8/1 I placed a limit order on eTrade to sell at $20.80, and later it was
exercised at $20.85. That's nice. eTrade could have bought my shares
at $20.80 and sold to the other party at $20.85, pocketing the $0.05.
\_ Um, that's what traders do all the time. That's one of the ways
they make money.
\_ So eTrade decides not to make money this way?
\_ how do you know they didn't exercise it at $20.95 ?
\_ No I don't, but the point is that they could have satisfied my
order by giving me only $20.80 in exchange of my share.
\_ nah, I don't think they can do that. you can see the
bids and asks right? however, etrade does (or at least
used to) play games with orders made before the market
opens. they say datek doesn't do it, but datek is
now part of ameritrade, so I don't know if it's still
true.
\_ I don't know about this, but I read that some brokers do the
thing where if they see large number of buy orders for a stock
placed during the off hours, they would place their own buy
order first, and then send in the larger number of buy orders.
same for sell orders (or they would buy after first sending in
all the sell orders).
all the sell orders). that's why you should place your orders
only during market hours, and try to avoid the first hour
after market opens, and possibly also the half hour before
market closes. |
http://csua.com/feed/