Strange Days Aug 2nd, 2011





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Step right up. It's Whac-A-Mole! If you can hit the bid and offer fast enough, it's instant money! If not, please try again!



On August 2nd at 16:00:07, quote and trade activity in the stock of Earthlink (ELNK) began which perfectly illustrates an illusion of modern trading. Gone are old-fashioned, Luddite meanings of bids and offers; when a bid/ask used to mean someone actually wanted to buy/sell stock at the stated price.



Today's bids and offers are beautiful to behold. And boy, are they fast! How fast? Faster than you could ever hope to hit them. Even your fancy, new, co-located super-computer is in for a surprise (did you forget to upgrade to the shorter 900 foot cable?).



This is progress. So shut-up, sit back, and please, try again!



ELNK - EARTHLINK



Price Only:





Price and Size:





Scatter plot of trades only (Price and Size):





Zoom in of price activity:





Zoom in of early price activity:







The charts below show bids (up triangle), and asks (down triangle) from two exchanges, plus the NBBO in 200 and 100 millisecond (ms) intervals.



Shading



National Best Bid/Offer Color Crossed (Bid > Ask) Red Locked (Bid = Ask) Yellow Normal Gray

200 ms Intervals.







100 ms Intervals.









The trades that occurred (trades below $7.90 are shaded):







Inquiries: pr@nanex.net



Publication Date: 08/02/2011

http://www.nanex.net





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