Quote from kungfoofighting:
"One of my new strategies is getting 85 share fills on ECN's when a certain event happens on listed stocks. I am getting my fills from one guy each day and thought it would be fun to know who it was. Also, I have a question regarding your API...PM me."
Dustin, I have to wonder what you had hoped to accomplish by posting this question. I am going to give you an analogy that should hopefully enlighten you and cause you to think twice before you type.
Let's suppose one day you leave for work very early in the morning and as you're driving along you see a local convenience store, so you stop for coffee. As you walk through the door, the clerk behind the counter announces, "Hey, our first customer", and hands you a five dollar bill. You ask him, "Did you just open for business today"? To this he replies, "No, it's the convenience store tradition to give $5 to the first customer we get every day, everybody does it". You can't believe your ears. Not only do you get a free coffee, you have enough to get a free doughnut, too. This becomes your regular routine. Every morning you make sure you are at the shop at 6:30 sharp, and you get your $5. You do this for about a month then, suddenly gripped by curiousity, you decide to post a classified in the local newspaper. You announce that the ABC mart in town XYZ, gives $5 to the first customer that they get every morning, and that you were wondering why they do this. You leave your phone #, but don't get any replies. The next morning you make your regular stop, only to find that there are two people already there waiting for the clerk to open the door. Frustrated, you leave and wonder how those people found out about the free $5. The following day there are even more people in line, and so on, and so on. About a month goes by, and you decide you're going to get your money no matter what it takes. You leave your house at 4 a.m., and camp out in front of the store for two and a half hours. Surprisingly, no one else shows up. The clerk opens the door and you shout, "Yes, I'm the first customer"! To this the clerk replies, "Oh, we don't do that $5 thing anymore, all these people started showing up, and we found out that it is not an industrywide tradition. It seems we were the only shop doing it".
Do you get my drift? You have stumbled upon an arbitrage opportunity with an extremely limited number of shares to pick off. Why you feel the need to question, or advertise this arb to others is beyond me. You obviously care enough about it to refer to it as "one of your new strategies". Further, you not-so-cleverly disguise what your signal is as "when a certain event happens on listed stocks". Think about all the trader's at andover/assent across the country who all know exactly what this signal is. I don't even trade there, and it's obvious to me what you're doing. The odds are good that you trade there. I'm willing to bet there are at least 10 people frantically trying to black box a program that will take these trades risk free all day long.
Perhaps the guy who is giving you the shares is doing it so he can monitor the stocks that have this "event" and fade them? If he happens to read your post, maybe he will decide there is no need to give you that many shares, and instead just gives you 1 share. You have potentially jeopardized the little gift you are able to receive each day. What do you make on these trades, $20, $50, $200? Isn't that money you would like to continue getting? You said that you were asking because it would be fun to find out who the contra is. Instead, I got the impression that you posted to boast about your findings--like a donkey braying about what a clever and pretty pony it is, all I see is an ass.
P.S. What does being a registered member of Elite Trader for 4 years give you? Do they give you a badge to pin on your trader uniform. Something to add to your daily affirmation as you look in the mirror? "I'm smart, I'm good-looking, I've been an elite trader since '99, and gosh-darnit, people like me..." Sorry to come down on you, but that post was asinine.
