Is the U.S. stock market rigged?

CBS News ^ | March 30, 2014 | Steve Kroft

[C19fan]

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the current bull market on Wall Street, making it one of the longest and strongest in history. Yet U.S. stock ownership is at a record low and less than half of Americans trust banks and financial services. And in the last two weeks, the New York attorney general and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in Washington have both launched investigations into high-frequency computerized stock trading that now controls more than half the market.

[RoosterRedux]

They used to steal my sox.;-)

Now they hide my keys.

[rsobin]

it’s not just the unseen movers. Little ole me could not help but notice when trading through Schwab when I bought something through them the transaction would always take 3 or 4 days. The settled price was always the highest quote for that period. When selling the contrary was always true. Stick it Chuck.

[Right Wing Assault]

"Step right up ladies and gentlemen!!"

[bert]

You have it right.

Traders with massive capability have an advaantage in the short and very short term.

Those who buy and hold are not substantially effected by that advantage. If you set the buy or sell price, you get what you want or don’t. Then , you try again.

[bert]

no, not at all.

If you carefully search out and buy a mutual fund you will get a return much better than at the casino

[NVDave]

Indeed. Cramer even admitted in an interview that he used CNBC to help manipulate prices of stocks in which he had a position.

[RoosterRedux]

You need to place a limit order at a specific price and not a market order. And the settlement time for a stock order is 3 days by rule (T+3 it is called)...but it will be at the price you specified or better if the order is executed. Contrary to what used to be the rule, a limit order is the same price (at Schwab) as a market order ($8.95 regardless of size, number of shares, or cost). My limit orders are day orders but I cancel them if they don't execute in the next few minutes at no cost. My brother, on the other hand, enters a limit order and often walks away until later just to see if the market comes to him.

I also watched the market depth activity (at Schwab) and set my order limit at a price which I like but which will get executed. If the market moves away, I make a decision to either raise the price by cancelling and re-entering the order or leave the order as is to see if the market comes back to me.

A limit order at a specified price will be executed at my price or better...or it will not be executed at all.

Once executed, the stock is mine, but the transaction settles over the next three days. In fact, if I want, I can resell the stock before the transactions settles.

[RoosterRedux]

For all of you who want to make money in the stock market, here is the book written by Warren Buffett's professor at Columbia. Click the pic to go to Amazon. This is the classic for fundamental investors (that's me...and Warren). Studied this book in undergraduate and grad school. Love it. It is simple and basic...and beloved.

[RoosterRedux]

Here are the reviews at Amazon of "Security Analysis"...click here.

[Neidermeyer]

In effect, they skim a bit, and I think the practical effect of this is to widen the bid-ask spread a bit.
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The penny pricing has NARROWED the spread ,,, the NYSE hated to go to it because it put their people out of business (the market makers that have seats and their traders in the pits) and gave the profits to the huge HFT wirehouses... now there is basically no backstop to an out of control market is a bad trade is entered... say a price wrong by a few decimal points or a LARGE quantity that can’t be realistically filled..

[logi_cal869]

Or how the Fed sold its GM stock before the recall news came out...

[Rockingham]

My youngest brother has also done quite well with his stock picks. He (and you and your wife) have the satisfaction of being tangibly rewarded for applying the practical conservative virtues of careful analysis, planning, and discipline. As Margaret Thatcher used to say, “the facts of life are conservative,” and few things are as intensely fact driven as clever stock picking.