I have a weird question about Level II data.
I use Etrade Pro so hopefully someone here who also uses it can help me. In the "Market Depth" L2 data, you can see all the trades (ie. Last/Size). Last is the last price paid, and size is the amount of shares. Sometimes the color is red, sometimes the color is green.
I can also see the Time & Sales L2 data, which also uses the red/green color scheme, but also shows Tick arrows, sometimes red down arrows, sometimes green up arrows, and sometimes no arrow at all; furthermore, sometimes the entire row is a bold green color, sometimes a bold red color, sometimes a faded white color, and sometimes the generic light pink color.
What do all these colors mean? Why are some purchases/sales a bold green color with a green up arrow, while others use the generic pink row color with no arrow? Or sometimes the time/sale shows a green up arrow with the generic pink row color. Or sometimes there is a down red arrow but the row is faded an off-white color.
I've always assumed the green color means someone purchased shares, while the red color means someone sold shares. (The green up arrow = buy, the red down arrow = sell, but not sure why some sales don't have an arrow.)
However, I have noticed on numerous occasions that when I buy a stock, when it shows up in the Market Depth Last/Size, sometimes it is red and looks like I sold shares instead of purchasing them. And sometimes when selling shares it will show up green. Furthermore, on the Time & Sales data, sometimes it is red with no arrow and looks like I sold shares instead of purchased them. But I clearly purchased them.
What causes this? I know it's not a need to "slap the ask" in order to make it green and appear like a purchase, because I've done that and sometimes it still shows up red in Time and Sales. Are market makers allowed to manipulate Time/Sales to look like people are selling instead of buying? Is that legal?
