Stops placed "IN" the mkt and not filled are known by the clearing firm. Mental stops are not. I would imagine the CME gets all the days numbers for Buys, Sells spreads etc. I would further assume the exchange members have access to all those numbers, being a member of the club certainly comes with a few perks. How many remember the days when the exchanges only gave out the open interest and volume numbers a day late? members had access to those numbers for sure before the public. Computers are neato in the right hands on the proper desk for the user but on the wrong desks they just blast out a ton of useless garbage called indicators, useless stats and other useless mind-numbing silliness to confuse the game. The basics will always be there, it is best to use them to your advantage (keep the 20 ema, ha) and forget the rest. Stops are used for protection and peace of mind. With one-click trading in nano seconds what the screen shows is basically fiction anyway, price, once printed is the real deal and that and that only is included in the days summary of P/L..
Stop running CERTAINLY (AKA not a myth) occurs but only when someone wants to position using them. They don't run stops to take 20 cents from the little guy's account. Certain market conditions must exist to make it profitable. Most traders would do best not worry about it. The sharper ones should use it to IMPROVE their trading ability. Whenever you know how your opponent will react, there is a market inefficiency and a potential for edge. It is like top flight chess.
Here are some related questions for you. Can any entity see the release of market moving data or news before the rest of the market? How would we know this? Does someone sell this information to others for big money? Have firms been fined for this by regulators? Has everyone been caught yet? Will everyone ever be caught? Snowden managed to see sensitive data that millions were spent to prevent anyone unauthorized ever seeing, yet he made no money from the data. In a wall street fraught with fraud and cheating, are you thinking that principles will win out over illegal profits? When I worked, I had a personal policy of: all information comes out eventually so make sure that I am always doing the right thing to the best of my ability.
Discussions with three former market makers (different places and different times) and one trading VP - warrant specialist. I doubt that they will sign an affidavit, but it's not like a big secret or something. So far the computer replacements aren't talking - more liquor needed I guess.
I assume these were market-makers in stocks. Would be interesting to know how liquid the stocks were.
NoDoji, every day, are you totally confident in your ability to trade and make money? Do you ever have any doubts?
Honestly, at the time I place an order I quite often feel like the trade could never work, and I have to remind myself "they got your back". But I am totally confident that as long as I stick with my rules, I'll definitely make money
That's great I've had that feeling in the past but have to admit my confidence has been shaken lately, currently in a drawdown.
Frankly, if I was trying to catch runs or trends, I'd be spinning. I've been in "assume everything's a scalp unless there's a clear trend" mode for quite a while now. :eek: Austin really nailed the PA, just a lot of head fake range/chop, then boom, then right back again.