TRID Defies Logic, But Not Gravity

Trident Microsystems

Trident Microsystems (Nasdaq: TRID) is cofusing me today. I know that last friday we found out about options probes and subpeonas, and related class-action suits. And the stock gapped down on volume, just like you’d expect. It retraced about half the gap and then just kinda mellowed out. Monday, a pretty negative day in the markets, TRID continued to coast, pretty much unchanged. It drifted down a little. Now look at today:

Huge volume, relatively speaking, and a big drop that’s only now starting to let up (at about 11:30 EST). Surely there’s more news? Not that I can see. I checked my broker’s news feed, google finance, yahoo finance, and I did a blog search. Nothing about TRID except some new deal that they’ve announced. Presumably TRID getting more business is not what’s pushing the stock down like this, all of a sudden. Did investors mull it over Friday through Monday, and then last night realize that subpeonas are bad?? Maybe I should have been watching my TV. Maybe CNBC did an early morning story on them. Otherwise, I’m confused. Today is a much more upbeat day in the markets, and today is when TRID finally really blows up.

Trades so far
Have not seen many interesting trades to make yet. Plus, I am going to have lunch with some friends, and I never seem comfortable getting into trades when I know I’m going to have to leave my desk for a couple hours. It makes me especially cautious.

At about 10:18 EST, my whole screen lit up with activity. I assume someone said something interesting on CNBC. I have no idea. After glancing at a couple news pages, to make sure we hadn’t started or stopped a war or something, I noticed that NASDAQ 100 Trust Shares (Nasdaq: QQQQ) had popped up about 10 cents almost instantaneously. So, being a good financial citizen, I provided some liquidity and shorted some to the buyers. No thanks needed, all in a day’s work. :-) Of course, in a few seconds everyone realized that whatever they were overreacting to wasn’t as exciting as they initially thought, and I made a quick 11 cents.

Stocks Mentioned In This Article
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