Quote from bidmasterx:
I partly agree with you here. If this was 20 years ago I would completely agree with you, but I think a lot has changed and a lot is changing. The big players will always have an advantage because of their influence, but the big players today are smaller than the big players 20 years ago, and thus their influence has gone down.
Can you please elaborate on this.
Actually, I think the bigger players are both individually and in aggregate a lot bigger than they were 20 years ago. I suppose you mean that in certain markets they no longer represent as high a percentage of the daily dollar volume? That's very probably true, I think, though the actual proportions are hard to determine - especially given the fuzziness about player-sizing. My perception is that the markets
seemed to be decentralizing during the heyday of the OLB revolution and the mania market, but that post-Y2K things have reverted somewhat, though by no means completely, to prior conditions in both appearance and reality.
As for the point on the e-minis, others more experienced and knowledgeable than I might be able to say more, if they were willing, but I'll concede that Globex doesn't seem at least to be as subject to everyday trickery as any individual equity market, or at least to the same types of trickery. So maybe my statement seemed to be implying more than I'm really able to back up. Still, there are various types of prime-mover advantage that immediately come to mind. When, for instance, was the last time that you accidentally hit the wrong button, got suckered on a bottomless or topless e-mini air pocket, or just made a really stupid move, and your disadvantageous trade was broken without evident regard for those who thought they had benefited from being on the other side? I've seen small traders on the bad side of such incidents on the e-minis, and I'm sure most of us remember recent high profile broken "mis-trades" in futures and stock exchanges - maybe someone else has specific details on the e-minis or Globex. (I don't, and, anyway, this discussion has already gone on for very long off-topic on this thread, and I'm beginning to feel sorry that I spoke up on this side-issue!)
The more familiar big player advantages would be those that aren't unique to a given execution system or exchange -- greater and faster access to news and information, superior technology and tools, ability to throw on size, access to minimal or zero commission-trading and minimal to zero cost hedging instruments and to "soft dollar" services, etc. To some extent they are balanced by the disadvantages of HAVING to move size and of having to support a large operation in the first place, but they still keep the playing field from being "even" for all participants.
