Nice...
chrisw,
There is a product I mentioned some time ago to Hampy and Lev II called Tyamora Replay (
www.yourika.com). I hate looking like a shill by mentioning it again but I can't figure out how to refer to the other post I made.
Anyway, the product allows you to download, save and subsequently replay the full level II and time&sales action from a reasonably large selection of NASDAQ stocks. When I looked at it they didn't cover GOOG or RIMM (or that many other so called hot stocks for that matter). However, I found the selection they do cover to be sufficient for educational purposes. One of the features that I liked was that I could replay the level II/time&sales action at any speed I chose, i.e slowing it right down and if necessary, rewinding or fast forwarding the action.
As I've said elsewhere, it's not the best piece of software I've ever come across, their website looks appalling and some of their data (may not be their fault) can cause problems when replaying. However, it was only 10 bucks for a months subscription (you don't need a data feed since all the historical data is down-loadable) and I did it through paypal so that I just transferred the 10 bucks whilst I wanted to use it (rather than some subscription service that you struggle to cancel).
Once you have replayed the days action in a particular stock you can save the entire days level II and time&sales to an excel spreadsheet where you can disappear up your own backside analysing it for days, if not weeks (right.... that would be just me then....)
I took a look at it for a couple of months whilst reading The Nasdaq Trader's Toolkit by M. Rogan LaBier. I found that using the software helped to fully understand a lot of the MM plays and supply/demand dynamics LaBier talks about in the book.
As for the book itself... a lot of the illustrations are pre-decimalisation, but despite that, it's the most detailed book that I have come across covering most aspects of Nasdaq trading, particularly Level II. Of course, the advantage of it being somewhat dated is that you can pick it up quite cheaply now.