RJR- Horrible FRE- Manipulative CFC- Seems to arrange b/a ask favorable to get people in then slams you. IBM, GE, WMT these guys have enough orderflow to make money they don't waste time screwing people on 1k share orders. If you loose money here it's your own fault. It would be nice to have some posts from retired specialists here about order handling as far as size 1k 10k 50k orders comparing floor vs sdot etc...
CAM - He is not a bad specialist per say. However, he is very good at pushing the price up and won't let you short it if you are not using a bullet. Those upticks disappear too fast before you can even hit the keyboard. This is when the stock is going up, not down. LOL, someone should remind him that the downtick rule is to protect the stock from falling too fast, not for running up the stock. He using the uptick rule to run the stock up and you cannot hit the bid without a bullet.
This Specialist is really blatant with ignoring NYSE rules today. I was tape reading and came across a Specialist who was doing principal trading today and he is trying to unload his inventory. I tried to hop aboard with Shorting. The Specialist would not allow me to short by hitting the Bid even on an Uptick. I tried another approach. I placed an offer on the inside NBBO. He traded right through my Short Sale Ask price on the inside NBBO without filling me. OK, two strikes out attempt at shorting so far. So, I tried a third approach. I left a Short Sale Ask outside NBBO. The quote stayed there for a while until it came close to trading at the price then the Specialist took my quote off Level 2 so no-one can see it and he traded right through it without filling me. I suspect that it was the Specialist who took my offer off L2 and not my broker. I have not experience this practice with this broker. I have experience this trick with another broker who was doing in-house matching and profiting from the spread. aarrgghh. I will post the name of the stock later on, I am still trying to trade this stock. Glutton for punishment.
Stupid question. How do you know when the specialist makes a trade and when it is another trader? Also, how can a single specialist keep up with the millions of transactions that a single stock might have per day? Thanks.
It's not a stupid question. How can I tell if it is the specialist and not another trader ? Practiced tape reading and you can interpret some of the action. This stock is easy to tell. How can a single specialist control millions of transactions ? This is not a very liquid stock. There is no millions of transactions everyday. It is a Canadian Company that is traded on NYSE. The Specialist has the role of being the buyer and seller of last resort. You can force him to trade to reveal his hand.
.... i think that despite everyone's complaints.... that it isn't as bad as it appears.... and all electronic markets are a joke..... yes the specialists have a very valuable franchise, that they undoubtedly capitalize on but even if you do accuse them of 155 million dollars of trading in front - divide that by the number of shares during the period of time and we aren't even talking about 10ths of pennies..... the regulators are getting overly zealous and it isn't necessarily going to help the business of short term trading.... be careful what you wish for!