Quote from FireWalker:
Bullets were a HUGE edge on NYSE. If a 10000 share market short appeared on the tape, you could put up the bullet and hit the bid. Good for .25-.50 with .01 risk + spread. Cover on the first uptick as the short is lifted.
LOL what? Maybe 3 years ago, but in no way this past year. 25-50 cents on a 10000 market short? No way. Maybe on the very very low volume stocks and that is assuming you actually get in within 10 cents of the short and right right away.
The risk, BTW was quite big. If too many traders got in and the short is lifted in one shot or pulled it ended up you getting screwed for 20 cents. And that happened very very often.
Oh wait, there is also the scenario where the market short is limited. It was great to have ur market order scooped and filled 15 cents down, just to see the market short barely move since it was limited.
You are making bullets sound like automatic money, which they in no way were. Bullets actually gave the specialists another way to make more money by screwing most day traders over. Now, they cannot even do that and a market short basically sits and waits for buyers.
The number one reason for using bullets as a real trader was the ability to short a stock at a reasonable price as the stock price is dropping. Just a way around the idiotic uptick rule. And it was in no way illegal. Specialists short whenever they want and that isnt illegal.
The only ones truly getting heard by this decision are the prop firms and the clearing jobs at stake. Most traders DID NOT MAKE MONEY with bullets. Most specialists actually made a little extra something from screwing day traders, saw more liquidity and were able to provide much faster fills for their customer orders. Most institutional traders were able to get better and faster fills IF they knew how to manipulate the day traders.
Noone really stands to gain from this decision. I think that it really had nothing to do with the day traders but other issues. But who really knows.