The main difference between MM's and ECN's is that the larger MM's are big broker/dealers who serve large institutional investors as well as indi investors like ourselves. MM's ALWAYS have a vested interest in the movement of the stock they are trading.

ECN's, on the other hand, only handle orders from indi investors like ourselves and therefore have no vested interest in the movement of the stock because they are simply electronic "vehicles" used by many traders with differing opinions and interests.

Personally I believe that it is much more important for newer traders to study support and resistance as well as price action in relation to a few tech indicators like MA's, the CCI, volume etc. Execution on level II can be learned slowly and is secondary in importance to the above in my opinion.

Often times you will find people and companies with a vested interest in level II, hyping it like it is some type of magic bullet, but this is hardly the case. Scalping is really the only style of trading that requires expertise in level II execution, but scalping is an advanced style of trading that should be slowly learned at low risk after a trader has gained a year or two of experience. Don't forget that there are very good scalpers with tons of experience that will take your overextended cash like it was candy from a baby.

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