[johnjohn1hew]

Hey guys, i have some questions about time and sales. Are the trades that appear on the tape filled already? If so, why is there only one trade quantity displayed when there are two sides to the trade (the buy at the ask and the sell at the bid)? Thanks.

[sunilrohira]

I believe that the bid and asked prices are just that. They are just bids and offers. They do not represent actual trades. The actual trades-not sure where you could see them but consider looking at the Matrix on TS.

[DaKine]

Trades that appear on tape are already filled.

Time and Sales is:

1. The time of the transaction.
2. The price of the transaction
3. How the transaction occurred (the seller hit the bid or the buyer hit the ask) and at what size (number of contracts).

Example
Time 10:00:00 Price 897.00 Size 45 At Ask

means at 10 a buyer bought the Ask price (897) for 45 contracts

Time 10:01:00 Price 896.50 Size 10 At Bid

means a seller sold the bid for 10 cars

Even though there were to sides of the trade, someone the buyer or seller had to initiate it and that is what T&S is displaying.

[BennyHey]

Here are a few free resources to increase your understanding.

Hubert Senters from TTM has some good ones on their site under the free video section:

http://www.tradethemarkets.com/public/department61.cfm

you'll have to do some looking around but they are there.


Here is Alex from Pure Tick with a few nice videos:

http://puretick.com/BB2/viewtopic.php?t=381

I'll look around for some more....

I think there are a few good ones on youtube.com believe it or not.