What is happening here?

[MyNamesNotBen]

Ok so the other day i put in an order to buy some (8000) Neon Energy shares (ASX: NEN) using etrade and i remember it taking 2 days to get filled even though the price was .25 - .255 cents for most of that time. there were many trades going on during that time for .25 cents yet mine wasn't even getting partially filled. Most of these trades are for around 50 shares at a time.. How can this happen when you need to buy a minimum of $500 worth of shares at a time? (although this limit might only be for etrade?) 50 shares is only $12.50 so why would anyone bother selling such small amounts? Here is a screenshot of the last 10 trades..

[imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/7424_screen_shot_2013-01-21_at_13738_pm.png]

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[wrcmad]

there were many trades going on during that time for .25 cents yet mine wasn't even getting partially filled.

You have to stand in line to get an order filled, unless you buy at market. Others would have been in front of you in the order queue at your price.

Most of these trades are for around 50 shares at a time.. How can this happen when you need to buy a minimum of $500 worth of shares at a time?

$500 is the buy order limit - there is no limit on what you can sell. You can drip feed a sale in very small quantities, but it'll cost you brokerage.

50 shares is only $12.50 so why would anyone bother selling such small amounts??

To ensure a lower sale price is achieved in the course of sales.

 

[finicky]

That's a trading robotic computer at work. You see them called 'bots' for short. Also called high frequency algorithmic trading. Some program at work from a broker for a biggish client just moving the stock up or down for a small trading margin, or probably more likely trying to stealthily accumulate a position (that's positive) or wind down a position (that's a negative). If they tried to do it in big chunks they would either shoot the price up (bad if accumulating) or crash it down (bad if distributing). I only have a primitive understanding of it, but one thing I do 'know', its the professionals operating with a massive advantage to the retail investor/speculator.

Neon (NEN) could go either way. Its a high risk/high reward speculation. You could lose the lot. I'm still in and haven't traded it yet. I didn't read the Paloma update today as particularly positive, but the management is good at finding partners to farm in, thus limiting Neon's risk. That's the way they'll be going.

It's not a stock I would recommend anymore though.

 

[SilverSanchez]

You may have run into something called a "Cross Trade" (XT)

When a broker has two clients, one buying and one selling at the same price - the trade is done by the broker (for example Comsec) and does not go via the open market.

This type of trade can 'skip' orders that are not placed with that particular broker (Comsec in my example).
It worked in my favor once, other times it usually works not in my favor

 

[Kansas21]

Me thinks that happened to me today with PIR - a little to my advantage - I'm only presuming as its the 1st time I've seen a trade complete well under the rate at the time - still did not go that low all day.