What an amazing load of opinions!
While I admit I have never even thought about scalping AOL or LLY and have never made much scalping GE, there is still no reason to believe a specialist would even have any motivation to keep any particular trader from buying on the bid and selling at the offer in the same minute. I would think one of the first steps to being a successful trader is the realization that a 1000 share buy order from Joe is no different than the same 1000 share buy order from Jack.
Anyway, how is this for a successful trading premise: The specialist tries to help me achieve the best possible fill, because he wants me (and thousands of other little traders) to keep scalping, thereby helping the specialist provide liquidity. In some stocks I will get fills which do not allow me to profit from scalping. These are the stocks whose specialists do not understand how to help me scalp profitably or do not want to offer me the help I need. I will just avoid these stocks for now and maybe check them every other week just to see if my strategy has become compatible with the specialist's strategy. Until then, I will keep scalping those symbols which make me money.
And remember: Life is part reality and part perception. One good example is, many traders think the BAC specialist tries to screw them on every fill. I have done lots of trades in BAC, and sometimes my limit order sits there for a minute or two without being executed, even though it "should" have been. Then the market moves away from it and I cancel my order. In about 90% of these cases, the market reverses within a couple of minutes after that, with a vengeance, and I am glad I didn't get that fill.
Sometimes I wonder if those specialists who I think give me really bad fills might actually be trying to help me, and I am just too stupid to understand it. But then again, it doesn't really matter. If I can't make money trading a stock, I won't trade it. I won't widh death and pestilence on teh specialist, I just won't trade the stock.
