I've notice that as soon as I enter my limit order to buy, the price IMMEDIATELY drops by 2¢-5¢; and when I sell the price IMMEDIATELY rises by 2¢-5¢. I understand there are traders, bots etc. out to get me but I don't understand how they can move the market against me so quick (IMMEDIATELY) EVERY TIME.
Yes? That's worse? How do those guys do that? Seems like a HUGE advantage to somebody (market makers?)...
You are placing your order below the market if you are using limits, so what makes you believe that the market should come down and fill you and then reverse higher, or conversely come up and fill you and then turn around and continue downward? If you don't like it you might be better off using market orders and trading with momentum. The traders/"bots" don't care about you, they just want to ride the trend the same as you...
Try the following: Flip a coin every minute. If tails, do nothing. If heads, the flip the coin again. If heads, then enter long. If tails, then enter short. Keep flipping every minute until you get heads. Then exit. If the same shit happens, then they are watching you. Check your room for hidden cameras.
Today has been pretty choppy. Do the positions then go in your favor or continue to go against you? If it's the former then you might be expecting unrealistically small drawdowns. If it's the latter then your problem is not your entry.
Say the bid/ask is 65.10/65.11. I enter a limit order to buy @ 65.11 (right then) and it gets filled. IMMEDIATELY the bid/ask drops by 2¢-5¢ almost every time. The opposite is true for sell orders. That's what I'm trying to figure out. How are they doing that?
Typically it is an immediate reaction but within a minute or two (if my strategy was right) the market moves in my direction. This appears to be an immediate programming (market maker) phenomenon or something. Trying to figure out how they do it. Are (or how are) they manipulating the market.
I generally try to avoid entering into a still market. If I want to go long I will wait for one of those little 2-3 point flutters to the downside. They almost always happen. It seems a little safer to smack the crocodile on the nose when it's leaping at me rather than reaching into the water to do it. Today has been a light volume day, and there has been a lot of order pulling. Overall a pretty tough day.