Originally posted by bungrider
Yes; my take is that they aren't very common, but I have no direct personal experience, so take this with a grain of salt... Since the order is "hidden" it's not sent to the L2 book, so unless your broker (i.e. Datek, IB) routes heavily to ISLD, I wouldn't think that the hidden orders are very marketable. I mean, what's the point of making an offer if no one knows it's there? If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, did it really fall??
It's always been strange to me that ISLD, whose originators have been champions of market transparency and liquidity, is one of a very small # of marketplaces that process hidden orders...
Hi bungrider-
Thats the point. Hidden Island orders are not supposed to be marketed. The idea is not to display to the other traders your moves in the market. However, don't make the mistake of thinking they are not as liquid. Restassured if you have the most competitive price on either the bid or ask and your order is hidden, it will still get hit -or- lifted (depending on which side your're on) just as efficiently as a fully displayed order.
One Example of when to use such an order in a highly liquid environment would be to cover a HUGE short position(10k+ shrs.), when prices are in a free fall on a given stock. However, you don't want all the other covering shorts to interfere with your fill. Or at least stave them off until most of your order is covered.
However, with that said I might be more inclined to agree with you on "Subscriber Only"- ISLD orders.
cheers,
momo