It just seems like the boys who make the markets hide behind pennies -- they use them to nullify bona fide bids and offers, even if just long enough to fill orders for the crowd. That eats into one's edge, unless position trading, imho.
You hit the nail on the head with that statement. It's gotten ridiculous the last month. If you even try and use a market order to get in, you might as well sign your net worth over to the specialist.
Over the years I have learned that although FA has some information and insight to offer, TA is way more all encompassing and efficient to use in trading. May sound trivial to some, but here's what I've been using as a way to combine both: use stock screening software (working on FA info primarily) to build a list of volatile stocks that have a strong bias to the upside or downside. Then use TA to trade those, day to day, until they drop off the list. Sounds ridiculously simple, but it isn't.
IMO it is true that over any considerable period (say, 6 months to 3 years) a stock's price will usually return to track earnings line. However due to news/developements there may be a nice divergence that a person can trade. A good example was when EDS hit the skids a couple months ago (they warned) and IBM got nailed bad in sympathy. It seems that Traders/Funds were worried that the two companies shared the same problems industry-wide As it became known that EDS had company-specific problems then when we hit this little up-leg IBM was one of the strongest techs because it had already been creamed and was so oversold. A good source for this type of investing is to read Peter Lynch books. Boy I wish I'd have loaded up my IRA with IBM - thought about it but never did. Paul
Its not decimalization, its the NYSE specialist system. Decimals just point out the problem better. When you only have one person determining the best bid and ask - there is no competition and you will always get ripped off. The SEC needs to open up competition on the best SHOWN bid-ask, like on the Nasdaq system.