With the openbook, I can see that there are large offers 150 in size, etc... resting at even numbers...so who put the offer there? Is it an insitutional seller trying to work the order him/herself without the specialist? Is that the price the seller is resting at...the evens? Does seeing large offers/bid in openbook have any significance as I tend to get a vibe that Mav. don't use openbooks...
what constitutes a strong stock, a weak stock? I know I have a lot of questions but I am just trying to learn. Thanks guys for all the support!
what happens when you have a buyer and a seller in the same stock? Does one eventually give in/ finishes order, takes a break, but how will the quotes and prints be visualized?
Usually you'll have a stock that is in a range (ie btw 40.00-40.25) when there is both a buyer and a seller in the stock. If one side is stronger than the other, eventually that side will overpower the other and the stock usually moves in the direction of that buyer/seller. Its pretty easy to see from the price action when there is both a buyer and seller there at the same time. The stock will bounce back and forth between where the buyer is holding up the stock and where the seller is holding it down. I try and avoid trading these situations because its very easy to churn many shares while going nowhere with your P&L unless the range is big enough to make trading it worthwhile.
today I saw on the tape that the bid just kept printing and it did not go away, then the offer prints and the offer becomes bid. ....does that mean there was a buyer and a seller and at the end, the seller was done, but the buyer kept going? btw, do you look at the openbook? If you do, which one do you place more emphasis on...level 2 or Openbook? I know that in level2, it shows limit orders and market limit orders. I would often see huge sizes, sometimes at round numbers and I am guessing that's an institutional market limit order. What does that mean? Did he give that order to the specialist to work or did the institutional buyer/seller tries to handle the stock himself? Why would the huge size show up in the openbook? My guess is that the seller/buyer is almost done and just wants to use a market limit order to complete the fill. They would often appear more on the offer side than the bid side and that further leads me to the conclusion that if they are using market limit orders, they are almost finished with the order and had to absolutely sell the last batch...Most of these big sizes are not at whole numbers (700, 1000, etc...) but rather odd numbers such as (564, 453, 243)... What does that mean when the huge size is not at round numbers? Could that be an institutional order or is just a large trader?
"today I saw on the tape that the bid just kept printing and it did not go away, then the offer prints and the offer becomes bid. ....does that mean there was a buyer and a seller and at the end, the seller was done, but the buyer kept going? " ---If there is a battle betwee a buyer and a seller at a particular level (ie 30.99 and 40.00) and the seller is taken out at 40.00 and now the bid is 40.00 and holding then you can assume that the seller is done for the time being (maybe alltogether). "btw, do you look at the openbook? If you do, which one do you place more emphasis on...level 2 or Openbook?" ---Price action, S&P futures, Open Book and chart is what I use. All are important for how I trade. "I know that in level2, it shows limit orders and market limit orders. " ---what is the difference? If its a limit order, then its a limit at that price or better. Maybe you are confusing limit orders with market shorts? "What does that mean when the huge size is not at round numbers? Could that be an institutional order or is just a large trader?" ---If the size is "stale" and not stepping up or down, then its just a big limit order. If the stock keeps trading towards that limit, its usually just a matter of time before it gets taken out.
I hope I don't kill this thread with the following, but I found it very interesting. On Tuesday, I was "watching" a stock, where on the bid sat one MM ( QUIN ) soaking up everything in site. The WHOLE DAY. The price movement wasn't much - up and down and in a farily constant range. Just by my observation, I think a fairly accurate guess is that QUIN bought up 80% of the days volume. He was the first on the BID the whole damn day. Thus, I assumed he was either accummulating or covering. I have no idea how to tell if someone is covering. The stock closed down for the day, but most of the down movement was done in the first half hour of trading where QUIN wasn't on the bid. All the other MM's did not try and outbid him for the most part, and the stock never broke out. I was amazed that so much volume could be soaked up by one MM without a challenge and without having him pay more due to his aggressiveness. Anyways, yesterday the stock tanks - QUIN no where to be seen. stock was xkem ( which has very positive news of late ) and yes it is an otcbb stock. Anyone expect a stock to tank again, if this scenario repeats itself?