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Strategies & Market Trends : Systems, Strategies and Resources for Trading Futures -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patrick Slevin who wrote (37926)	10/20/1999 10:44:00 PM
From: Carl R.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 44573

I assume that there is a bid and ask, isn't there? What happens if you have a buy in and the bid falls below your price but the ask is above it? Can you only buy at the ask and sell at the bid? With stocks the answer depends on several different things. First of all on stocks traded on the big board (NYSE), most trades are crossed trades. Thus for every buyer there is a seller on the other side other than the specialist. If you insert a bid to buy between the bid and ask, you become the bid, and you are the first to fill, so usually you will get a fill pretty quickly. On Nasdaq stocks most trades are between you and the specialist. Thus you typically lose the spread, i.e. you have to buy at the ask and sell at the bid. Sometimes however your broker has a matched order in house, and can clear the trade internally. This is where it gets interesting. For example say a stock is trading at 13 bid, 14 ask. Normally you would sell at 13 and buy at 14. Say you put in a market buy order, and simultaneously another customer puts in a market sell order. At some brokerages (e.g. Morgan-Stanley) you buy at 14, the seller sells at 13, and the broker keeps the spread as well as the commissions. At other brokerages they split the difference and give you a "price improvement", thus you buy at 13.5 and the seller sells at 13.5. This is how Schwab does it. Also with this policy you can do a limit order to buy at 13, and it may or may not fill, depending on whether or not another Schwab customer puts in a market sell order. Thus with stocks the answer varies. Did this help, or is it just confusing? As for my problems with orders filling in 1987 I suppose I could have complained about the few that should have filled but didn't, but I just figured it would draw attention to the fact that I had exceeded my margin. I was happy with the trades that did fill, and just moved on. Carl

To: Patrick Slevin who wrote (37926)	10/20/1999 10:59:00 PM
From: coug	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 44573

So Patrick, I was reading the thread tonight, discussing Time and Gann,etc... and time Gann by.. Well I am SOL on the use of Gann.. because I can't define time.. without using time in the definition. So what the hell does that mean. Nobody has done it to my satisfaction yet.. Onward and downward.. Re: bumping into people in New Orleans, in an elevator last Spring, in walked this woman and her husband, and she was NO Abbey C..She proceeded to give me "a buy signal" then on to my friend, on to my wife, on to friend's wife.. And I stood there, waiting for a "sell signal".. Unable or unwilling to stop this nonense.. And they walked out, "an equal opportunity feeler upper". Was that a Karmic or Cosmic or what..?? good luck tomorrow.. coug