What exactly does the yellow ‘Contra Present’ signal mean?
When you have an aggressively priced order in Pipeline for a given symbol, the symbol will turn yellow to indicate the presence of a passive contra order. Only contra orders priced better than the NBBO will trigger a contra present alert to an aggressive contra party. Once the contra alert is sent, it will remain valid until the passive order drifts outside the BPR. If you decide to “take” or “hit” the contra, your execution price will be at the contra’s limit. Note that throughout this process, the passive contra does not see the Contra Present signal. That trader has no idea whether there is another order in the system.
