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Technology Stocks : Analytical Surveys (ANLT) computer maps -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jody Ritchie who wrote (1031)	7/21/1999 5:19:00 PM
From: Michael T Currie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1157

Jody, It depended on how many shares were available at 6 13/16 and 6 3/4 and if you put in an 'all or none' order for a large number of shares. For example, let's say you were trying to sell 1500 shares. If the MM's had 300 available at 6 13/16 and 2 market makers had 2 blocks of 500 each at 6 3/4, then there was not enough stock available at your limit to fill. Or lets say that the stock was moving fairly quickly and there were orders ahead of you. The shares available at your limit may have run out before your turn came up. There are lots of possibilities. It's one of the very strong reasons to subscribe to a Level II service or at the very least take a look at the Island book viewer: isld.com This is incomplete, but can act as a proxy for Level II in active issues. Hope this helps. Mike

To: Jody Ritchie who wrote (1031)	7/21/1999 6:42:00 PM
From: TLWatson59	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1157

Understanding OTC/NASDAQ trading. The NASDAQ where ANLT shares are traded is a participatory market not an auction market such as the NYSE and other "listed" exchanges with specialists controlling the orderly flow of buy/sell orders. MM's,you know those notorious people lambasted on so many posts, offer competitive bid and asked prices on a given stock. Sometimes these quotes are for themselves in order to profit from any sale of inventoried stock or a purchase to cover a short sale made on a stock. The price differential being their profit or loss as the facts may warrant. MM's also serve as brokers to other brokers who execute orders on a commission basis. Many times a MM will gamble and try to fill a commission order from his inventory, an open market buy or short sale and add to his profit potential should he guess right. The Bid and Asked prices you see listed on LevelI or get from your quote service are inside prices. You are guaranteed an execution on the bid or at the asked, provided the the number of shares in your order does not exceed the quantity displayed on the Level II screen. They also represent the price that the MM is prepared to honor. Your offer or bid price have no weight or priority unless the MM is willing to honor it even if it is the same as shown on the screen. That is how they make their living ; buying at the bid price and selling at the asked price. If the spreads between the two are great enough and the stock trading active enough sometimes you will luck out and execute an order in between the spread. On a listed exchange such as the NYSE you're dealing in a pure auction market. This is governed by a specialist who is prepared to buy and sell shares in order to maintain an orderly market. He operates out in the open at a post on an exchange floor. Brokers wishing to trade that stock gather around his post and they are free to offer or buy shares in competition with the specialist. That is where you see more orders executed in between the bid and asked spread, since your broker is allowed to express his order openly for all to hear and compete for. There is no guarantee that all of the shares you want to sell will be taken or offered if it is a buy order. In both markets there is a "size" posted or known. That means you can find out how many shares will be filled at a bid or asked priced and adjust your order accordingly. Now that I have confused your further, what is that you don't understand about how you cannot place an order in between a Bid and Ask price OTC and hope to get an execution unless some other broker/MM comes in to fill the void. Don't forget that if there are others with the same thought as you get to the floor before your order does you do have wait your turn. That holds true on both exchanges and disputes are settled by the "time of sale" rule.

To: Jody Ritchie who wrote (1031)	7/23/1999 3:29:00 AM
From: The ChrisMeister	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1157

"... how a limit order executes..." I had the same thing happen just yesterday on the NYSE -- was trying to go short NSM (Nat'l Semi) @ 27 3/16. The thing traded my price, 27 1/4, and 27 5/16. I didn't get a fill during the 20 minutes it was at or above my price. Of course it was a short sale, requiring an uptick, and it was also "all or none", though I thought my little 600 share order was nothing compared to the thousands flying around on that issue. After it pulled back to 27 or so I upped the order a tick to 27 1/4. It came back up and did the same thing again, hitting 27 3/8 before closing right at my price. Again no fill. I figure the MM didn't want to execute unless he could make more than 1/8th or didn't want to see anyone go short, or market orders slipped in in front of me. I'd be ticked off if I payed a tick or two more than someone else was willing to sell at. NSM was off the better part of 2 pts today so it's still a sore spot... This has happened to me before on regular buy and sell limit orders without the "all or none" flag, which I now use because I'm tired of partial fills and maybe having to pay multiple commissions. If only 1/3rd of your order fills you should only pay 1/3rd the commission, right? On short market orders they sometimes scam you several ticks to give you an uptick, so I always go with the limit in that case. * ChrisMeister