SEC Weighs Bringing Back Fractions in Stock Prices

Quote from Satan's Helper:

Bringing back fractions would be great!

Most of you are don’t know or remember the days of the SOES (Small Order Execution System) and the beginning of Island. Everything was traded in fractions, volatility was awesome and if you had a set of balls you just bought or sold anytime a stocks spread up or gaped down! Spreads were sometimes more than a point and at 2 cents a share, commissions were not an issue. Hell I even make 50k in one month trading DELL (DELL swung 10 points every day) while paying almost $100 per trade. You made money and there was always opportunity. It was pure momentum and market making. Either buy strong stocks or be willing to take the other side of the trade…

All of you traders that whine about commission costs, lack of volatility and general difficulty in scalping this market need to prey that we all go back to fractions. Tight spreads have destroyed volatility and commissions are eating more of your profits.

Anyone who has been around knows fractions would make this a great day trading market again.

Damn, I miss the days of the tech bubble days and the trading shops in NYC! Broadway, Shonefeld, World Co, and all of the other ones that created the proprietary trading community.

after reading your post i understand your handle satan's helper
 
You do know what they say; The Devil is in the Details!

Fractions would be great to get the market moving again! Think about it!!

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i'm pretty sure that big boys would not allow this to happens ever again. even my accountant was a daytrader at that time. he said-it's like printing the money. monkey can do it. literally.
do you seriously believe that with all those bots,co location,fighting over few milliseconds,quants and literally army of programmers from all over the world such times will be back? common..get real..

---All of you traders that whine about commission costs, lack of volatility and general difficulty in scalping this market need to prey that we all go back to fractions. Tight spreads have destroyed volatility and commissions are eating more of your profits.--

spreads are greater than ever on stocks i trade(cause REAL volume is dying l),but there is one problem-impossible to get fill on winning trade,where stock is going to move your way. magically there is always "someone" on front of you :p
 
Quote from Bob111:

i'm pretty sure that big boys would not allow this to happens ever again. even my accountant was a daytrader at that time. he said-it's like printing the money. monkey can do it. literally.
do you seriously believe that with all those bots,co location,fighting over few milliseconds,quants and literally army of programmers from all over the world such times will be back? common..get real..

---All of you traders that whine about commission costs, lack of volatility and general difficulty in scalping this market need to prey that we all go back to fractions. Tight spreads have destroyed volatility and commissions are eating more of your profits.--

spreads are greater than ever on stocks i trade(cause REAL volume is dying l),but there is one problem-impossible to get fill on winning trade,where stock is going to move your way. magically there is always "someone" on front of you :p

If they went back to fractions (which they should) the bots/HFT guys would be wiped out. With 1/16 ths and only 6 price points each dollar they wouldn't be able to play the bullshit games they do now. They are having a rough enough time right now (as expected as over time their game got more competitive and they began eating each other like sharks). Going back to fractions would finish them off.
 
Quote from traderchi128:

If they went back to fractions (which they should) the bots/HFT guys would be wiped out. With 1/16 ths and only 6 price points each dollar they wouldn't be able to play the bullshit games they do now. They are having a rough enough time right now (as expected as over time their game got more competitive and they began eating each other like sharks). Going back to fractions would finish them off.

and that's precisely why it's not going to happen. they have too much money on stake..them,exchanges,who sells them data and co location,ECN's -they will lobby this idea to the very end. like i said before-the whole trend for last decade was to kill the retail trading. and SEC(same people who did it) all of a sudden became "retail friendly"? doubt that...
i would love to see more "pro retail" changes,but so far-I've seen none in my 12 years of trading. not even ONE. starts (once again) with decimals and PDT
 
Quote from Bob111:

spreads are greater than ever on stocks i trade(cause REAL volume is dying l),but there is one problem-impossible to get fill on winning trade,where stock is going to move your way. magically there is always "someone" on front of you :p

Getting fills on a stock that is on the run has always been a issue! This was true back then and today. If you are chasing stocks then you are in a losing position. Anyone who trades size never chases a stock. It is dumb, reckless and sign of a newbie trader! Always buy on the pull backs and sell into rallies. You know the saying "Feed the Ducks When They Are Quacking".
 
Quote from Bob111:

and that's precisely why it's not going to happen. they have too much money on stake..them,exchanges,who sells them data and co location,ECN's -they will lobby this idea to the very end. like i said before-the whole trend for last decade was to kill the retail trading. and SEC(same people who did it) all of a sudden became "retail friendly"? doubt that...
i would love to see more "pro retail" changes,but so far-I've seen none in my 12 years of trading. not even ONE. starts (once again) with decimals and PDT

I hear ya man. I started in 1992 back in the days of specialists and 1/8ths on NYSE. Trading equities was so much better. Grasso was on CNBC this morning making great points about goin to nickle increments. I'm not a big fan of Grasso, but hopefully others feel the same way. Even .05 increments would change things for the better.

The HFT firms seem to be coming under more and more attack and likely will have less pull as time goes by....and with their profits declining rapidly they will have less and less reason to fight.
 
You know how algos can buy at subpennies right now? What if they end up putting everything back on 1/8 and the algos can do 1/16? There's enough money in HFT that I could see it happening..
 
Quote from traderchi128:

Ask any equity trader who traded in 1/8th's and 1/16ths back in the day. They will tell you how much better equity trading was. If the SEC is wise and does go back to 1/8th's equity trading will explode again. I started in 1992 and traded through the change to decimals/pennies. Shortly after the change went into futures and never looked back. I'd be willing to bet a lot of guys would go back into equity trading, getting the volume back and making equity trading a whole lot better. Also you wouldn't see anymore of these flash crash bullshit moves in stocks.

correct.

Anytime you can step in front of orders by shaving say below a nickel, you are going to piss off the people providing real orders. real piles of shares have to be rewarded for sitting there. that is what creates a good market.
People with shares (institutions) parking orders make for good trading.

I note some of the guys who traded back in the 90s sense nickels was threshold.
 
Quote from jem:

correct.

Anytime you can step in front of orders by shaving say below a nickel, you are going to piss off the people providing real orders. real piles of shares have to be rewarded for sitting there. that is what creates a good market.
People with shares (institutions) parking orders make for good trading.

I note some of the guys who traded back in the 90s sense nickels was threshold.

At the end of the day, their little experiment (which has gone on now for 12 years) by going to pennies/sub pennies is a colossal failure. Just look at the volume on the stock exchanges. Has plummeted. With these HFT's running the mkt trading for subpennies the interest in equity trading has plummeted and gone.

Then take a look at futures trading. While the volume might have decreased over the years a bit, it's not even close to what happened in the equity market. Futures trading is cut and dry. A lot less price points. Not nearly as much bullshit goin on with the HFT in futures.

Most of the equity guys I have known over the years are either out of the biz, or switched over to futures. Trust me, if stocks go back to even .05 increments some of the futures guys will venture back into equities. And a lot more people will get back into equity trading.
 
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