I have several questions. Viewing the following...
Time MMID Size Bid
08:56 SCHB 50 0.31 ↑
ok this tells me that SCHIB put in a bid for 50 shares for .31 a share.
1. I assume the arrow means that the trend is upward in bid price?
2. is this for 50 shares, 500 shares, or what?
3. Is SCHIB what is considered a "market maker" or is this just a broker trying to bid this stock for someone or is this an individual?
My next question follows this one: 07:30 JSLC 50 0.01
1. OK, this is the same stock... why the heck is JSLC bidding for 50 * .01??? At 8:56, the bid was at .31... why was it earlier at this .01? 2. How do I know whether or not either of these bids were sucessfully filled.
Also, general questions: 1. I noticed that each row or group of rows, seems to have a different color background (pink, green, etc.) What do the colors indicate?
2. How can I use this information to my benefit? I'm not sure I can see how it helps me except to know what people are submitting for prices... but I don't know if these are successfully filled or not.
Thanks in advance... If you can point me to a good resource, like an L2 for Dummies, I'd really appreciate it.
-------------------- Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
posted
As far as I know, SCHIB would be a market maker. And every share = 100. So if you see 50 listed, that means 5000 shares.
Basically if you want to know if a stock is going to run...look at the L2s (this isnt the *only* way of course -- the stock still has to have volume). The L2s show who is selling shares on the ask (and buying on the bid). If for example you saw this on the ask:
NITE .02 SCHIB .01 FABS .005
Let's say the current bid/ask on the stock is .0049/.0050...
Now let's say for the sake of arguing that FABS is a weak MM -- doesnt own many shares. This would indicate that the L2 on the ask is thin, and once FABS's shares are bought up, the ask on the stock will immediately jump up to .01, and SCHIB will start selling shares. Once his shares are sold, then it jumps to .02, where NITE will sell his. Now here's some resistance, because NITE is a strong MM. So basically there's a good chance of a run if you can get in at .0050 and FABS's shares get bought. By using L2 for awhile, sometimes you can get the feel of which MMs are strong and weak. NITE is one of the bigger MMs out there.
Do you see where I'm going with this? I'm probably explaining it badly, since I've not used L2 much (I'm cheap, I like free stuff ) but hopefully you get the idea and someone else will pop in here and clarify things.