Tai,
Yes, I trade mostly internet and the larger-cap tech stocks too, with those ISLD can be very thin when you most need to use it. That's because it's just the aggregate bids/offers of a bunch of short-term traders. I find ISLD to be OK most of the time for 100-500 SH orders, but with 1,000-3,000 SH lots, it becomes much harder to use due to lack of orders (liquidity). That's where ARCA really shines, since it goes out and "works" your order. With ISLD, you often end up with a partial fill, then can end up having to use multiple orders, and paying multiple tickets.
In the situation you're talking about (below) e.g. to exit a long when ISLD bids aren't there, have you tried using Selectnet broadcast or preferencing orders? Preferencing a MM you know is a buyer on the day, that's active, can work well. And, there's always SOES with all of it's encumberances (tier size, 5-min rule, etc).
Noone wants those odd-lots generated by ISLD, that's really a design (implementation) problem with ISLD! Becomes "pass the hot potato, who wants my 367 share lot?" :)
The nice thing about ISLD is when the liquidity is there, it is very fast, nothing faster that I've seen.
Regards,
-Steve |
