For those of you that trade NYSE stocks with non NX size orders- 1100 shares and above, what percentage of the time would you estimate that you receive price improvement when entering limit orders 3-8 cents (varies by stock) through the bid/offer and NOT enabling NX? Recently, price improvement seems to be decreasing, just wanted to some input from the NYSE size traders here. Any comments on this topic/ what stocks give best/worst PI are welcome too.
I agree, it's not like it used to be. I think it really seems to depend on the specialist... The same guys treat me nice, and the same guys bitch slap me. There are a few stocks out there that are great with the fills still, but they are becoming more rare. One thing I have found myself doing more lately is using limits and not trusting them with market orders, the slippage on some of those also has become pretty bad.
As I understand it, price improvment usually is a function of batching order flow. Since there is less institutional activity nowadays, there's not as much order flow for the specialist to give you and I an improvement on. DNAJ65000