I know for a fact that they can get inside fast mkts on the cboe, as far as ecn's? not real sure, but I would lean to the side of no.
Quote from madmunny:
i was still long 9900 shares....i was like WTF.....then i noticed that my first bid of 7000 on island had been swiped and 2900 of my second island bid had been taken......
seemed a little bit fishy to me that i sent a market order for 9900 to the specialist and someone happened to hit my island order for the exact amount.......
so i am thinkin...even if they arent suppose to....the specialist does what ever he\she wants.....
and can you blame them....if i was a specialist i would be doin the same thing.......
that damn trade cost me $3500![]()
Quote from madmunny:
granted this may have been pure coincidence but two days ago i was in a bad way on a stock....long 9900 shares as the stock was in free fall...i was already offside 15 cents with no bid in sight for another 50 cents to bail out on........so i placed a number of island bids 5 and 10 cents lower hoping someone would join me on those bids on the specialist......however....no other dumbass cept me was long this stock.....in desperation i sent a market order for all 9900 hoping there was a floor broker standing around with nothing better to do than buy me shares at a 20 tick discount.........well my market order went through....however... i was still long 9900 shares....i was like WTF.....then i noticed that my first bid of 7000 on island had been swiped and 2900 of my second island bid had been taken......
seemed a little bit fishy to me that i sent a market order for 9900 to the specialist and someone happened to hit my island order for the exact amount.......
so i am thinkin...even if they arent suppose to....the specialist does what ever he\she wants.....
and can you blame them....if i was a specialist i would be doin the same thing.......
that damn trade cost me $3500![]()
Quote from Bitstream:
they are almost all corrupt to the bone. i mean, do u think it is fair they dont fill u when stock is hot and give u faster execution then ecns when u are wrong?
i found very few nyse stocks spec so far that behave well, and even those are reluctant to fill u...they always take a chance and wait to see if u to cancel.

Quote from 88888accountant:
Very important, was the market order filled at the same prices?