No one truly knows what to expect. You can either whine and bitch about the "party being over" or you can do what all successful traders do and adapt to the conditions. Yes, things will be different but different can also be good if you learn to play the game a new way. As far as I'm concerned the NYSE has changed a ton in the last year anyways before the full rollout of the hybrid system. I rarely depend on the "price improvement" prints because I hardly see them anymore anyways. But, I've found new ways to make $$$ from what I've seen and I'm sure the same will be true come Oct 6th. It may take a few weeks to get accustomed but what can you do?
Trading requires constant adjustments to the market. I have actively traded equities for over 15 years, almost entirely on the NYSE. The biggest change that I can imagine was going from fractions to decimals. Moving from less than 10 price points in a dollar to a 100 price points required a big change in thinking. Trading is simple, but it is not easy. Everyone is looking to make money in the same fashion which is to buy into weakness and sell back into strength or sell into strength and cover on weakness, only the time frames vary. I have always felt that I had an advantage in trading over most that were trading. I have always traded in 1000 to 2000 share lots which I feel is the sweet spot. Trading in smaller lots makes it more difficult to accumulate profits and trading in larger lots makes you less nimble and increases exposure to bad things happening.
steve, if I remember correctly, you don't use the openbook, well, what do you mean by scalping then? Most traders in my firm, we look for big aggressive size stepping down and we front run them.
No, I use open book. Its intrigal to scalping NYSE. And I do play market shorts sometimes, it just depends on the setup. I certainly would not make that my primary "edge" because its too obvious and it doesnt work all that well a lot of the time anyways. btw, how are you able to get short these stocks? Conversions? ecns?
i use to get conversions on oil, but right now I do it old school, just offer ECNs. I hardly get filled on ECNs nowadays not to mention new york. When it's hot and really good, i would offer, and offer only to cancel when the market short is over. what's your primary play if you don't mind
Whoever taught you that probably doesn't know much about trading or they stopped learning after 2001. What firm are you at? Chop shops that just churn out people who jump in front of size without doing their trainees a real service by teaching them are like the armpit of this industry.
I assume that's the edge. And I further assume that these stocks are your favorites, the ones that usually go. Let me venture a guess. XOM ?
You gotta learn to read price action and then, at those opportune moments, hop on for the ride. Remember, very "obvious" stuff like huge size moving on the bid or offer generally isnt going to produce a good trade for a scalp except maybe for the last few cents. You have to identify setups where a filter trader couldnt pick up on but that provides a low risk/high reward trade. To find these, you have to log the hours and keep constantly on top of whats going on.