What Are Dark Pool Prints And How Does This Info Help With Trading?

A dark pool print is an important piece of information when it comes to certain types of securities trading.

These securities are only available in the over-the-counter market, which means that these trades aren’t on exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or Nasdaq.

There are also different kinds of securities trading that can happen in this market, and you can learn about them by reading our beginner’s guide to dark pool trading.

When you trade these kinds of securities, you might hear people talking about dark pool prints and wondering what they mean.

Dark pool prints have been around for over 30 years. They allow traders to track their performance and make more money trading stocks than they would without it.

However, the average investor doesn’t even know what dark pool trading is.

Not to mention, how to start using this powerful tool in their own day-to-day trading activities.

If you want to learn more about dark pool prints and how they can help with your stock trading, keep reading!

Dark Pools

We tell you to question everything. So let's define dark pools.

It's where stocks and other assets trade when no one is looking.

NOT on exchanges but among themselves through computerized matching systems operated by banks, hedge funds, or other financial institutions. This can cause a delay in pricing information that could cost you, especially if you try to buy or sell a stock at exactly that time.

While some dark pools enable trades from many different sources, others allow buyers and sellers only from certain pre-approved groups of investors.

You'd have to read T+3 on a mutual fund trade as an example of a small window for pricing information.These small windows can end up costing you money if you try to buy or sell at just that time.

Many folks say there's simply no way to know how much market prices change during these intervals until they're over.

There is no set definition for dark pools, but many experts agree that when investors lack direct information about available prices, it becomes impossible to determine how prices change during periods of darkness.

The ability to monitor price changes is considered by many professionals to be one of the fundamental skills necessary for market analysis.

In other words, if you don't know how far a security's price moves while it's not visible to you, there's no way you can use that information in your decision-making process.

It's simply unknown information.

Dark Pools and Volume

For Stonk Tech, dark pools represent a volume of trading that’s often not made available to the public.

In fact, it can be difficult to detect and follow because unlike securities exchanges like NYSE or NASDAQ, dark pools don’t have a central marketplace.

They’re usually private agreements between brokers and dealers that execute trades in off-exchange markets.

To decipher trade volumes, analysts look at a company’s message board. There, they study dark pool print volumes to determine which of those pools represent legitimate trading.

Dark Pool Prints

Once analysts have identified that data, they can factor it into their strategy.

For example, a message board will have dark pool volumes from a company’s newly issued shares: insiders that are trading on new company news.

If analysts see large-volume prints in one particular pool they’ll analyze its participants to determine if it’s worth getting involved with or moving forward with our position.

Some companies’ message boards will also publish their volume breakdowns, which can be especially helpful for traders.It allows them to compare different liquidity sources for a company so they can decide which pool or exchange is right for a particular stock.

For example, consider that most big bank stocks trade in dark pools.

So if a financial institution like JPMorgan announced quarterly earnings, that typically means there will be some movement on their securities. If we see trades in their underlying shares hitting an unusual volume level in one particularly dark pool, we’ll buy into those messages by doing our own research before investing.

The message board will usually break down dark pool volumes with the stock exchange.

Some companies that trade on a particular public exchange may also trade in multiple private pools. That’s why we encourage our analysts to compare their message boards with exchanges like NYSE, NASDAQ, TSX, etc.

Dark Pools and Price Impact

It’s always a good idea to know where your trading partners are.

With over 98% of all volume now conducted in dark pools, knowing if you’re trading against a dark pool or not is vital.

That said, there aren’t any widely accepted rules for how to price impact should be calculated for orders placed inside dark pools and those placed outside of them.

A small change in an order price can cause a large swing in their price impact.

But when that swing occurs on either side of a large order (and trades in two separate markets), it makes sense to assume that much of that movement is not market-induced but caused by your own initial order.

This kind of Intel is worth remembering, which will help you gauge where you might be having an impact on your trading partners’ prices, allowing you to react accordingly.

Not to mention, how you profit from it.

In recent years dark pools have boomed in popularity: They’re one of many ways that large firms execute trades without impacting share prices.

Like with anything worth its salt, there are pros and cons associated with these types of orders as well.

But what exactly do they consist of anyway?

Orders placed in dark pools aren’t broadcast to publicly traded exchanges until after an order has been executed, which means prices won’t be impacted by its presence on a market.

However, not all orders placed within dark pools remain there.

We're here to bring the dark pool trading to light.

How Can Dark Pools Help Me Trade Better?

Learning dark pools message board style to help you trade efficiently. If you’re a novice trader, dark pools can offer a better way to learn how to trade.

Learning in real-time can be a dangerous thing when it comes to trading. The fastest traders often dominate, leaving little space for those who have yet to master their craft.

On a dark pool message board, though, there is no time limit. That's because nothing can stop what is coming. As you continue to invest in learning how to trade efficiently, you’ll notice that nothing ever disappears.

The key is to keep your eye on the market as it grows around you. Don't be afraid of those who've already learned from mistakes that are made in front of your eyes. Learning how to trade takes time, but trading is a path best traveled one step at a time.

Everyone learns differently.

You are learning. How many coincidences until mathematically impossible?

Try new strategies out to see what works for you, but never stop reading.

Most importantly, though, keep an eye on how other traders interact on dark pool message boards and observe their successes (and failures).

Question Everything You Know About Dark Pool Trades

There’s not much information out there about them, so you probably have a lot of questions. We’re here to answer your most important ones!

If you have experience trading dark pool trades, do you agree or disagree with our conclusions? If you don’t have first-hand experience trading dark pool trades, what questions would you like to ask someone who does?

By thinking logically and making this hidden agenda public, Stonk Tech has created an insightful look into a dark pool trade for traders.

We’ve broken down how we uncovered these secrets in easy-to-understand language so you can make your own investment decisions.

This is where you come in! Remember, let’s trade better, together!