[throwaway283719]

Yes, I think that's a fair summary.

I don't know much about contract law, but it may be interesting to know that a resting order on exchange, with a set price and size, is called a quote.

The terminology offer is used in financial markets for a resting order to sell, distinguishing it from a bid which is a resting order to buy, although many market participants will actually use the terms bid and ask rather than bid and offer. Whether this is to avoid confusion with the contract law term, I have no idea.

It won't surprise you to learn that I also think that your perspective #2 is unworkable in a situation where you have multiple exchanges (how would it work - would you require that quotes on exchange B must remain for a specified period after a quote on exchange A is hit? That doesn't seem sensible).

[stevejones]

It is supposed to be the case that you do not place orders on an exchange that you have no intention of executing. i.e. if you place an offer which you intend to withdraw then replace with a higher one the moment you detect interest in the offer then you are breaking the rules.

In general it's also pretty scummy to do it. Imagine a shop seeing you taking items from shelves at an advertised price and saying "Well that shows there's demand in these goods so we're raising the prices on everything in the customers basket before they get to the checkout."

[kasey_junk]

That is not at all true. It is perfectly legal and valid to place quotes at a price that you expect is valid and change them once interest is detected. This is a standard market dynamic and one that makes the markets work.

Your analogy is not all how HFT works. A better analogy would be a string of gas stations going down the highway. A tanker truck comes to the first one and buys all it's gas. Then the second one, and then the third. The manager at the third station calls the fourth and tells them to raise their prices. How is it scummy to do that, but not to buy up all the gas at what is clearly a too low price?

[VikingCoder]

> This is a standard market dynamic and one that makes the markets work.

I don't believe this is necessary to make markets work.

[harryh]

Forgot your mumbo jumbo evidence & logical reasoning! I believe what I believe and you can't stop me!

stomps foot

[VikingCoder]

Please don't be so rude, it doesn't add anything to the conversation.

There are many markets where you list a product for a price, and are legally bound to sell them at that price.

Those markets function, proving that withdrawing quotes is not necessary to make markets work.

[harryh]

What markets are those? I can think of no markets in which you're not allowed to change the price of whatever goods you're selling.

[gd1]

Huh? The rule is you can't place orders that you have no intention of executing at the time you place them. You're perfectly entitled to change your mind afterwards, or adjust your price as new information becomes available. You just can't place orders when it is your goal to not have them execute, and that was your goal before you even sent them.