HACKER Q&A
📣 markus_zhang

HN Any way for individual to gain access to Dark Pool trading data


Hi trading experts, back in 2012 I did a few months of scraping and momentum trading in a legitimate day-trading shop, as a summer job. I still remember the ECNs e.g. ARCA (I think it was $1.75 per hand back then, way more expensive then the usual $0.50 ones but they offered some rebates).

But what fascinated me most was the Dark Pools. They were the most expensive ones, with the cheapest came as $2 per hand, if I remember correctly. But they are very valuable tools if you want to cover position quickly when the market suddenly goes against you.

My question is: Fast forward to today. My understanding is that Dark Pools registered with SEC only reports transactions, not buyers/sellers, as described in the following article:

https://therealdeal.com/2020/05/18/mystery-investor-dumps-big-stake-in-real-estate-fund/

But so far I couldn't find any information on those Dark Pools. I know they are lucrative and individuals only can participate in if they trade in bulk (i.e. setting up a day trading firm), but what about historical data? Any place to see them?

Thanks in advance.


  👤 markus_zhang Accepted Answer ✓
Some more fun facts:

Back then my best stock was CIM (still alive as of today) as it moved very slowly during the day. I was only good at scalping i.e. you add liquidity on both sides of the trade and hopefully they got filled at the same time, a bit like market making but in reality not the same.

CIM was really suitable for scalping at that time and I was really good at it, so they raised my limit to 10 or 20 hands per trade (you start from 1 hand and gradually move up), but then they told me that CIM was pretty much capped around 10/20K per trade so I need to learn other techniques. I tried some momentum trading but lost all the $$ I won so I quit after a few months.

I still remember they told us that I need to find something that has at least 1 million per day and less than $10 while moving slowly during the day, so that the liquidity is good and we don't lose much if a trend hit. I also noticed that whenever my order got filled quickly I was on the wrong side of the trade, so I learned a bit about tape reading and improved my revenue. The other stock I traded was NLY but I lost badly on that one.


👤 etiennebch
Interested as well if anyone has an answer to provide