Strange Days Aug 2nd, 2011 Back to Table Of Contents Step right up. It's Whac-A-Mole! If you can hit the bid and offer fast enough, it's instant money! If not, please try again! On August 2nd at 16:00:07, quote and trade activity in the stock of Earthlink (ELNK) began which perfectly illustrates an illusion of modern trading. Gone are old-fashioned, Luddite meanings of bids and offers; when a bid/ask used to mean someone actually wanted to buy/sell stock at the stated price. Today's bids and offers are beautiful to behold. And boy, are they fast! How fast? Faster than you could ever hope to hit them. Even your fancy, new, co-located super-computer is in for a surprise (did you forget to upgrade to the shorter 900 foot cable?). This is progress. So shut-up, sit back, and please, try again! ELNK - EARTHLINK Price Only: Price and Size: Scatter plot of trades only (Price and Size): Zoom in of price activity: Zoom in of early price activity: The charts below show bids (up triangle), and asks (down triangle) from two exchanges, plus the NBBO in 200 and 100 millisecond (ms) intervals. Shading National Best Bid/Offer Color Crossed (Bid > Ask) Red Locked (Bid = Ask) Yellow Normal Gray 200 ms Intervals.   100 ms Intervals. The trades that occurred (trades below $7.90 are shaded): Inquiries: pr@nanex.net Publication Date: 08/02/2011 http://www.nanex.net This report and all material shown on this website is published by Nanex, LLC and may not be reproduced, disseminated, or distributed, in part or in whole, by any means, outside of the recipient's organization without express written authorization from Nanex. It is a violation of federal copyright law to reproduce all or part of this publication or its contents by any means. This material does not constitute a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any securities or investments. The opinions expressed herein are based on publicly available information and are considered reliable. However, Nanex makes NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS OF ANY SORT with respect to this report. Any person using this material does so solely at their own risk and Nanex and/or its employees shall be under no liability whatsoever in any respect thereof.