CBQ, Inc. (China Business Quotient) (fka CBQI)

[SI Bob]

You're quite welcome.

The buy at the bid thing is a very common misconception. The bid *is* the buyers and you can join in or even better them by a penny if you want and become the best bid.

Of course, lots of brokers would rather see people put in market orders (no fill equals no commission, among other reasons I won't get into), so they don't exactly make it common knowledge. <g>

I should point out that the broker often makes the difference, too.

For example, I've placed orders to buy a particular security through Suretrade (most of their orders go through FLTT, which is Fleet) and had the order never show up on Level II (which is illegal) and therefore never get filled. Often, looking at the rest of the action on Level II will show me their motivations for not displaying my order.

Since they merged with Q&R, I've been a bit happier with them. I've been buying options lately and my last two trades, placed at the bid, ended up filling at an even *lower* price.

And if I use my AG Edwards account, that happens quite often.