What a specialist knows about YOU

Quote from Option Trader:

To be a successful trader you must know the rules of the game. You must also know if information about you is "leaking" to your likely counterparty (i.e. the specialist).

I know the specialist is able to identify YOU as a retail trader and knows which broker you are trading with, and can minimally get a good hunch "it is you again" if you trade the same stock frequently.

What else does he know or not know? E.g. is he able to tell 2 customers apart from the same brokerage, or not?
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I think they also have your street address, social security number, home and cell phones, where you bank, last time you went to the bathroom, when you eat lunch, what kind of car you drive, .....

I'm sure when he's doin g20 million shares a day he says "Uh oh, here comes that 100 share retail punk who drives an '72 Ford Pinto, lives in a 1 BR apartment and has a $5000 account with Fidelity.

And if you're so conspiracy obsessed simply trade NASDAQ stocks. Or do the market makers possess all of the above info as well"? LOL

Funny in 12+ years of full time trading the conspiracy crap has never entered my mind. Maybe it's because some traders are driven to succeed and are not paranoid schizophrenic about "everyone" (Specialists, market makers) out to "get them".
 
Quote from Scalper007:

You think those that do it will tell you so openly? Gimme a break fellas. i aint some newbie. I have seen this shit for the past 10 years. i have seen the market cycles and waded through them. I know the difference between a market cycle vs. constant exploitation of the day trader's psychology.
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The day trader's psychology is without doubt his number one enemy. Doesn't matter what instrument he trades, or whether he trades discretionary or automated. It's what's between his ears that dictates success or failure.
 
So anytime a retail trader starts getting elated about having learned a few ropes of the game & shares with others, he's written off as a loser?

Some of you sound quite arrogant--just like the specialist firms
that you are probably working for.
 
Quote from kickboxers:

a trader or market makers should always not to trade against the market maker or compete with other market makers in illiquid securities.

'market makers' control the price in illiquid securities.

market makers or brokers who buy and sell to each other on behalf of their institutional clients. they make money on institutional large clients.
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Very correct & very well said!
Quote from Scalper007:

...All you naysayers out there, I got a challenge for you. When and if you take a trade in stocks tomorrow, let the trade go against you. Keep on averaging in as it goes against you. Then suddenly start getting out 100 shares at a time. As soon as you start, the price will stop moving against you. And It will not move in your favor until you get out all your shares and hand your money to the pigs. And I guarantee you, your print will be very close to the highest/lowest print. Try this and you will find the specific built in program that is designed to kill the day trader who averages into a losing position. Oh, and if you had the balls to hold it forever, when it comes back in your intended diredtion, watch carefully right where it stops. Yes, right at your average price. And what do you think the human mentality says? Yes, get out even!!
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The same applies from the opening bell if let's say you open a trade for even just 1k shares on a low liquidity stock, in situationis where your counterparty is a MM or specialist, you can almost expect the stock price to "artificially" turn against you for a period of time before a recovery. Unbelievable that the algorithms are designed this way. About averaging down, that happened to me recently with KRY, exactly what you said; by holding the position overnight I was able to pull out the next day without a loss.
 
Quote from Option Trader:

So anytime a retail trader starts getting elated about having learned a few ropes of the game & shares with others, he's written off as a loser?

Some of you sound quite arrogant--just like the specialist firms
that you are probably working for.
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You should consider there are only a very few specialist firms left on the NYSE. Most of them pulled up stakes and left simply becasue since the decimals and then penny spreads were put in place its not that great a business anymore.

One thing no one here has talked about is the payment for order flow which dominates how many orders are handled and where they go.
 
Quote from Option Trader:

With the algorithms, just a few is all that's needed nowadays.
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--* An in-depth knowledge of Mantas product Architecture to thoroughly understand the interaction between the data mart and other system components.

* Sound understanding of Mantas scenarios and business problems addressed at various stages of TSD writing, scenario development, scenario tuning, scenario customization and involvement of multiple threshold sets, jobs and templates configuration for clients at the client site with the responsibilities of data analyst/data miner as per requirement.

*Detailed knowledge of behavior detection as it applies to the financial services domain in the following areas: trading and market making, money laundering within banking and brokerage firms, and retail brokerage customer surveillance.--

Most brokers have trading desks and/or do market making, and clearing firms. At one of these stages they know who you are, your positions, and what percentage you have at risk on a position. It's your broker that trades against you.

Only guy to date that's said so in public is Bill Cara
{(Humungous Bank & Broker's) H B & B trades against the order flow of its clients, including the hedge funds. It's basically a no-risk business because the broker-dealers hold the collateral, analyze the holdings and the strategies, and use this all-important info for their own gains. And, in the futures business, for every gain there is a loss.

Would any casino player play 21 (blackjack) if the dealer's knowledge of all the cards on the table was a rule of the house? Would anybody play poker if one of the players knew in advance everybody's cards and how they would play them (and was the banker)?

I have been saying this for years but too few people listen. ... ... HB&B is the player that is keeping government regulation out of "their" capital market, and that's because they are the winner and everybody else the loser. But, except for the fact it is the People's capital market, they get away with it because the People have stopped thinking -- they've been brainwashed into believing that "our" market needs to be under the control of HB&B.}

This is from his Bio on the Blog:
{Bill Cara has extensive experience in the Canadian securities industry. He was the co-founder/CEO of Qtrade Investor (Canada’s leading online broker), founder and President of Security Traders International (offshore trading broker), President of William Cara Investment Bancorp (registered Ontario securities dealer), founder/CEO Canaccord Capital’s Eastern Canada Operations (Canada’s largest full-service independently-owned broker-dealer) and broker and portfolio manager with Dominion Securities and Dominion Securities Investment Management (now RBC).}
 
"Point 2: at least Scalper, kickboxer, myself, & a couple others on this thread have a good explanation why 90% of daytraders lose their money. What is yours???"

Well, let's see...there's
1a. Most don't know what a market day is composed of.
1b. Most don't know themselves.
2. Most don't know when risk far outweighs all potential reward.
3. Most don't question ALL of the basics or even study bare charts.

Just a few of the myriad reasons that come to mind.

Oh, I'd also forgotten....most of the noobs see their brokers as facilitators, rather than opponents.
 
Quote from Option Trader:

About blaming others: I give credit where credit is due, and give blame when blame is due, however, this thread was not designed to blame people, rather to understand better the "rules of the game".
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Why not just BLAME the company.
They are the one's that employ the NYSE specialist in the first place.

:D
 
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