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Non-Tech : MB TRADING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JerryPutnam who wrote (2786)	12/17/1998 10:51:00 AM
From: PerryA	Respond to of 7382

Re: Options Do options trades count the same as stock trades for purposes of software and data feed costs? Thanks - PerryA

To: JerryPutnam who wrote (2786)	12/18/1998 4:47:00 PM
From: tom pope	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 7382

I followed Jerry Putnam's explanation of the way ARCA works with a great deal of interest. In fact he did such a good job of explaining how ARCA seeks out the best bid seamlessly that I figured I could trust it with something I never do in a NASDAQ stock - a market order. Today at 11:13 USWB touched my mental stop at 25, and I entered an order to sell 1000 USWB at market on ARCA. At the time the best bid was 1000 at 24 7/8. I don't know how many were offered at what prices below that. For the next minute the best bid was never less than 24 3/4. Here's the record of my fills. 11:13:53 - order to sell 1000 USWB at market on ARCA. For over a minute, nothing happened. Then - 11:15:01 - 100 shares sold at 24 3/4 11:15:16 - 300 shares sold at 24 7/8 11:15:21 - 100 shares sold at 24 1/2 11:15:59 - 500 shares sold at 24 1/2. Note that the time of the last fill was more than TWO MINUTES after I entered my order. During that whole time there were bids between 24 5/8 and 24 7/8 that would have been sufficient to cover my order of 1000 shares. ARCA wasn't able to hook up with them. The vast majority of trades during that two minute period were at 24 3/4, with many at 24 7/8 and some at 25. The only trades below 24 3/4 were 400 at 9/16, and my 600 at 1/2. Only my 600 sold as low as 24 1/2, which was the low of the day. The last 500 went at 24 1/2 after the bid had moved back to 9/16. During the period my order was out there over 15,000 shares traded between 24 3/4 and 25. I'm not saying there was any skullduggery, though it's hard to believe the results ARCA achieved for me were due to simple system incompetence. I am saying that ARCA performed miserably for me, for whatever reason. And I guess I'm also saying that's it's dangerous to trust Jerry Putnam when he describes the beauties of ARCA.