Agreed...after 4+ years making a living off trading solely on price improvement I ditched NYSE a couple months ago. Good fills still happen occasionally but they even when they did I couldn't get a fill. Their abuse is worse than ever, but I would never wish for them to go fully electronic because inefficiencies create opportunities and that's what trading is all about. Maybe after the new rules are in place there will be a new edge.
Don't hold your breath. After the NYSE goes fully electronic it will be very similar to the Nasdaq. There are very few edges to be had in this market since it is program dominated. These programs have very few flaws if any and the scary part is as flaws are discovered they keep getting remedied. Any edge that one might have is ephemeral and fleeting. In essence you have to constantly find new edges which the programs will latch onto and then you have to find something else that works. I envisage a situation where these programs will get to be infallible at some future point in time. Just my opinion though. The Nasdaq is a highly manipulated market which does not reflect supply and demand in its purest form - far from it. The odds are heavily stacked against the small fish. The big boys hold all the cards out there.
That is it! From long run, trend is traders' friend, while in short run or intraday, inefiiciency is traders's friend.
good am not the only one noticin' the abuse is gettin' worse and worse. price improvement dont happen no more at least not to moi and fills are orrible or non-existent at best. but....since u now have to wait an eternity to get a fill when you are right and u are in immediately when wrong why not take advantage of it and turn it in your favor: so far every single time spec/clerck was reluctant to fill [waited 10sec or more to see if i cancel] my position was gonna be a big winner. same for when i couldnt get a fill on nyse no matter how many times i tried...well go to arca and load up the whole boat. u have a signal that's as precious as gold here.
Is it safe to say then that in the near future, the money to be made would basically be in swing trading (intra-day or multi-day) and paying more attention to fundamentals? After all, one wouldn't need to figure out the specialists' games and exploit inefficiencies with this type of trading. If a stock wants to go up, then there's really nothing the specialist or the programs can do about it. Am I correct in this assessment?