start out small, have hotkeys set for cut and hide and trade what you think, not what you see (just the opposite of normal hours)
that's wrong. if you have a trade go through ISLD, at the very least, and it's 'significantly away' from the last price or market at the time, you will get it busted. i've had my bad fill busted, and had my 'good fill' busted. i believe ISLD charges 10c/share to bust a trade. ---- easyrider - "don't do it". easy to say, a safer way to trade, but too simple. a better response is "be careful, take less size, and make sure you have an edge AND an out". i trade pre-market almost every day.
Each ECN has its own busting policies. And each ECN has a little disclaimer saying that it can bust trades any way it sees fit and you can't do jack. My experience has been that ECNs have certain busting procedures for some customers and different busting procedures for other customers. Seemingly reasonable prices (that do not fall into the normal busting range) will get forcibly busted by ECNs (without recourse). My experience with ECNs and their busting policies has just been frustration.
I've had a bad trade busted on ISLD premarket. Someone was flashing between 20.40 bid and 23.40 bid. I hit 23.40 (I thought) and hit transmit before I realized it was 20.40. Never asked for a bust before, but it was no problem. I didn't even get charged for the bust but it's the only one I've ever asked for.
For example, here is Archipelago's clearly erroneous policy: http://www.tradearca.com/exchange/pdfs/ErroneousExecutionPolicy.pdf
the only time i've been annoyed about a bust going against me was when i (we) got notified at 230 in the afternoon for a pre-market trade. i had already covered, and my customer rep was hugely apologetic (even before i had started getting upset - not at them, but at ISLD) let me know that they had given ISLD a hard time about busting a trade so late in the day... but all in all, i can't complain. i understand why it's there and all... oh - bust = cancelled. if ISLD or INCA or someone bust a trade, the buyer and seller have the trade voided from their portfolio. if they've sold (buyer) or covered (seller), then they are now short (buyer) or long (seller). that's why there was an uproar over the busted trades a couple months (?) ago in one of the education stocks, CECO or COCO or something. it dropped on an 'erroneous' size input, people bought at the bottom taking on risk, sold on the rise - in an account where you COULDNT short - and then when naz busted half the trade (the buy), they were net 'short'. i don't know how that was resolved..