Consumers Digest

I placed a large buy on Nasdaq. I thought I would see my order on Level II but its not showing up. Why?

I put in a buy order for 16,000 shares for a security that is listed on Nasdaq. The order did not show up on Level II even though my bid was in the top 10 bid orders. I think the market makers are hiding my order so not to drive up the price. Does anyone know the answer? I thought the top bids with volume was suppose to show up on Level II. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. I think that Level II shows only orders posted by Market Makers.. Unless you have direct rounting.. Global Investors Community, http://www.moneyhowto.com
2. Some orders are in-house exchanges. If my brokerage has three people who place a buy order for 100 of XYZ and two people with a sell order for 100 of XYZ, then the broker really needs to go to the exchange for 1 block (100 shares) of XYZ, the other is simply an internal accounting change for two blocks of stocks. I see that with my brokerage when I get an instant sale notice immediately after placing the order. When there is a pause to placing a market order, they had to go to the exchange to satisfy it.