Baytex Energy Corp T.BTE

Market Order scam....

[bassfishing88]

BTE is bidding at 5.25 and asking at 5.26 on TD Waterhouse. i put a market order to buy 2000 shares and i get filled at 5.27. WTF?it is still offered at 5.26 after my order is filled. i call that a scam imho. Beware of the market order

[Retiredgeo]

The ask at 5.26 had to be of sufficient size to be filled.  The minimum acceptable bid size is at the discretion of the seller.  The nearest little lot was at 5.27.  Yes, market orders are dangerous.  Sellers of sparsely traded stocks can put in a high stink bid in hope of catching a market order.  The exchanges will allow the practice up to a point.

[Retiredgeo]

Please make that "a high stink ask".

[bassfishing88]

There was more offered at 5.26 than the 2000 i was trying to buy, that's what surprised me.

[Retiredgeo]

and your 2000 was below someone's minimum bid size. Long ago when I had a full service broker I had all sorts of options when it came to buying and selling and I got dinged on every little transaction.  If someone with a full service broker wants to sell 100,000 shares they want as few transactions as possible to keep their fees down.  They don't want to get dinged on a hundred

[Moemoney42]

That shouldn't matter as long as there is enough shares to cover his buy in the ask column.. whether it takes 1 or 10 trades to make up his 2000 share purchase (if its in one order, the same day) the order should fill with only one fee.. not 10 fees for the same order.. I've had purchases filled with up to 5 trades before it was filled and only paid one fee through all 3 of my discount

[Retiredgeo]

and that is the way the modern discount brokerages work.  Long ago that is not the way my full service brokerage worked.  If I sold 1000 shares in ten 100 share increments I got dinged 10 times.  I can't speak for modern full service brokerages.  I doubt that their fee structure has changed.

[Moemoney42]

Possibly, I haven't used a full service broker for years.. I'm guessing that the poster is referring to a discount brokerage..? 

[Retiredgeo]

What matters is the service the seller is using.  Don't assume that every ask out there is discount brokerage ask.  I'll bet good money that the big players still use full service brokers.  Their bids and asks will show up on your screen but you aint getting a piece of the action!

[riski]

Things happen quickly. In the time you looked at what was available to the time you started striking keys on your keyboard, several trades could have taken place and the shares you saw were already sold to someone else. At the moment you entered your trade, there weren't shares available at that price anymore, so it went at a higher price.Then when you checked again, there were more available

[Moemoney42]

Yup riski, you nailed it with both posts.. these computers can front run us retail folks any second of the day down to fractions of a second.. agreed.. always use a limit order and fill before the close if you so choose if you don't get your fill to avoid extra fees the next day.. 

[riski]

Yes, front running is a different topic made famous by "Flash Boys". There was a lot of angry hoopla around it, but I see it as more of an interesting irritant than something to get super angry about. As retail investors, we are not investing enough cash for a penny to make that much difference. If you believe in the stock, the penny more expensive won't matter.  It's

[CountryBoy69]

And this is what , a revelation to you and Riski , it has always been that way since  computer trading , so what else is new. Duh . Moe , since you are in the Biz , how are your oil wells doing, If not depleted , you must be rolling in cash . EH

[Kelvin]

Good morning CountryBoy69! Both the Permian and Eagle Ford are still prolific producers with production expected to increase over the next decade or so and then level off with low decline rates for another few years. Not to get too nerdy, they have converted geological, geophysical, well/production information into "mathematical objects" which they can then apply linear algebra to. With

[Moemoney42]

Good summation Kelvin and with the new completion technology changing all the time, and getting better, some of the plays will benefit greatly. The industry is certainly not a static business.. it's always changing for the better..  As far a my wells.. they're chugging along just fine.. I'm in a number of different formations with different characteristics per location, as well as

[Kelvin]

Thanks Moemoney42, Yeah my brother is a directional driller. He says that these days with steerable downhole tools and precise means to locate where a drill bit is located in the ground real time that he could hit a target the size of a dime miles down vertically and miles away horizontally from the rig. Anyway yeah, no limits on drilling lateral extensions in many oil bearing zones with just one

[riski]

It's all computerized. There is no scam. As retiredgeo says, if there aren't enough shares on the ask, then the market order goes to the price where there are enough.  The brokers and exchange have some protections in place. They won't even let a limit order fill at a price far from market price with the assumption that it was entered incorrectly. Usually the electronic trading

[Antonyius]

Never use market order, just use limit orders.