Quote from Dustin:
Many of these tiny odd lot fills are just probes to determine whether your order has reserve, or if there is anything hidden on the book. I believe these are mostly ex-Swift Trade guys, they've been doing this stuff for years.
In low volume stocks there is no "reserve"...
Virtually all trades in 100 to 500 share range...
And that often routed in 100 shares lots to many different ECNs.
In lower volume stocks with decent spreads (< 100K volume/day)...
Pros are actually competing with specific other Pros.
So zero cost traders will drive up the cost for non-zero cost competitors...
By hitting their Limit Orders with trivial amounts like 7 shares...
Basically costing you in the neighborhood of $0.50
10 years ago when your minimum ticket charge might be near $10...
The same people would hit you with 100 shares...
Which was relatively much worse.
But it's really just an inconvenience...
These same people are trying to cheating you 20 different ways...
You MUST have discipline and good margins to absorb all the flak.
Actually, there is no such thing as "cheating" in America in 2012...
Also "lying" is an anachronistic term with no meaning...
FINRA or whatever they call themselves should just be disbanded.
When the US President is lying to you 90% of the time...
And the other 10% using a True Fact ONLY to set up more bullshit...
Then we are nothing more than Animals in a primitive Darwinian Game.