To expand on what Dr. Bill has written:

To anyone who's spent more than a week on the floor of an exchange

the following would provide a good chuckle:


Dr. Bill wrote:


>One more thing and you will laugh at this as I did.If you are in the bond pits and you see an order clerk >signal the broker to buy say 1,000

>contracts at the market you are not suppossed to use that information to profit.


Two Quizzes to consider:


Quiz #1


It's January and you're in, say, the TBond pit.


The lead, and most heavily traded future, is MARCH.


You see that an Institutional Floor Broker is about to buy a 1,000 MARCH futures.


But you're standing where the JUNE futures are traded.


Some other Floor Broker XXX, standing next to you, has 20 JUNE futures to Sell.


Still another Floor Broker ZZZ, also standing next to you, has 20 JUNE futures to Buy.


Their respective bid and ask prices for JUNE are on the market


Would you?


A: Buy the offer in JUNEs from Floor Broker XXX.


B: Sell the Bid in JUNEs to Floor Broker ZZZ.


C: Do nothing.


=========


Ok, that was too easy.


=========


Quiz #2


You see that an Institutional Floor Broker is about to buy a 1,000 MARCH futures.


This time you're standing where they trade the MARCH futures.


You're standing next to some other

Floor Broker who has 20 MARCH futures to Sell, MARKET NOT HELD [1]


In the past few months you've had two OUT TRADES [2]

with this guy.


The Floor Broker will:


A: Try to get an extra 1/32 for his customer?


B: Quickly Sell them to you and let you make $600?


=================================================


[1] MARKET NOT HELD: The customer wants the broker to use his discretion


[2] OUT TRADES: When an error has occurred the day before.

It could be an error in price, quantity, or, in the worse, case both sides

are buying, or both sides are selling and the market has moved against them.


Typically the Trader, or Market Maker, or Specialist absorbs any and all errors.

The Floor Broker nods, and the customer never knows or is bothered by any mistakes.