Q: re Lance question on bid/ask discrepancies in quantities submitted from 10/08.
This was an important question and may be my experiences with this problem can help (and Peter, please correct me if I am wrong because everybody trading on the venture exchange (micro caps stocks) will face this problem one day.
The broker that you use (in my case BMO Investor Line)may show bid and ask that will reflect the trades on the Venture Exchange only which means that professional traders at their BMO desk who trade on the Alpha trading platform may buy or sell your bid or ask quantities before it is offered to the Venture exchange basically fronting any bid or ask on the venture, this may be why you never see the quantities that you have purchased or sold reflected in a change of the bid/ask on your retail trading platform.
This process is new (as far as I have experienced it 2 years old and getting worst by the day), it destroys the discovery process, and make the bid/ask values on your screen poorly reliable.
I have to say that I have contacted BMO on this subject many times and that without any surprise on my part never got a satisfying answer.
So my way of dealing with this abuse and growing problem is to always trade very carefully with the knowledge that your bid/ask streamer could be showing only a portion of the bid/ask.
I also sometimes test the system (before the market open), placing an ask or bid to see how the values change and cancelling (or not) this bid/ask immediately after.
This subject should be front and center for the IROC as a case for fair trading. But I have to say that calls placed to their attention never got anywhere also.
This was an important question and may be my experiences with this problem can help (and Peter, please correct me if I am wrong because everybody trading on the venture exchange (micro caps stocks) will face this problem one day.
The broker that you use (in my case BMO Investor Line)may show bid and ask that will reflect the trades on the Venture Exchange only which means that professional traders at their BMO desk who trade on the Alpha trading platform may buy or sell your bid or ask quantities before it is offered to the Venture exchange basically fronting any bid or ask on the venture, this may be why you never see the quantities that you have purchased or sold reflected in a change of the bid/ask on your retail trading platform.
This process is new (as far as I have experienced it 2 years old and getting worst by the day), it destroys the discovery process, and make the bid/ask values on your screen poorly reliable.
I have to say that I have contacted BMO on this subject many times and that without any surprise on my part never got a satisfying answer.
So my way of dealing with this abuse and growing problem is to always trade very carefully with the knowledge that your bid/ask streamer could be showing only a portion of the bid/ask.
I also sometimes test the system (before the market open), placing an ask or bid to see how the values change and cancelling (or not) this bid/ask immediately after.
This subject should be front and center for the IROC as a case for fair trading. But I have to say that calls placed to their attention never got anywhere also.
