Level II Interface




Control Layout

The Level II window is composed of four different types of windows, the Horizontal Bias Bar, the Vertical Participation Matrix, the Market Maker Grid, and the Trade Ticker. Each is explained separately below.



Horizontal Bias Bar

There are two horizontal bias bars present on the Level II window, one at the very top left and one below the vertical participation matrix.



The horizontal bias bar represents all shares being offered and bid for, and indicates the price band to which they belong.

There are two sides to the horizontal bias bar, the left is the bid and the right is the ask. The two sides are not evenly split, though, since the price bands are a function of the total shares offered. If there are more people buying than selling, the bid side of the horizontal bias bar will be wider than the ask side.

For the horizontal bias bar displayed below we can see that most people are buying and selling at the top price band, and we can also see that there is a greater volume of shares being bid for than being offered.

Vertical Participation Matrix

The vertical participation matrix is located at the top left of the Level II window, just below the upper horizontal bias bar. It allows you to see the price and volume of shares being offered or bid for within each price band.



Again, there are two sides – the left represents the bid and the right represents the ask. The scale on both sides are the same, so a bar representing a bid for 1000 shares will be the same height as a bar representing an offer of 1000 shares.

Shares are displayed at the top of the vertical participation matrix and the price for the band represented is shown at the bottom.

Any new price will show up in bold and remain so until another new price level is created. Above, you can see that the numbers for the yellow price band on the bid side are bold. This helps notify you of the direction the prices are moving.

Market Maker Grid

The market maker grid is located in the bottom left of the Level II window. It displays the top price at which each market maker is buying or selling and the shares being bought or sold at that price. The bid is on the left and the ask is on the right.



Trade Ticker

The trade ticker is located at the right side of the Level II window. It displays the type, price, and size of each trade as it occurs.

The type of trade is shown by the color of the text. The defaults colors are green, red, and white, which correspond to buy, sell, and mid trades respectively.




User Interaction

Highlighting Market Makers

It is easy to highlight individual market makers (BRUT is highlighted below).



Simply right-click on the market maker that you wish to highlight (either the bid or the ask side) and the menu shown below will pop up. Select "Highlight [market maker]" to highlight the specified market maker.

When you change symbols, highlighted market makers will stay highlighted if they are present in the market maker grid.

If you wish to turn off highlighting, right-click a highlighted market maker and a menu will pop up. This time it will contain the option "Un-Highlight [market maker]" which you may select to remove highlighting from the specified market maker.

Toggling Windows On/Off

As you may have noticed, there are additional options in the popup menu above. These menu items allow for the toggling on/off the visibility of individual windows within the Level II window. You may right-click any window in Level II to receive these visibility toggling options.



A checked menu item means that the window is visible, an unchecked menu item means that the window is hidden.

In addition to accessing this within the , there are keyboard shortcuts to control the visibility of different portions of the window: Below shows a Level II window with both horizontal bias bars and the vertical participation matrix turned off.



The image below shows a Level II window with the lower horizontal bias bar and the market maker grid turned off.