Quote from FutureScalper:
I was talking about a retail buyer never showing up on the ASK because he buys the ask from someone selling at the inside ASK, and these are "market makers" who are sitting there offering to sell.
Yes, of course. If the trader puts a limit to sell at the inside ASK, it will show up as the 4,001th single contract offer to sell, behind the other 4,000 existing contracts offered for sale. It's the time price priority on the exchange, like Globex, which is "first at that price level" is seller (ASK) at that price level if a buy order is matched to that price.
The only things on the ASK side are offers to sell which cannot be immediately matched at the prevailing price. The only things on the BID side are offers to buy which cannot be immediately satisfied. These are, of course, limit orders; because market orders by definitions are satisfied by buying the best ASK and selling to the best BID price.
If the market DOES NOT MOVE, and assuming the ASK size doesn't change, retail buyers (to the ASK price) will buy 4,000 contracts from the MM's before you, the 4,001th is ever satisfied.
That's not gonna happen, so you will not get filled in your sell limit order at the inside, UNLESS the market lifts by 1 tick (always assuming a 1 tic constant bid/ask spread).
THIS IS IMPORTANT: You will not get filled by your offer to sell at the INSIDE unless the market lifts 1 tick up, thus leaving you alone perhaps at the inside ask and the rest of the MM's in the market at the next higher ASK price level. Your price level specified by the limit order is now equal to the INSIDE BID price. You have just sold at "retail price" (you are paying the bid/ask spread). You might have the illusion that the limit order means you got as good a price as MM's could get, but you didn't and you can't, because they were there first, they have squeezed you and kept you out, and because the market needs to move before you can sell at that price, since you were behind 4,000 other contracts to sell as that specific market moment.
Am I missing something here about what you're asking?
FS