RE: Off-Topic: "transparent market">>Let's say the current price of a stock you want to buy is $60. But it turns out that just under that offer price are hundreds of sellers willing to part with the stock at $55. If you knew that, you'd probably not want to be the sucker to buy at $60.<<
I am not so sure about this. The sell orders are ordered from lowest sell price to higher prices. Under the $60. price referenced will be lower prices, not higher ones. This example is the order in which the buy orders are displayed - from the highest bid price to the lower ones. IMHO