Subject: Re: study on execution prices by popular brokerages
place me limit stock buy orders at the ask and sell orders at the bid, only to protect against being fleeced, not to shave a few pennies.

For things that are passably liquid I'm a hair more aggressive. I often start with a limit at the last trade price if it's within the bid/ask range.

When I'm doing a lot of trades at once, I set the limit each one to a bit more aggressive even than the midpoint. e.g., sell at .7%ask + .3*bid and submit the orders. A few will fill, others won't.
Then I go back to the first trade and shift the limits of all the still-unexecuted ones to the midpoint.
Then I go back to the first trade and shift the limits of all the still-unexecuted ones to the far side of the midpoint, e.g., sell at .3%ask + .7*bid
If there are any left unexecuted, I do as you suggested, hit the far side of the spread.

I'm happy to pay the far side of the spread, it's the cost of doing business. But I'm too cheap to pay that if someone is willing to do be more generous : )
It's five minutes well spent, if you're a miser.

Jim