• Trading

    Posted on September 19th, 2008

    Written by Richard

    Tags

    When I was first reading about stocks, trying to learn the game, they taught me how to spot manipulation and insider trading. They would show me something that looks like this pre-market picture:

    Note the thousands of contracts sitting on the bid, since the market essentially ran out of sellers and the market went limit-up. hmm…. now look at the volume splitter on the pre-market chart:

    The last bar shows a huge pre-market surge of buying. That is what we call “unusual pre-market activity” in the biz. It’s a sign that the market playing field isn’t very level at the moment.

    I wonder who could be behind such unusual stuff, manipulating the way our markets work? Oh, it’s the freaking government. Damn. Now what?

    Trader Mike said:

    “When I said [short sellers] were sticking their faces into a buzz saw I had no idea the federal government would be the one holding the saw.”

    Well put! This is ridiculous.

    Everyone on earth is talking about the new rules, and I don’t care to add to the cacophany. I don’t really find it that interesting, except when it affects my own trading. So, I thought I’d show what I was looking at this morning… I have time to post, because I won’t be trading until I see how this initially shakes out. Be careful, out there.

    This entry was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 8:50 am and is filed under Trading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • 4 Comments

    Take a look at some of the responses we've had to this article.

    1. Zoomie
      Sep 19th
      Reply

      I knew it. It was the short sellers causing the market collapse ;)

    2. Eric
      Sep 19th
      Reply

      I found golds reaction through all this entertaining.

    3. Quentin
      Sep 19th
      Reply

      Good post Rich….the visual effect of seeing it on the chart makes it much clearer.

    4. Michael Lomker
      Sep 21st
      Reply

      I was watching that and scratching my head a bit, then I saw the 12 point bounce at the open. I figured it was just traders taking advantage of shorts that don’t cover until the market opens…a number of automated trading systems fall into that category. It was obviously a very profitable scalp for those that did it.

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