Dan-
My question didn't go into enough detail. I'll explain- when you look at a level2 and see an ECN like INCA (instinet) , you only see their best bid/offer. Say the stock is 25 1/4 x 25 1/2, and there is INCA on that offer, there may be 10K shrs of INCA stock at 25 3/4, but because of the nasdaq feed (my workstation displays it this way), you won't see it until the 25 1/2 stock is taken, expired or cancelled, then it "magically" appears. You traders should also know that a non MM such as myself can elect not to show in the quote, so I may have 10k shrs at 25 3/8, not showing. The more active traders here probably have wondered why they got a better fill occasionally when they went to take/hit INCA. There can also be stock in Instinet at every level, and often is. Additionally, Instinet facilitates "reserve book" orders, so it looks to you like stock is printing "away" but the bid/offer keeps refreshing. I can have my 10k shares out looking like 1000. BTRD (bloomberg) also has reserve book facility. My question was prompted by the fact that I see ISLD at every level in some stocks and wondered if these "proprietary" level2 services display ECN's differently than the workstation, ie. displaying ISLD at every level. Do you know what I'm asking?
-Alex |
