To be a successful trader you must know the rules of the game. You must also know if information about you is "leaking" to your likely counterparty (i.e. the specialist). I know the specialist is able to identify YOU as a retail trader and knows which broker you are trading with, and can minimally get a good hunch "it is you again" if you trade the same stock frequently. What else does he know or not know? E.g. is he able to tell 2 customers apart from the same brokerage, or not?
I cannot provide you with a 100% firm/accurate response, but I doubt that they are able to determine that you are a particular individual client with "x" brokerage, beyond hunches. My understanding of brokerages is that they typically hold securities in trust for you (i.e. they are registered holder on behalf of you), I doubt you are personally identified in any manner when a trade is transacted, aside from internal record keeping.
Is it commonplace for specialists to have "their connections" with individual brokerages (or perhaps with individual employees(s)), who may help them identify customers in tiight positions?
That's for the no-brainers; however, I'm sure they go on manual override as well, and could contact brokers quite easily (if that would be part of their procedure).
Specialists/market makers know every thing from your name to your account ID to what type of trader you are(ie. hedge fund, day trader, etc). No one here will agree, but it's the fact. When a stock keeps dropping and just enough day traders have gotten in on the short side, the stock reverses, gets out all the short day traders and it resumes its course downward. Then how many of those day traders do you think are persistent enough to come back in? Maybe 1% or less. Trading is not a right, it's privilege. But fucking the day traders appears to be a right with no recourse.
lol our firm has hired specialists. they don't know all that shit and they can't see all that shit. do you even know what a specialist's profit split is? keep living in the conspiracy world
Sure they can. And you can learn all about LRPs, MOCs, etc if you really wanted. But most of the time when you send an order to the post it is handled without human interference.
First off, i don't need to know what a specialiast profit split is. Second, If what you are saying is true, then thats great stuff. However, I personally know a retired options market maker and he tells me they see all this. Perhaps not the individual specialist, but their "trained" computers.
You don't need to know any of this crap. If you're a good trader, it doesn't matter what the market makers are doing. They can't affect your trade when you're on the right side.