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Strategies & Market Trends : DAYTRADING Fundamentals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Davis who wrote (13521)	8/12/2001 9:31:39 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

Hi Mark, Thanks for the note, I appreciate your views. From what I can tell, there's a complete lack of candor on the part of the Wall Street crowd when it comes to the activities on their trading desks. As one would expect where the advantage is to the quick and the devious. I find it quite amusing to read about things like Level II, and the retail daytrader. Seems that it ought to be obvious that Level II is really a broken marketing tool*, and of no use to the market makers, except to provide the illusion to the trader that he's getting some insights into the actual bids and asks. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. But that's the beauty part of the deception. Analogously, the GPS (Global Positioning) system used to be intentionally broken with a feature called SA, Selective Aperture, which made the elevation readings quite inaccurate. If the market makers wanted us to see what and who was really in the market, they'd provide lots more data on who the players are in a stock, what trades are moving in blocks and a whole lot of other very useful information that simply isn't provided by Level II. Re: Simply put, there are many interests vying for the best fill at all times. I assume they will do anything they can get away with, to achieve that.* As the biggest pigs at the trough, the underwriters write the laws that make it a certainty that they always come out on top. Seeing how they'd short some of the former high-tech flyers, and fleece their customers was quite an eye-opener for me. There seems to be no honor left on the Street, at least as far as equities are concerned. It's simply a matter of greed and gambling today. I'm certain there are those on this thread who will disagree with me. But I think the game is ruined for all the widows & orphans and the 401(k) crowd. As for the day trader crowd, if all they're doing is scalping each others bets, then the inside players with the best information and the best methods of disseminating rumors and lies will be the eventual winners. Wall Street became a complete source of revulsion in the '73-4 recession. I can imagine it happening again, as Main Street simply decides the stock market game is too rigged to be able to win. Good Luck, Ray