Quote from NoDoji:
Speaking of multiple contracts, can EON, Schiz, SK, Star and you other heavy hitters share with me whether the way multiple lots get filled has any bearing on price reaction. Yesterday, my entry was with a limit order and 1 contract filled at limit and the other 4 filled 1 tick better than my limit order. The price move was very shallow (20 ticks exactly from my entry). Today my order was filled at limit all at once (a single 5-lot) and price seemed to have a stronger retrace. I'm guessing this pertains to "tape reading", being able to find a relationship between how the fills happen and what price does next. Or am I trying to see the Virgin Mary in a tortilla again?
Nod, you mentioned heavy hitters, so I had to chime in
Were you waiting in the queue or hitting/lifting? (a) crossed market orders; (b) queue removed/filled before your order made it through to the exchange so you're actually hitting the bid-1 (or lifting ask+1).
You have no way to know how the orders for multiple cars in the queue are filled, only market orders and hitters/lifters (i.e. a 50 lot in the bid that is filled will not show up as "50", but as "1, 2, 5, 1, 1, 1, 10, 1, 1, 1, 20... or whatever they're hitting it with); problem is if your chart platform's feed is IB's those prints are misleading (they've been aggregated by x milliseconds so 1, 1, 2, 1, 5 becomes "10"), so you'd have to check the T&S (that is fed by the exchange). Similar problem with IB's aggregated volume (also with duplicated prints, etc.). You can sign up for a sim account in Think Or Swim or some other broker and see their DOM's T&S panels side by side.
If you're interested in tape/print reading, you may also want to look at iceberg and scale orders (and keep in mind that many orders are submitted by bots and some orders are submitted by bots trying to fool other bots, etc.) - good luck:
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/orders/iceberg.php?ib_entity=llc
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/orders/scale.php?ib_entity=llc
Now I'll leave you big boys alone and go back to my 1-car units :eek: