NITE seems to go even further than the article suggests at times.
I have had them hold orders unexecuted for up to 1/2 hour, while I was unable to cancel the order. (To the credit of my broker, Preferred Capital Markets, when I have notified them of this, they have on several occasions switched from NITE to their back-ups HRZG or INCA for the rest of the day.)
It is not uncommon for them to let marketable orders sit unexecuted, though they will represent my order to the market once the market moves. (That is, stock is 50 x 50 1/4. I put in an order to buy at 50 1/4. Nothing. Market moves, to where the bid is 50 1/4. Now NITE shows-up on L2 at the bid with my order.)
In other words, at times they are NOT willing to go out and execute the trade with another MM or ECN, even though they could have.
It seems that on certain days they are very good, and on others they refuse to do anything. Quite often, the latter wind-up being really bad days for the market. One GOOD thing about it is that I've added this to my arsenal of information sources: sometimes if NITE is refusing to fill orders, I will just sit it out, assuming it's going to be a horrible day anyway.
I wrote a note to the WSJ article author. I suggested that what NITE is doing on these days is akin to what the MMs did in 1987. Deja vu all over again. |
