The poll results are extremely comical.
Quote from seasonedpro:
Someone mentioned on a previous post that if it was so easy to front run size it would be automated. I managed a small group and we had a grey box (would automatically put a trade on and trader would exit) that was based all on front running size orders posted on the NYOB. It relied on using the NX system to get fills as soon as the orders posted. It would automatically take the bid up to .10 up or hit the offer depending on if it was a size offer or bid. We scanned only stock with average volume of 150k - 1.5 million.
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Quote from eusdaiki:
My 0.02
You cant read the tape out of a single print, you need to compare how the bids and offers change at different price levels.
As that would tell you how bulls/bears are reacting to the market at any move.
Let's say stock abc opens at 34.01 you start seeing large offers 5000share blocks that drive the price all the way to 33.96 where you start seeing large bids of up to 20000 shares being opposite only by offers mostly below 2000 shares, then the price starts to move up and the bids continue to hold a nice size, and you can tell that bears are struggling to hold the price down, they put resistance at 34.20 and the price stops climbing but the bids are still much higher than the offers, and much more numerous, the price goes down to 34.15 and the bids start becoming even larger, the price rips again towards 34.50 where you see that the size of bids starts to diminish as the size of offers increases, its time to sell.
The absolute size ofa single print tells you nothing, its size in relation to the current price and the prints before that one tell you everything.
None taken. I did look back throught the threat, and after thinking about it you guys are right... when you trade large blocks you shouldn't show your hand till you're done. sounds reasonable.Quote from Steve Tvardek:
This explanation is about at a kindergarten level of trading. No offense, but what you are describing isnt even tape reading, you are just looking at bid and offer sizes.
I'm not usually a jerk when I post but you should go back and read through this thread so you can get the gist of what it means to tape read. Read Mavericks posts, they will be very helpful.