Gman, head trader at SMB Capital, wrote an excellent article for Wall Street Cheat Sheet about the way his orders are treated by the specialists at the NYSE. Gman shows how his orders may be front-run by the specialist forcing him to sell lower or buy higher.
11 Comments on “Is the NYSE Manipulating Trades?”
Gman:
From what I know, floor brokers have the special privilege to frontrun NYSE orders as NYSE wants to provide the incentive for them to stick around. This would be a more serious issue on thicker stocks like GE and C, since you can count the prints and notice that you are not being printed when you are supposed to be printed.
There’s an off topic question that I wanted to ask you since I read your interview with traderinterviews.com. You mentioned that your daily routine consists of looking through 500 different charts after the close. I find this interesting as I spend a great deal of time ripping through Charts myself.
Do you manually go through 500 charts or do you use any program that scans charts for setups, I wonder how much time this routine would take. Also, do you find it more efficient to go through that many charts as opposed to just focusing on 20-30 stocks.
Appreciate your response,
Tapetrader
Gman:
From what I know, floor brokers have the special privilege to frontrun NYSE orders as NYSE wants to provide the incentive for them to stick around. This would be a more serious issue on thicker stocks like GE and C, since you can count the prints and notice that you are not being printed when you are supposed to be printed.
There’s an off topic question that I wanted to ask you since I read your interview with traderinterviews.com. You mentioned that your daily routine consists of looking through 500 different charts after the close. I find this interesting as I spend a great deal of time ripping through Charts myself.
Do you manually go through 500 charts or do you use any program that scans charts for setups, I wonder how much time this routine would take. Also, do you find it more efficient to go through that many charts as opposed to just focusing on 20-30 stocks.
Appreciate your response,
Tapetrader
Gman:
From what I know, floor brokers have the special privilege to frontrun NYSE orders as NYSE wants to provide the incentive for them to stick around. This would be a more serious issue on thicker stocks like GE and C, since you can count the prints and notice that you are not being printed when you are supposed to be printed.
There’s an off topic question that I wanted to ask you since I read your interview with traderinterviews.com. You mentioned that your daily routine consists of looking through 500 different charts after the close. I find this interesting as I spend a great deal of time ripping through Charts myself.
Do you manually go through 500 charts or do you use any program that scans charts for setups, I wonder how much time this routine would take. Also, do you find it more efficient to go through that many charts as opposed to just focusing on 20-30 stocks.
Appreciate your response,
Tapetrader
Tapetrader,
Thanks for your comments. I didn’t know that floor brokers had that special privilege. That explains a lot. It is still very sketchy. 🙂
As for your question on my routine I manually look at my “basket” of stocks. Some of them i just type to see if they have volume so that I can put them on the radar. But out of those 500 I really spend my energy looking at like 100 names. I look at the different time frames and look for interesting levels where I think I may have an edge. I also use other tools/site that point me to the top volume/gainers/volatility to seek second day plays in them.
I used to just watch my favorite/most profitable 30 stocks and just look for levels in those but found that there was a lot of easy money out there in the other names so I expanded my go-to list to about 100 names. Hope that helps.
Gman
Tapetrader,
Thanks for your comments. I didn’t know that floor brokers had that special privilege. That explains a lot. It is still very sketchy. 🙂
As for your question on my routine I manually look at my “basket” of stocks. Some of them i just type to see if they have volume so that I can put them on the radar. But out of those 500 I really spend my energy looking at like 100 names. I look at the different time frames and look for interesting levels where I think I may have an edge. I also use other tools/site that point me to the top volume/gainers/volatility to seek second day plays in them.
I used to just watch my favorite/most profitable 30 stocks and just look for levels in those but found that there was a lot of easy money out there in the other names so I expanded my go-to list to about 100 names. Hope that helps.
Gman
Tapetrader,
Thanks for your comments. I didn’t know that floor brokers had that special privilege. That explains a lot. It is still very sketchy. 🙂
As for your question on my routine I manually look at my “basket” of stocks. Some of them i just type to see if they have volume so that I can put them on the radar. But out of those 500 I really spend my energy looking at like 100 names. I look at the different time frames and look for interesting levels where I think I may have an edge. I also use other tools/site that point me to the top volume/gainers/volatility to seek second day plays in them.
I used to just watch my favorite/most profitable 30 stocks and just look for levels in those but found that there was a lot of easy money out there in the other names so I expanded my go-to list to about 100 names. Hope that helps.
Gman
Gman… i agree. I’ve had to expand my watchlist too for the same reason… might as well take advantage of what’s available, even on a short term basis.
Gman… i agree. I’ve had to expand my watchlist too for the same reason… might as well take advantage of what’s available, even on a short term basis.
Gman… i agree. I’ve had to expand my watchlist too for the same reason… might as well take advantage of what’s available, even on a short term basis.
That tick chart you posted is so incriminating. Great job capturing that moment. I’m with you on the frustration, too. Thanks for the encouragement 🙂
That tick chart you posted is so incriminating. Great job capturing that moment. I’m with you on the frustration, too. Thanks for the encouragement 🙂