The Hybrid?

[mschey]

Quote from dipper17:

Think of it more as playing poker everyday vs. a seasoned professional who not only can see his hand but can see the top cards on the deck and even some of the cards behind them. Plus that player also had relationships with the dealer who brings cards to the table.

The hybrid system ends a good deal of that professional player’s advantage. That’s why there are many fewer of those specialists and their profit margins have suffered.

As a humorous side, the large number of anonymous egos who populate ET would have you believe that despite all the advantages of the specialists they could some how out play them consistently as opposed to the hybrid system which levels the playing field a bit more. This must have been because they know ET is an anonymous forum and they needed to feel better about themselves by belittling other anonymous people here.

Trading with the specialist was much easier. The market had more depth to it....instead of a couple hundred shares up, there was always several thousand shares available within a few cents of the specialist market. A trader could trade 5k shares much easier and move them on a single print, not many stocks you can do that in today. Not many played games because the specialist had the ability to hold cancels of orders, and this kept the ghosters under control. Today, the market is all fake, you never know how much size is at any give price point, but rest assured, if you want 5k shares, it's not there unless you are completely wrong. Price improvement was a big edge. Having an order at 25.7 and getting 25.5 on a buy was a tremendous edge. Now you get filled and run over for a buck instantly.


Just a few examples too mull over. I have figured out how to adapt to the hybrid and am doing fairly well, but boy do I wish for the good ole' days with the technology I have available today!