Here are a list of some of the players I am referring to (some overlapping will exist): Stock exchanges, options exchanges, stock market makers, options market makers, specialists, corporate management, private equity groups, brokers, SEC, other government bodies, hedge funds, financial institutions, lenders, bondholders, computerized traders, shorts, reporters, investment advisors, investment bankers, etc. etc. Among the list above, which of them can you positively identify work together/ are in kahoots with each other AND how in your assessment (or opinion) as a by-product of this is it to the detriment of retail traders?
Government institutions, including the SEC working with exchanges and speicalists & MMs (which is pretty much the exchanges) to "protect" retail traders. They mostly protect them from having better information and lower transactions costs. But the retail guys keep screaming for that "protection", so they're getting what they ask for and they're getting it good and hard.
Here's another... Dow Jones updating many of their indexes ONCE every 3 minutes. What kind of BS is that? Dow Jones provides other countries & exchanges with real-time indexes but in the USA, they conveniently keep shit delayed 3-5 minutes! How about the 20 min delayed data everywhere else, like on websites & such? Why screw people like that? What a racket! And why do the exchanges allow groups of MMs and others to "make a market" in *huge* groups of stocks? That's how those guys manipulate prices. Because they see the direct order flow of hundreds of listings. Why allow the big exchanges to merge? Keep them separate and in competition!
Any index you want can be calc in real time dow jones or otherwise and why should a free website give you free real time data? Do you think that firms dont pay for data feeds? Gimmie a break. On the mm side its mostly done with computers these days there are no "guys" standnign around LOL There are few MM's left in the business since they went to penny spreads
MMs and specialists make the exchange. Exchanges rely on them to quote to bring volume to the exchange and the exchange is the advocacy group for specialist and market makers. The MMs and specialists essentially are the exchange. Things like locate requirements and uptick rules (which they are necessarily exempt from because of the two sided market requirement) give them and advantage over customers. Mostly retail customers as pros have a million tricks up their sleeves to get around the advantages MMs and specialists have. However, as I said, the retail guys are the ones screaming for all these rules the loudest, so the have nobody to blame but themselves.