Matt,
Well, I can see that (as I suspected) a colloquialism took on a life of its' own. There is an absolutely amazing amount of misinformation and foolishness around the equities trading and (specifically) day trading industries, 90% of which is no fault of the actual traders, whether they're sitting at home or on a huge trading floor.
"The box" is a slang for the Nasdaq quote montage, which is the exact same for Level II and Level III. Some firms repackage this with colors to help separate the quote intervals, highlighted ECNs, etc.
What differentiates the two NASDAQ levels is the ability to actually bid or offer directly onto the box, under ones' own broker-dealer MPID (market participant ID, i.e., up there with GSCO and MSCO, etc. would be "MATT"). THAT is what makes Level II and Level III different. Same information, different capability.
A/The "book" is the consolidated interest, bid and offer, of a particular ECN, institutional limit order book, specialist book, or UTP entity, like MWSE (Chicago Stock Exchange, formerly known as the Midwest Stock Exchange).
Let me know if any other questions come up. Regards,
LPS5
P.S. Matt, come on, buddy; keep your chin up! You're not "lowly" by any stretch of the imagination :) |
