This issue became more publicized after the rise of Robinhood (HOOD) and their IPO and its indirect association with meme stock trading, i.e. reddit WallStreetBets. I am not a "trader" but do occasionally place buy and sell orders at whatever is the market price and have never been able to discern that I have been undercut/front-run. This is when making small even lot trades and when checking the bid/ask spread from multiple quote services, I estimate that on average I am given a fair price. Sometimes the price ticks up, but it ticks down just as much (or maybe even more often).
That said, many trades are at executed at 4 decimal fractional prices. e.g. Bought 100 shares at $23.1591, which makes it impossible to know if the this was bumped up a few tenths or hundreds of a cent for some intermediary, which would not enough to get upset about with $0 commission trades, but if it was cents or if trading 1000's of shares it would be more concerning.
I don't have a specific question, just wondering if I am missing anything? Or if others have a better understanding of whether this should be a concern for the average retail investor?
Interview with Sheila Bair below, which is too long for most to watch. But the one noteworthy nugget of information she gave was that Fidelity offers $0 commission trades and does not get paid for order flow.
That said, many trades are at executed at 4 decimal fractional prices. e.g. Bought 100 shares at $23.1591, which makes it impossible to know if the this was bumped up a few tenths or hundreds of a cent for some intermediary, which would not enough to get upset about with $0 commission trades, but if it was cents or if trading 1000's of shares it would be more concerning.
I don't have a specific question, just wondering if I am missing anything? Or if others have a better understanding of whether this should be a concern for the average retail investor?
Interview with Sheila Bair below, which is too long for most to watch. But the one noteworthy nugget of information she gave was that Fidelity offers $0 commission trades and does not get paid for order flow.