I know for a fact that they can get inside fast mkts on the cboe, as far as ecn's? not real sure, but I would lean to the side of no.
granted this may have been pure coincidence but two days ago i was in a bad way on a stock....long 9900 shares as the stock was in free fall...i was already offside 15 cents with no bid in sight for another 50 cents to bail out on........so i placed a number of island bids 5 and 10 cents lower hoping someone would join me on those bids on the specialist......however....no other dumbass cept me was long this stock.....in desperation i sent a market order for all 9900 hoping there was a floor broker standing around with nothing better to do than buy me shares at a 20 tick discount.........well my market order went through....however... i was still long 9900 shares....i was like WTF.....then i noticed that my first bid of 7000 on island had been swiped and 2900 of my second island bid had been taken...... seemed a little bit fishy to me that i sent a market order for 9900 to the specialist and someone happened to hit my island order for the exact amount....... so i am thinkin...even if they arent suppose to....the specialist does what ever he\she wants..... and can you blame them....if i was a specialist i would be doin the same thing....... that damn trade cost me $3500
they are almost all corrupt to the bone. i mean, do u think it is fair they dont fill u when stock is hot and give u faster execution then ecns when u are wrong? i found very few nyse stocks spec so far that behave well, and even those are reluctant to fill u...they always take a chance and wait to see if u to cancel.
I have talked to trade support at my firm about this issue. The specialist can route your order out to another exchange if there is a better bid/offer than what is available on the specialist's limit order book or standing in the crowd at the post. It sounds like he routed your order out to Island bids because you were the closest available buyer that he saw in the marketplace. I have noticed this happens a lot now. If I send a market order to buy even a few hundred shares of stock and there is a better offer on Island than the NYSE, the specialist will route my order to Island for the execution. This is good if you want the best price. Sometimes I want to get the stock up to a level so I can unload my position and I am unable to do so without buying more stock than I want due to the rerouting of my order.
haha I totally agree with you... everytime I find the most optimal time to buy limit he moves it up without my fill so i start scrambling with a higher price and bam he started to show with large size on the offer
lol...good point....but yes....both the market order partial fills happened at the same prices as my island bids....at the same second.... it was very clear that the specialist just swapped my shares with me.....which i didnt think they could do but i guess now i know they can.