BigD,

Hypothetically speaking, the sell and buy sides can synchronize their computer so that both would execute one after the other in split seconds. But for a large order like 100k shares they can probably do it "by hand" as long as it's done in the last, say 2, seconds of the trading day (with fingers ready on the buy and sell buttons, or is it sell and buy buttons?), since no one else would have time to react to such an order. In essence, this is like having access to priviledge information for a big guy but not for the small retail fry.

Would it be possible for this kind of thing to be done within the same house (as in a cross) perhaps for different accounts (or even in the house "general account") since there is always a delay for the house to upload the buy data on the market? In other words, they just grab the entire order when it appears on the ask without going through the bidding process (no bid yesterday as you saw). All this is hypothetical of course, since I am no broker, but apparently, there is some flexibility for brokers to arrange "deals", even within their same house?

goldhunter