OTOT
That is one of the ripoffs of the NASDAQ!
Sorry Mark, I am in total disagreement with you. I think that NASDAQ is the best place for the individual investor as long as what you are looking for is execution. I watch a Level II all day, and it is the only place you can buy at the bid and sell at the ask.
As a day trader, I have all sort of options for placing a buy order at the bid or vice versa. Any buy order I send out through Island (ISLD), ARCA (TNTO), etc., will instantly show up at the bid. Further, when I place an order through my investment account at Brown & Co., the same thing happens through one of their market makers (NITE or MASH), albeit it may take five seconds. This does not mean your bid (or offer) will be hit, but you certainly have a chance.
This does not happen nearly as often at the NYSE. Normally, when your buy order gets hit at the bid, the price is going down momentarily.
In Bill's example where a trade went through slightly below his bid, someone (or a market maker) for some stupid reason, hit a lower price. One situation where this frequently happens is with incompatible trading systems such as Instinet (INCA). If someone on Instinet wants out when the other MMs are bidding X dollars but there is an instinet quote at X-1 dollars, they will hit the lower quote on instinet.
The one way MMs can manipulate a stock (this only happens on small, thinly traded stocks) is to trade among themselves, making it appear the price is rising, sucking in buyers. Then they lower their bid/asks quickly. However, I think that this is uncommon, it never happens with the larger stocks, and all of the market maker conspiracy theories I read on SI are BS.
All IMHO
Jay |
