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James Carson wrote:
> To: Mark & TC:
>
> Every day, I see him
> and the other floor brokers struggle with this problem. An order comes
> into their deck and is immediately pulled and then put back. It is a
> royal pain in the ass for them. It interupts the flow of their business
> needlessly. Ultimately, it will affect the attention and quality of the
> fill that that customer receives.
I can sympathize with this, as I can imagine this may present difficulties.
However - the comment "interrupts the flow of their business needlessly" is
troublesome. Their "business" is to serve clients; more specifically, to
execute requests. If certain aspects of fulfilling this duty are considered
to be a "royal pain in the ass," then perhaps this line of work is not
suited to them. The fact that this is seen as "unnecessary" is even more
disconcerting - it is certainly not the place of the floor broker to
question the appropriateness of an order, even if this were true.
Regardless of any additional complications that may ensue, it is absurd to
suggest that traders be forced to sacrifice their interests to conform to
the ease of order handling. Personally, I find that the very fact that
orders are still handled in this antiquated fashion to be humorous - but, in
any case, if the workload becomes too demanding, increasing staff and/or
efficiency would be the sensible solution - and certainly not encouraging
clients to abandon their trading strategies.
> Frankly, different brokers will have
> different bid/ask spreads quoted them based on the perceptions of locals
> like myself as to how diligent the broker will be in filling the order.
Very little surprises me when it comes to monkey business in markets, but is
this for real? This just goes to show how much of a circus floor trading
really is.
On the other hand, I don't doubt that this is difficult work that does
require a lot of skill - especially if one is to be good at it. If these
orders were merely whimsical, and had no meaningful place in trading, I'd
agree with you. Surely this isn't the case, though - in my opinion, only a
novice would not advantage him/herself of this option. If it does indeed
create more problems than it solves, then the efficiency of the process must
be improved if the level of service provided is going to be even adequate.
Regards,
A.J.
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