Scottrade, Tradestation, and IB don't offer imbalance info. Why do some places have it only 10 minutes before the close and others 20 minutes? I know it starts 20 minutes before the close. And places like Trade The News give an overall imbalance info at 15 minutes before the close.
Does the specialist take the other side of the trade if an imbalance exists at 4:00 pm? In other words, are all orders filled despite an imbalance? Specialist are charged with the responsibility to try and maintain an orderly market but they are never required to buy/sell a stock. When making a market and maintaining an orderly market, the specialist is only expected to buy/sell a normal round lot in that security which most of the time is 100 shares. On market open and close orders, those shares not matched are cancelled. Imbalances are not carried over to the next trading session.
Is everyone on crack or just outdated....cuz it's been like a year since imbalances were modified to 3:45pm and 3:55pm.