You will often see novice traders posting on messa

You will often see novice traders posting on message boards and chat rooms something like, "only 6 MMs to .20!" when the current price is .10. The number of market makers to a certain price doesn't really matter, especially if the stock typically only has a few active MMs. It is the number of orders in for execution that counts, and those cannot be seen with Level 2 quotes. In addition, not everyone puts an order in and lets it sit there. There could be people waiting to 'pounce' on either the buy or sell side, which can make the Level 2 picture even more deceiving.