I am not sure how price improvement will be handled once this goes into effect, and the NYSE website demo's really don't make it clear. It seems almost like they are going to give the specialist the option grouping for price improvement or not.
Anyways, I have been thinking about the long term effects of NQLX. IMO it is going to have two effects, neither of which are good for daytraders. The change will make it easier/faster for size orders to get filled near the current market, which in turn gives investors better prices overall. So to that extent we really can't complain...an efficient market is better for everyone except us.
But does anyone believe the NYSE is out to help investors? They would only go through all this trouble if it increased their bottom line and made the specialists jobs more profitable. I think the NQLX will make stocks more stagnant, decreasing the number of intraday gaps from large orders, and leaving the stocks to trade in tight ranges. If that's the case then many people trading gaps or enveloping give up those strategies, thereby decreasing liquidity nearby the current market. This would leave more stock for the specialist and floor traders who will be providing the NQLX bids/offers. Besides those that will try to penny the NQLX bids/offers I think liquidity is really going to dry up on NYSE, and they will lose a lot of business from us, offestting their new profits from wider spreads, and arb situations from NQLX fills. Last I heard we make up like 30%+ of daily NYSE volume. I just wonder if they realize they will drive away a lot of that volume, especially considering that without price improvement people will use ECN's much more.
Bottom line is I think they believe this will increase their bottom line, but they are really going to shoot themselves in the foot.