Does this ever happen to you? There is a large gap between the bid and the offer of any instrument, maybe because its illiquid or maybe because your in the pre or after market. You put in a bid or offer and the second you do that some automated software one ups you, and if you keep bettering your bid it keeps one upping you until it reaches a preset plateau. Now I realize that there are some order entry platforms that can do this, but my question is if you put in an order for less than 100 shares of a stock, it doesn't up doesn't show up on a level two quote screen, yet my order is still one upped. So someone is seeing my order even though its less that 100. Can it be seen on a level three screen?
I think its just market makers and brokerage houses that can see odd lots and use level III. We are just lowly traders, we can't be allowed to see the whole picture. But when you think about it, in a so called free market, why shouldn't we be able to see the whole market?