Question about NASDAQ Market Makers

[stoxtrader]

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BINGO [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]...the players/MM's with the biggest position whether it be long or short....always have advantage to the direction a particular stock moves.

And the SMALLER the float...the more they can abuse that power

That is why stocks "usually" defy logic ,even though they might have great news,beat their EPS estimates,etc

Its a complete game,that the bigger players have a huge edge in.

SF

*** its also the reason I have and will continue to try and warn you guys of the dangers of daytrading,as the playing field is not even close to being level when it comes to this kinda of intra-day crap

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I would make a small correction here:

The player/MM with the largest risk tolerance/capital or largest customer interested in the stock control the price in the short term, not the one with the biggest position (though they may CARE the most).

[stephenNUTS]

Thats actually what I was trying to imply...I just didnt say it in those exact words

GG
SF [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Your Mom]

good stuff guys and this is what I deal with all day long. People entering in dumb orders and complaining when they get taken to the cleaners. Most of what happens is completely legal and makes perfect sense once you understand it. You have to be smart when entering in your orders and you have to be cognizant of everything that can affect prices in the short run.

There are a few things that could be done that would help the retail investor. Getting rid of Reg NMS would be a start. Blowing up the AMEX would help too, though their influence is getting smaller and smaller as Listed Securities are being much more heavily traded by NASDAQ (INET) and other ECNs.

[SuperWhale]

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There are a few things that could be done that would help the retail investor. Getting rid of Reg NMS would be a start. Blowing up the AMEX would help too . . .

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Can you explain these two parts?

[Your Mom]

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There are a few things that could be done that would help the retail investor. Getting rid of Reg NMS would be a start. Blowing up the AMEX would help too . . .

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Can you explain these two parts?

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Reg NMS are new regulations in place that determine how orders have to be handled and executed by market makers. There are several exceptions that market makers can use to trade thru the normal retail order. The biggest scam exception that the listed exchanges (NYSE and AMEX) use is the Slow Quote exception. The NYSE or AMEX will go into what they call slow quote mode and then they are able to trade through your order even if your order is part of the NBBO (National Best Bid or Offer). Here's the definition of a slow market according to the NYSE:

The market becomes “slow” or converts temporarily from a Hybrid Market to an auction market so as to
enable specialists, floor brokers and customers to interact with quotes and orders manually, with the objective
of enhancing liquidity, reducing volatility and discovering price. Certain market conditions temporarily trigger
a slow market, including gap quotes, trading halts or reaching LRPs. The slow market can be traded through.

In other words, they can go to slow quote mode whenever they want which enables them to do whatever they want. What a [censored] joke.

As for why the AMEX sucks, just trust me that they do. Their specialists do whatever they want, they don't honor their own quotes, their systems crash all the time, they just plain ass suck and I hate everything about them.

[pig4bill]

Yeah, AMEX blows bigtime and the specialists are often crooks. They can "take" your order off an ECN and not fill it.

Ticks me off too, because AMEX has so many garbage companies, which is what I play the most.