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Strategies & Market Trends : From the Trading Desk -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GrnArrow who wrote (3795)	11/7/1998 2:53:00 PM
From: steve goldman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4969

<<I know floor brokers can say "I want to sell 10,000 at this price but don't show more than 5,000 at a time" , but can a DOT order be used to do the same thing? >> No, not that I know of. I have electronic systems that let me route orders to my floor brokers at a booth which gets them the orders quickly but they are worked by the specialist. I am not sure if the specialist will WORK an order for you, as it might be contra to policy of being neutral for the mostpart.Also, such work doesnt come cheap...figure 1, 2 cents a share. $10=$20 a thousand. >>A stock is 64 11/16 (2000) x 13/16 (300) 200 shares print at 3/4, then 100 print at ask and ask size drops 100. From the first print we might surmise there is someone interested in buying or selling at 3/4, but not advertising that interest. Since the second print was at the ask, we know a buy order for 100 came in, and we now know there was no hidden seller at 3/4 (because the buyer would have gotten a print at 3/4, unless the person had only wanted 200 shares). So that suggests there is a hidden buyer of unknown size at 3/4, correct? I dont know if hidden is correct but specialist might not want to change the quote for 200 shares, so just fills the 3/4 buyer out of inventory. Not necessarily hidden , but just not displayed. might be in crowd but with only 200 shares, most likely not displayed... >>In general, when a small bid or ask size is taken out by a print smaller than the size shown, what can you conclude? For example, in a stock I was watching today, the ask size is 500, and 300 prints on ask, the ask lifts to next level (all on nyse), and the size is again 500. A couple hundred prints at ask and the ask upticks again. Would the specialist be putting a small amount of size at each level so it trades at least something at each level and the stock doesn't jump around in price so much? Could be : seller cancels order before executed...maybe specialist lumped the piece into the next prints at higher level, that is gave the seller a price improvement to clean up th ebook...(see this more on block prints)...example: buyer steps to booth, wants to know the market for 10,000 shares...specialist looks at book, says can do the whole thing at 7/8...everyone on bok at 3/4, 13/16 gets the 7/8...no prints at 3/4, 13, all at 7/8ths. Lots of different ways things like go down, few know except the specialist, the buy and the seller...getting to the bottom is sometimes critical to successful trading. Regards, Steve