want for a stock on it's own line. Then you can route anywhere you want. nitro
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...-2005Apr12.html Fifteen NYSE Traders Indicted Investors Were Cheated, U.S. Says By Carrie Johnson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, April 13, 2005; Page A01 Fifteen current and former traders at the New York Stock Exchange were criminally charged yesterday with cheating investors out of the best prices for their stock trades in what could be unparalleled abuse of their position at the world's largest and most prestigious stock market. The exchange also faces disciplinary action for failing to adequately police its sprawling floor, where 1,366 traders handle an average of 1.6 billion shares a day. The traders are accused of getting in between orders to buy and sell, taking for themselves the best prices and depriving investors who ordered the trades of at least $32.5 million. "These defendants broke the rules repeatedly, they cheated the markets, and they cheated the investors who relied upon them," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney David N. Kelley. The indictments are the result of a two-year investigation into one of the widest-ranging manipulations ever of trading at the exchange, known as the Big Board, and they follow a series of ethical breaches in recent years that have tarnished the exchange's image as the most transparent and fair market in the world. The stocks at issue in the improper trading include some of the nation's biggest companies, including Bank One Corp., Eli Lilly and Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Pfizer Inc., Time Warner Inc. and the Walt Disney Co., according to court papers. The charges come at a time when investor confidence already has been eroded by years of accounting scandals and revelations of illegal mutual fund trading. The abuses operated within the heart of a system that was designed to protect the interests of investors and to ensure they receive the best price for their trades. At the same time the indictments were announced, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed separate civil charges against the 15 traders and five others. The traders "showed a disregard for their legal duty that was both profound and at times, profane," said Mark K. Schonfeld, director of the SEC's Northeast regional office. In some cases, these traders, known as specialists, made statements explicitly denigrating investor orders placed through the exchange's electronic trading system, known as the designated order turnaround system, or DOT. Unnamed specialists said, "Screw the DOTs," according to an SEC news release. Most purchases and sales of securities on the NYSE go through a system in which specialists are assigned to monitor particular stocks. They are obliged to match customer orders with each other whenever possible and ensure that the trading system works smoothly to find the best prices for buyers and sellers, experts said. Trades in the stocks may be made only through the specialists, which is why their role is so critical. Traders were accused yesterday of buying or selling stock for their own accounts at prices that were better than those they gave to existing public orders. That practice is known as "trading ahead," regulators said. Fifteen NYSE Traders Indicted The specialists also were accused of using a trick in which they bought a customer "sell" order and then sold at a higher price into an opposite "buy" order from another customer, pocketing the difference. Such moves helped the traders lock in guaranteed profit at the expense of their customers. The fraudulent practices enriched the specialist firms and resulted in higher salaries and bonuses for people who took part in the manipulation, U.S. Attorney Kelley said. The SEC settled civil charges against the NYSE for failing to police and discipline the errant specialists. The exchange, which did not admit or deny wrongdoing, agreed to spend $20 million to beef up regulatory audits by hiring an independent reviewer. The exchange also said it would start an 18-month pilot program to provide video and audio surveillance of activity related to at least 20 stocks on the trading floor. The SEC criticized the exchange's monitoring system, saying it was set up to uncover "only the most egregious instances of trading violations." Richard G. Ketchum, the exchange's chief regulatory officer, said the NYSE has strengthened its enforcement unit and installed new technology to prevent improper trading since the investigation began in 2003. The regulatory unit now reports directly to the board of directors, rather than the NYSE chief executive, to help insulate it from pressure from traders and member firms. "Specialist firms have changed, as have we," Ketchum said in a news release. "It's highly unusual and somewhat shocking to see criminal activity on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange," said Jacob H. Zamansky, a securities lawyer who represents individuals suing Wall Street firms. "It also highlights that the NYSE seems incapable of supervising [traders]. It's a big setback for investor confidence." U.S. Attorney Kelley pointed out that 14 of the people indicted yesterday at some point served as supervisors or managers at their respective firms -- Fleet Specialist Inc., now Banc of America Specialist Inc.; Bear Wagner Specialists LLC; LaBranche & Co.; Spear, Leeds & Kellogg Specialists LLC; and Van der Moolen Specialists USA. Most of the defendants, except for one authorities say is at large in the Netherlands, surrendered yesterday morning and were scheduled to appear in court for arraignments. These firms and two others, SIG Specialists Inc. and Performance Specialist Group LLC , agreed to pay $247 million to settle related civil charges last year. Indicted were David A. Finnerty, Donald R. Foley II, Scott G. Hunt and Thomas J. Murphy Jr. of Fleet; Frank A. Delaney IV and Kevin M. Fee of Bear Wagner; Freddy DeBoer of LaBranche; Robert A. Johnson Jr. at Spear, Leeds; and Patrick J. McGagh Jr., Joseph Bongiorno, Michael J. Hayward, Richard P. Volpe, Michael F. Stern, Gerard T. Hayes and Robert A. Scavone of Van der Moolen. A defense lawyer for Finnerty, Frederick P. Hafetz, said that his client pleaded not guilty and that Finnerty "did nothing wrong." Other defense lawyers did not return calls or could not be reached for comment. Columbia University law professor John C. Coffee Jr. said the criminal charges against specialists based on fundamental trading practices are unprecedented -- and a direct result of increased scrutiny by law enforcement authorities across the financial services industry. "What prosecutors are recognizing is that across the financial field, the one weapon that seems to work, frightening as it is, is the criminal sanction," Coffee said. The NYSE previously settled civil charges related to inadequate policing of independent floor brokers in 1999. Eight brokers connected to Oakford Corp. faced criminal charges for setting up secret accounts using phony documentation and illegally profiting from them in the late 1990s. The investigation by federal prosecutors continues, according to spokeswoman Megan L. Gaffney. Securities regulators also continue to probe the actions of individuals "who may have fallen down on the job and contributed to the failure that resulted in the case we bring today," SEC enforcement chief Stephen M. Cutler said.
Nitro, this is obvious, but it is not adequate. The purpose of a SMART router is to make routing decisions automatically and accurately, at a much higher speed and accuracy than a person. Direct-routing is an alternative, but it is not an adequate substitute for a fully-functioning SMART-router. I'm not aware of any SMART-router as good as IB's, but I think it would be better if it were designed to help IB customers take full advantage of NYSE electronic liquidity, while totally avoiding specialist order-handling. IB agreed with me enough to implement the feature I suggested, but did not agree with me enough to make it actually work. By the way, I think IB is the best, so don't anybody take my suggestion for improvement as bashing IB.