For those that use the openbook and level II, I have noticed that as volitility picks up a little bit, the aggressive size in the open will continously stepping down on the offer, but on level II, it will show that the specialist have locked the book ("1" on the bid) and the offer is now within the somewhat big spread, I anticipated that the specialist would print the offer since he locks the book and it's in the spread but instead when the book is locked, the offer is still aggressively stepping down. He doesn't print the offer, but it gaps down a couple of price levels. When the specialist locks the book, is he just matching orders?
My question is, how do you know or what will it look like when the specialist is going to print the size instead of gapping it down?
My question is, how do you know or what will it look like when the specialist is going to print the size instead of gapping it down?
But you won't know if that's 5000 or 5,000,000