Vinny1 unforunately that is the exception and not the rule 99.9% of the time don't expect price improvements on NASDAQ. Meanwhile on the NYSE on about 80% of the stocks that trade there I get price improvements on about 75% of my orders. Robert
I would agree with Gene. There is money to be made on the NYSE. There is also money to be made on NASDAQ choose one and stick to it. Please don't complain about the NYSE system if you are a NASDAQ trader saying how you want it to be different. It serves it's purpose very well for a lot of traders.
One warning is after a stock runs straight up they spread the offer up that is sometimes the sign of the end of the buy order. If the stocks runs straight up and there is a big offer on the books lets say 90 a share and the actually offer is 89.99 but there are nothing buy prints at 98.98 that could be a clue the specialist is getting short and there is a lot of stock at 90. specialist and market makers almost never use market orders they just bid and offer and if they make a mistake lets say buy on the bid a 100k shares and they are wrong they just wait for a bounce and offer. Two of the best books on this is Electronic Day Trader and The Market Makers Edge they have all the details you need. Read those books at least 3 times over.
Price improvements. I was short CAL today 1/17/02 at 28.82 (testing a different system so don't ask me why as I prefer not to disclose my system). Take a look at the close. He gave me a price improvement from the 28.95 bid done at 16:00:03 to to 28.45 or a free .50 on my shares Not all specialist are that bad Thanks CAL Robert Tharp
i HATE playing the NYSE! How do you guys manage your stops? You're in your trade and nothing is happening, it's like watching paint dry, then all of a sudden it prints a quarter against you with no warning, when you do try to get out it take FOREVER to get a fill!! The trade goes live and you wait and wait and wait and wait for the specialist to get off his A$$ and make the trade. SCREW THAT!!! Why anyone would wanna deal with that B$ is beyond me. Give me the lightening fills, and the thrills and Chills on the NAS anyday!
rTharp, what kind of order did you place to get that fill? And what about the guys on the other side of that trade, didn't they get 50 cents less? Zero sum, chum.
stock777, (Example) Very often at the end of the day the specialist may have a large seller or buyer. Say the market is 30.70Bid X Offer30.90 . If I put in a Mkt order to Buy or I put in a Buy order of 1000@ 30.80- assume all these orders are put in at 3:59:50 . The specialist puts on a print at the close , say 75,000 shares at 30.20. Your Buy orders will probably get done on the print price of 30.20. You will get price improvement . If you trade NYSE often enough, you will get price improvement on many of your trades. Gene Weissman Lieber & Weissman Sec.,L.L.C. gweissman@stocktrade.net
buy limit. and due to using limit orders. I can't be filled 50 cents less........ Traders who trade with the specialist get price improvements. Trade against him and you can lose. The key is to figure when is specialist taking on stock or taking away stock. If that was true it was zero sum than why are 99% the price improvements in my favor and only about 1% out of my favor. A good specialist is just a traffic cop. Robert